The%20Blind%20Assassin:%20IV-VI

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The Blind Assassin IV-VI

• Women and Capitalism Science Fiction

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Questions

• What do you make of the chapter titles of this
  novel?
• How is the early (childhood-teenage) lives of
  Laura and Iris presented? What roles do their
  tutors play?
• How does their personal experience reflect public
  history?
• How do the he and she relate to each other in
  The Blind Assassin?
• How about the sci-fi part?

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Outline

• Womens Positions Review and in the History of
  Capitalism
• Capitalism the use of Objects
• Laura and Iris
• Iris and Alex

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Chapter Titles

• Objects with which one remember things
• Takes on symbolic meanings e.g. fur coat
• Forming ironic contrast in the chapters
• E.g. lipstick heart (25) Ovids
  Metamorphosis (161)

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Chapter Titles commodities and daily objects

• 15 parts, 93 chapters
• History titles (newspapers) Names
• household items -- "The carpets" (20), "The
  yellow curtains" (463), "The golden lock" (497),
  "The bronze bell" (129), "The silver box" (42).
• Clothes -- "Gloves" (473), "The steamer trunk"
  (283), "The Trousseau" (66), "Red brocade" (253),
  "The chenille spread " (109), "The houndstooth
  suit" (249), "The fur coat" (135), and "The
  eggshell hat" (309).
• Foods hard-boiled egg, Bread day soda

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Womens Positions as Inferior Objects vs.
Iris/Atwoods Views

• the Chase Family (class issues, pains of
  childbirth)//Public History
• Adelia //Early capitalism ?? Loaf Givers
  cookbook (181)
• Liliana // First WW selfless ? loss of mother
• Laura and Iris Depression and WW II ? used
• As Presented Allegorically in the Sci-fi
• Dedicated girl (tongue-less and wordless)
• As beautiful nude dead women wives and mistresses

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Capitalism and Women

• As commodities (objects of exchange)
• As consumers --
• dress as confinement and status symbol Iris
  under the fathers discipline 158-59
• Images of dress color and food -- Winnifred as a
  newly rich -- p. 175, 185, 229, 230-31 (green
  colors) 231 (shrimp), 234 (fleshless)
• Laura as a contrast selfless giving --139
  (Remember the starving Armenians), 196 (at the
  railroad), skimp food 224, 327 candy apples
• As the consumed (the dedicated girl, Peach
  Woman) no pain or pleasure 354-56//Laura and
  Iris

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loss of mother Lauras Responses

• fur coat
• hides in it asks for Gods location 137
• Wants to get her mother back 150-51
• Quiet, uses colors to express herself e.g. 157
• Lauras transformation 164 -65

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loss of mother Iriss Responses

• Feels desolate 138 -39
• Iriss transformation
• Silent resistance 167
• Complicity (with Father, needing guidance to
  dress 168)
• Fear of becoming an old maid 173

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The Other Role Models

• Reenie
• conventional, cares about social propriety
  (152-53), likes social magazines,
• Rescue the kids heroically
• Her criticism of Callista p. 147
• Criticism of Ms. Violence 154
• Miss Violence 155 indulges in romance
• Mr. Eskine 163 - sexist

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Public History Capitalism

• The different positions of Richard and Norval re.
  social relief and union strikes in 1933(108)
• Richards position Plaudits for Bennet (p. 113)

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Class Relations between He and She

• His personal motivation in telling the story
• P. 17 (park bench) purpose of telling the story
• Their different views of the carpet (22) and
  blind assassins (23)
• His self-defense
• About his friends car (The lipstick heart)
• The café her distinction from the background
  (too clean, too blonde, the coffee) his sarcasm
  
• The chenille spread p.111
• No taste 131

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Their Hopeless Love

• Gender relations
• Story reflecting on her position p. 30
• p. 124 (his talking like a cowboy)
• His readiness for them to part p. 26, p 107,
  110, 120
• Pain mixed with pleasure 110

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The Sci-Fi Parts Meaning and Relevance?

• The messenger Whats the message?
• the band of beautiful nude dead women 115-16
• The other race The People of Joy (or The
  People of Desolation lead by The Servant of
  Rejoicing roles and relative definitions
• about killing 125
• Horses of the night The bronze bellWomens
  positions as wives and mistresses
• Of the People of Joy 125 /
• Of the King 130

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The Metafictional

• Body and writing 112 (end of the chenille spread)