SPOILERS
Who is the blind assassin in the book?
Everyone is. People get blinded- by their own self-interests, motivations and priorities; and towards the feelings of people around them, their loved ones. This leads to them taking actions that can hurt them, ruin them and their lives, even kill them. The prominent ones are Normal and especially Iris.
Norval: He has inherited a factory and its men-a legacy- from his father, and trauma and resentment from the war. He is blinded by them. He has to keep the legacy going on at any cost. He has to get a male heir to take over after him, an obsession which ends up killing her wife. Later on, he marries Iris off to a man he knows not to be good, just to keep his factories running and the family’s inheritance, legacy and home intact. A marriage that basically sets Iris (and Laura) off towards a life full of misery.
Other characters can also be interpreted as such- Reenie giving up on the sisters to take care of her family and child; Winifred’s love for her brother and her social life blinding her to Richard’s perversions and both their evils, going as far as to justify them.
Iris: It is her ignorance towards Laura and the goings-on in her life that lets the situation go as far as it does. She is consumed by sadness and misery of her marriage; love for Alex; and the anxiety and stress of keeping and sustaining an affair. She is consumed mainly by her secrets. They take precedence over her duty and love for Laura. Her grief blinds her to her sisters. She stops giving her the attention and care that she needs. Because we know from their childhood that Laura is naïve, ‘odd’, that she blindly believes whatever is told to her. That she needs her sister to take care of her, even if that might sometimes be to Iris’ annoyance. This naiveté on part of Laura and lack of attention on part of Iris leads to Laura’s abuse by Richard. There is also seen a feeling of relief in Iris when Laura is away as it makes keeping the secret easier. There is also a feeling of jealousy and distrust because of her false belief that Laura, like herself, was having an affair with Alex. These emotions coupled with years of keeping secrets burst open during their encounter when Laura comes back. Laura then of course kills herself.
While many characters can be interpreted as the blind assassin, Iris is the most apparent and obvious one.
Now i’m probably overanalyzing but:
Time and circumstances are also blind assassins. Passing of time, coupled with circumstances, create rifts in the strongest of relationships, stretching them out until no love is left, until the parties become almost strangers to each other, as we see with Laura and Iris.
Additionally, in the context of the book within the book- which depicts the affair of Laura and Alex, and the story of the ‘blind assassin’:
Laura is the mute girl. She is forced by the society and men in her life to be subservient- first to the wishes of her father, then to those of her husband. She cannot speak out. She is expected to ‘keep her mouth shut and her legs open’. The man who has ‘paid’ for her gets to do whatever he wants with her. She is the sacrifice.
Alex is the blind assassin. He has come and saved her. The assassin’s orders are to kill her; Laura is the wife of a man opposed to Alex’s ideology and can be said to be his political enemy. But the assassin falls in love with the mute girl and saves her; Laura’s love for Alex and their affair saves her, and serves as a haven, from the distress and misery of her marriage.
At this point we see Laura take over the story. In her interpretation- the assassin takes the girl and runs away, successfully avoiding any obstacles (foxes are dogs, dead women are farmers), and they live happily ever after. This is also what she wants with Alex- for them to run away and have their own happily ever after.
But Alex takes over again. The assassin and the girl do run away but are killed by the foxes and the dead women. A realistic end in his opinion. ‘All stories are about wolves… anything else is sentimental drivel.’ And it is what ends up happening with him and Laura. Yes he does save her but it is only temporary. Their love and future together is killed by the circumstances, fate and their own apprehensions.
(I did not get the ‘happy’ story with the two guys stranded on the planet full of women and what it was trying to say.
The story that he actually published with all the zycronians, keeping aside their differences, caste and enmity to fight against a common enemy in the form of the aliens probably was a reference to the upcoming war, how the forces of the world should forget their enmity and differences to fight against evil- hitler and the Nazis.)
Overall there can be many interpretations to who the blind assassin is/are, which is a testament to the beauty of the book and its layered plot.
Do share your thoughts/interpretations in the comments.
by Accomplished_Yam_989