Wong 1

Lawrence Wong

Mrs. Mann

AP English Literature and CompositionBlock 2

8 November 2017

The Blind Assassin: Is it a classic?

From the ancient tale of journey, The Odyssey, to the modern depiction of racial injustice,

To Kill a Mockingbird, classics are works of literature that even amateur readers can derive great

meaning from. The contributing factors to such a high regard are simple: first, the novel must

have a theme that is prevalent throughout the text and the symbols/motifs used to support such a

theme are clear and concise, and second, the aforementioned message must be applicable to the

entirety of the novels audience. A less important quality of a classic is the enjoyment of the

novel, as regardless of enjoyment, lessons should be learned. One novel that is up for debate is

Margaret Atwoods The Blind Assassin. Although Atwood intertwines various narratives, The

Blind Assassin fails to earn a place in the literary canon because it lacks a universal, prevalent,

and groundbreaking theme and includes many ineffectual pages.

Many historical fiction novels focus on events that tug the heartstrings of the reader and

thus, play a central role by opening a window to the past. However, in Atwoods novel, the

historical background is there for no purpose at all. When asked about her process of research,

Atwood replied:

Well, I write first and research later. For instance, in The Blind Assassin I knew I needed

buttons. The buttons came first. I knew quite a bit about the small Ontario towns that had

factories in them, I knew the kinds of things they made and amongst the things they made

were buttons. So then how the buttons were made was the next question, what were they
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made from and when did it change over to plastic and rubber and all of the things we

have now. Quite early on, believe it or not. (136)

This is one of the few purposes of the work to be historical fiction: for Atwood to include a

button factory. Other than the factory generating wealth for the Chase family and later going

bankrupt, the factory plays no purpose in furthering the story. In addition, the novel takes place

during World War II. With a plethora of novels occurring during a war, it is evident that a war is

typically used as a main catalyst for action. However, in The Blind Assassin, the only role that

the World War II played was for Alex Thomas to be killed (Atwood 488). If, for instance,

Atwood placed set the novel during the Industrial Revolution, it would make more sense for

there to be a button factory, and she could use the issues during the revolution to incorporate

theme statements rather than only using the setting to drive the plot forward. A historical fiction

novel that does not take advantage of the setting to its fullest extent or could be improved with a

better locale cannot be considered a classic.

Atwoods recklessness extends beyond the setting. Although motifs are typically a

strength in literature, The Blind Assassin contains too many, making it hard to differentiate the

important from the unimportant and draw a conclusion as to the central theme of the novel, and

is verbose in her descriptions of the plot as well. In her analysis of the novel, Karen F. Stein,

Professor of English and Womens Studies at the University of Rhode Island, attempts to discuss

all the symbols and motifs in the novel, but can only touch on a few such as blindness, secrets,

disguise, lies, and betrayal (145). For example, she states: Richard, a villain of Dickensian

proportions, lies to and betrays Laura and Iris. (145) Other than this one predictable act,

betrayal is rarely, if at all, used to further a possible meaning. The brevity of each motif in her

article perfectly mirrors that of the text itself. Atwood fails to elucidate a meaningful message
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due to the numerous number of motifs she covers with fluffy descriptions of plot where it is not

needed and lack of explanation where it is needed. When all she had to say that Iris could see

Alex approaching, she wrote, I didnt see him at first; he was behind the apple barrel. Then I

could make him out. A knee, a foot. Its all right, I whispered. Its only me. (Atwood 211)

For some odd reason, Atwood attempts to derive why a honeymoon is named so. Iris ponders,

Why is a honeymoon called that? Lune de miel, moon of honey as if the moon itself is not a

cold and airless and barren sphere of pockmarked rock, but soft, golden, luscious... (Atwood

300). Classics do not require sentences that add nothing to the understanding of the novel as a

whole. Each word is purposeful; if taken out, the novel becomes less meaningful. However, in

Atwoods case, dozens if not hundreds of sentences could be removed, and her central message

would remain the same. These types of illustrations contribute to the novels classification as

overlong and badly written by renowned novelist and critic Thomas Mallon. He even goes so

far as to assert that the novel and the novel-within-the-novel feel like separate projects that have

been soldered together and that Atwood gives the no reason for the reader to find possible

connections (Mallon).

The only redeeming quality the novel, which can even be considered a fault, is the

novels complexity, which allows readers to interpret the piece on many levels. In her interview,

Atwood claims that there are at least five types of narration in the novel (132). However, Stein

believes there to be three stories (149), and Sharon Wilson, Emerita Professor of English,

University of Northern Colorado, believes there are three narratives interspersed with

newspaper clippings, a letter, and society announcements (271). Of the five representations of

reality Atwood identifies, all scholars concur three threads are Iris story, the novel within in

novel, and the story told in the novel within the novel. By including various narratives that are
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loosely connected, the reader should feel the desire to draw parallels between the narratives to

discover the hidden meaning. Thus, it would seem that the more narratives, the merrier. No. It is

unlikely that these established writers would be unable to recognize additional threads of

narration; thus, these additional narratives Atwood contains in her novel must be rather

insignificant. As previously stated, insignificancy in a novel is a tell-tale sign of a regular novel,

not a classic. If done properly, as in the reader cannot resist searching for the hidden purpose, the

numerous number of narratives Atwood includes would be a strength. However, as it stands, the

multiple narratives only detract from the work.

As for the reception of this novel by scholars, the novel is rarely reviewed as the sole

piece as it is more valuable to draw its parallels with other pieces. Labudovs article elucidates

in depth how The Blind Assassin is virtually a mirror image of Wise Children by Angela Carter

which was published nine years earlier. She states, In Wise Children and The Blind Assassin,

Carter and Atwood portray older women who narrate their (fictional) life-stories with the

freedom and confidence of their age. They tell their versions, now free from the fear of the gaze

of the audience and men. (Labudov 21) In other words, although the exact setting and plot

belongs to her, Atwood may have heavily drawn inspiration for the work from Carters novel.

Wilsons article details many novels which have similarities with her previous works. She states:

The novel as a whole interlaces allusions to texts including the Bible, Hansel and Gretl,

Sleeping BeautyThe Aeneid, The Metamorphosis, and Tristan and Isolde, with stories

of Persephone, LedaArthur, and the Queen of Sheeba; and the poems of Tennyson,

Keats, Coleridge (Wilson 271)

In addition to the excess amount of allusions that could not possibly be noticed by every reader,

The Blind Assassin includes parallels with previous novels such as The Handmaids Tale, Cats
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Eye, Alias Grace, and The Robber Bride. Instead of writing an entirely different piece, it is as if

Atwood is rewriting her critically acclaimed works with a slightly different plot and mimicking

storylines of popular tales. In The Blind Assassin, a significant object were notebooks with their

cheap cardboard covers (Atwood 285). According to Wilson, These notebooks function

similarly to the red plastic purse and cat's eye marble in Cat's Eye, again hidden in a trunk

suggesting the subconscious. (271) And the photographs in The Blind Assassin (Wilson 272)?

They serve the same purpose as the toaster, red plastic purse, and cat's eye marble in Cat's Eye

(Wilson 272). With different objects playing the same function across novels, Atwood is

bringing nothing new to the world. Only by writing about different plots using different objects

with different purposes can Atwood write a piece that can both incite new discussion and have

her novel considered as a lone piece. Instead, Wilson hints that Atwoods novelsnovels

plural, not The Blind Assassin in particularcall into question popular culture (274). Rather

than requiring all the novels of an author to be read for the bigger picture to be seen, classics

should be able to reveal something about the world by itself. Furthermore, there are few journal

articles on The Blind Assassin in the Folsom Public Library Scholarly Resource Database (which

could suggest the uselessness of the novel), and for the few results that do appear, they discuss

other novels, such as Oryx and Crake, as the main focus rather than Atwoods novel. Works that

are truly classics would have struck up enough traction to have a vast amount of articles

exploring its controversiality.

The Blind Assassin contains an intriguing setting with at least five different narratives.

Thus, it can be an enjoying novel to read right before bed, but it should not be a piece to be

carefully analyzed and would waste a place in the literary canon. The most non-negotiable term

for a classic is its ability to connect with each of its readers with an overarching theme that can
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be supported throughout the novel. If Margaret Atwood did not write with the beauty she did,

this novel would not have been published. For those looking for a novel with a certain theme in

mind, this piece would not be an appropriate choice as there is no central theme. Thus, when we

are considering novels to add to the literary canon in the future, this work should be avoided as

the canon already contains pieces with each theme that The Blind Assassin touches on while

doing so more explicitly, uniquely, and concisely.

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Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. The Blind Assassin. Random House, Inc., 2000.

Heilmann, Ann and Debbie Taylor. "Interview with Margaret Atwood, Hay-On-Wye, 27 May

2001." European Journal of American Culture, vol. 20, no. 3, Oct. 2001, p. 132-147.

EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=10011739&site=ehost-live.

Labudov, Katarna. "Wise Children and the Blind Assassin: Fictional (Auto)Biographies." Brno

Studies in English, vol. 42, no. 2, July 2016, pp. 21-34. EBSCOhost,

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=120313979&site=ehos

t-live.

Mallon, Thomas. Wheels Within Wheels. Review of The Blind Assassin, by Margaret

Atwood, New York Times, 3 Sep 2000,

http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/09/03/reviews/000903.03mallont.html.

Stein, Karen F. A Left-Handed Story: The Blind Assassin. Margaret Atwood's Textual

Assassinations: Recent Poetry and Fiction, vol. 1, Ohio State University Press, 2004, pp.

135152. Google Books,

books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=cEomBiT6d9IC&oi=fnd&pg=PA135&dq.

Wilson, S.R. "Margaret Atwood and Popular Culture: The Blind Assassin and Other Novels."

Journal of American & Comparative Cultures, vol. 25, no. 3/4, Fall 2002, pp. 270-275.

EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=9648728&site=ehost-live.