THE BLIND ASSASSIN BOOK BY MAGARET ATWOOD (Book Report) Essay

THE BLIND ASSASSIN BOOK BY MAGARET ATWOOD (Book Report) - Essay Example This sense that somehow Iris was once whole and is now damaged is communicated, when she calls herself â€Å"†¦a brick-strewn vacant lot where some important building used to stand.† (Atwood 43)1 It becomes clear later that her ruin is of her own making, brought about through her deliberate blindness towards her own motivations that underlay the choices she made. Thus she says: I did believe, at first, that I only wanted justice. I thought my heart was pure. We do like to have such good opinions of our own motives when we’re about to do something harmful, to someone else. (497) In old age, Iris is painfully aware of at least some of her motives. However, she is still not entirely honest because it is quite clear that she knew ‘back then’ as well. Thus â€Å"we do like to have such good opinions of our own motives† (497) communicates a sense of ‘deliberate’ self-deception. Her primary punishment is reserved for Laura, for the role she played in the lives of Richard and Alex and perhaps also because she was ‘good’. She also vindictively destroyed her husband’s career. What was it she wanted? Nothing much. Just a memorial of some kind. But what is a memorial, when you come right down to it, but a commemoration of wounds endured? Endured and resented. Without memory there is no revenge.† (508) Revenge then was what Iris had wanted all along. This manifests itself also clearly in the spiteful way in which she communicates Alex’s death to Laura. â€Å"Laura, I hate to tell you this, I said, but whatever it was you did, it didn’t save Alex. Alex is dead.† (488) This ‘whatever’ Laura did to save Alex was giving in to Richard’s sexual demands and Iris was fully aware of Laura’s ‘martyr’ mindset. Her sister had been a heavy burden to the young Iris and once, after Laura tried to sacrifice herself for her dead mother, Iris had been close to ‘letting go’. Now destroying Laura’s