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Summary: Hand-tinting

After the picnic, a picture of Alex with the Chase sisters appears in the local paper. Reenie is irritated, but Laura is fascinated, and asks the journalist who published it if she can learn to develop photos. Laura begins helping Elwood Murray in his darkroom and learns to add color to photos by hand-tinting. Laura steals some supplies and adds color to photos at Avilion. When Laura isn’t working on photographs, she devotes herself to religious matters and charity work. Laura is particularly interested in helping with relief efforts for the many men left unemployed by the Depression. Meanwhile, Iris is reluctantly educated about the workings of the Chase factory.

One day, Elwood Murray tells Reenie that he has seen Laura with Alex Thomas. When Reenie confronts Laura about what she considers to be inappropriate behavior, Laura insists that she and Alex are simply friends who enjoy talking with one another. Reenie and Iris are at a loss as to what to do and are reluctant to tell Norval in case that makes the situation worse.

Summary: The cold cellar

In the autumn of 1934, there are rumors of outside agitators stirring up the workers and advocating for the possibility of unions. Meanwhile, the Chase factory struggles economically, and by December, it has come to a shutdown. Norval is angry and embittered, and when he and Callista get in a fight about his business decisions, the relationship ends. A general strike is declared and leads to riots and violence in town. A fire breaks out, leading to further injuries. After military forces are called in to quell the violence, Laura is questioned about the whereabouts of Alex Thomas. The officers tell Laura that Alex is a radical accused of political agitation.

Laura refuses to say anything to the officers, but she admits to Iris that she is hiding Alex in the cold cellar. Iris speaks with Alex, who assures her that he is grateful to Laura for hiding him but that he sees her as a child. Alex also asserts he had nothing to do with setting the fire at the factory.

Summary: The attic

Iris moves Alex from the cellar to the attic, and she and Laura sneak food and other necessary supplies to him. There is an increasing public outcry against Alex as the person blamed for all the violence and unrest. One day, Alex kisses Iris when she comes to the attic. Unsettled, she becomes convinced that she needs to get him out of the house. Although Laura is hesitant, Alex also wants to get away, planning to travel to Toronto and then cross the border to America. In early January, the sisters send him off. After he leaves, Laura gives Iris a photo she has cropped. The photo now shows only Iris and Alex with the only trace of Laura being a hint of her hand in the corner. Laura explains that she has also cropped a different version for herself, which shows her and Alex together with only a hint of Iris’s hand.

Summary: The Imperial Room

In the winter months of 1935, Iris and Laura drift further apart. Norval is preoccupied with finding the money to reopen his factory and seems to be negotiating some sort of business deal with Richard Griffen. When he travels to Toronto to meet with Richard, Norval sometimes brings Iris along with him. Eventually, Norval explains that Richard is going to propose marriage to Iris. Without explicitly telling his daughter that she must accept, Norval implies that the financial security of the business and family rests on Iris accepting the proposal. Although she feels some trepidation, Iris agrees to marry Richard.

Summary: The Arcadian Court

A week after accepting the proposal, Iris meets with Winifred for lunch. Winifred is condescending and cold, but Iris is intimidated by the older woman and agrees to whatever she says. The night before Iris’s wedding, Laura expresses her worries. She thinks her elder sister is too young to be getting married and will be unhappy. Iris argues that finances necessitate the marriage and that Laura is too young to understand.

Summary: The tango

Iris and Richard are married in a lavish but emotionally empty ceremony. For their honeymoon, they take the train to New York and then sail to Europe. Aboard the ship, Iris is seasick and lonely.

Analysis: Part V, Part 2

In the wake of the Labor Day picnic, Laura’s rebellious and creative tendencies emerge more fully. Her interest in photography reflects her earlier childhood interest in drawing. It also suggests that she is interested in pursuing the arts and that she is looking to embrace a modernizing and rapidly changing world. Photography is a newer medium, which is only made possible by changing technology, and Laura’s decision to enter a commercial, working world is quite radical for a wealthy woman at this time. Laura’s emerging friendship with Alex Thomas also reflects her refusal to abide by social norms. Other characters consider it very inappropriate for a young woman to meet with a man unchaperoned, especially if that man comes from a lower social class. Nonetheless, Laura only cares about the intellectual exchange she has with Alex and the moral obligation she feels to help him resolve his religious doubts. Laura’s behavior at this time suggests that she could, in fact, go on to be a woman who would have a secret affair and write a novel about it. Many of the details about Alex’s life align with details the man reveals about himself in the text of The Blind Assassin, which suggests to the reader that Laura and Alex did go on to have an affair and that she used this relationship as the foundation for her novel.

Nonetheless, several details revealed in this section offer clues that the plot may be more complicated than it initially appears. Laura is the one who readily strikes up a friendship with Alex while Iris is much more wary, but Alex kisses Iris, implying that he desires the elder sister, not the younger one. Additionally, the photograph taken at the picnic is revealed to be a clue that suggests that either sister could have been the one to have a relationship with Alex. The first scene of The Blind Assassin describes the woman looking at a photograph which matches the one taken of Alex with the Chase sisters at the picnic. However, because each sister ends up with her own copy (in which the other has been cropped out), it is possible that the woman describing her affair in the novel could be either Iris or Laura.

In contrast to Laura’s growing independence, Iris’s vulnerability and passivity are revealed as she recollects the circumstances leading up to her marriage. Because she is the elder daughter, her father has always expected her to take on some responsibility for the family’s stability and continuity. Initially, Norval seems to expect that Iris might take a more hands-on role in the management of the business, but as the economic success of the business declines, he is forced to consider a more radical possibility. Iris does not seem to realize until it is almost too late just how big a sacrifice her father expects from her. Iris is naïve and sheltered enough to hope that she might still end up in a happy relationship, despite the inauspicious start to the marriage.

While Iris is willing to passively conform to social expectations, Laura encourages her sister to consider the possibility of independence. The night before Iris is going to get married, Laura expresses fears that Iris is making the wrong choice, and although Laura is younger, she is more confident and hopeful than Iris that Iris could live life on her own terms. Laura also appears fearful of what marriage and sexuality will mean for Iris. These fears may be connected to having watched her mother die due to complications from pregnancy or from the trauma of being abused by Mr. Erskine. However, by this point Iris is too committed to the path she has chosen to consider other options. She knows that by cancelling the marriage at the last minute she would create a significant scandal, damage her reputation, and embarrass her father. Iris also secretly admits that part of the attraction to marrying Richard is the way this marriage will ensure her financial security. She has enviously observed Winifred’s outward displays of consumption and luxury, and Iris is willing to risk her future happiness for access to this glamour herself. Although they have grown up under the same circumstances, Iris and Laura by now hold significantly different values and priorities.


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