The Blind Assassin

Although it's a relatively short section, Book Eightis central to the novel's exploration of happiness as a theme. As the story of the assassin and the girl draws toward a conclusion, it becomes clear that the lovers have very different ideas about how to wrap things up. The woman wants the couple to escape into an idyllic society of peaceful,escaped slaves. The man, however, mocks the idea of "benevolent vegetable farmers," preferring an ending where the couple ends up prey to the wolves and undead women that haunt the mountains (344). The disagreement is a good example of Atwood's use of motifs of carnivorousness and vegetarianism to explore broader questions about the nature of society and happiness. Where the woman believes that it is possible to live a truly happy and blameless life, the man does not; he points out that in the woman's version of events, the couple has betrayed their countrymen to secure passage, implying that "private contentment" always entails harming others (343).

Atwood continues to develop these differing perspectives in the story of Aa'A, which the man tells in response to the woman's request for a "happy" story. The story suggests that pure, unmitigated happiness would actually be "Hell" for humans, in part because we thrive on our own and others' suffering; despite feeding on nectar that promises to extend their lives indefinitely, Will and Boyd find themselves craving a "great big grilled steak, rare, dripping with blood" (355). The woman finds the story upsetting and asks her lover to let the men off the planet, even at the price of death, which suggests that she has come around to the man's way of thinking about happiness. 

In real life, of course, the man and woman's positions are reversed; it is the man who attempts to secure a "happy ending" to their love affair by asking the woman to run away with him, while the woman resists. Perhaps, however, the woman's reluctance reflects her awareness of the divisions that separate her from the man—particularly gender. Although she concedes that the man may be right about happiness, she takes issue with his depiction of the Peach Women, and perhaps with the man's broader association of Aa'A with femininity (Boyd at one point compares life there to being trapped inside a woman's breast). In the story the man tells, the women appear empty of thought or feeling, changing their behavior on command to suit the men's desires.Ultimately, however, Will, Boyd, and even the man telling the story hold this lack of genuine feeling against the woman, implying that it is part of what makes Aa'A hellish. The woman's objectionssuggest she finds this depiction unfair, perhaps because she herself is familiar with the Peach Women's actions; in the frame narrative, Iris conforms to Richard and Winifred's expectations as a form of self-preservation. Her reservations about leaving, then, could reflect a suspicion that her loverwould end up resenting her because of the misogynistic expectations he himself holds of her.