The Blind Assassin

What function do the newspaper clippings in The Blind Assassin serve in terms of structure or theme?

The story of the blind assassin and the girl never reaches a single, definite conclusion. How does this affect our reading of the novel as a whole?

In an early description of Sakiel-Norn, the man explains that, "[b]oy children were offered to the God of the Three Suns, who was the god of daytime, bright lights, palaces, feasts, furnaces, wars, liquor, entrances, and words; girl children were offered to the Goddess of the Five Moons, patroness of night, mists and shadows, famine, caves, childbirth, exits, and silences" (27). Analyze this passage in terms of the novel's broader treatment of gender.

Reenie is one of the few working-class characters in The Blind Assassin. Discuss the role she plays in the novel, and how that role does (or does not) correspond to the novel's treatment of class as a theme.

Discuss the use of mementos and memorials in The Blind Assassin. How does this motif intersect with one or more of the novel's themes?

Choose one of the novel's classical or mythological allusions not discussed in the study guide (e.g. Avilion's stained glass depictions of Tristan and Iseult). What is the significance of this reference in terms of character andtheme?

Compare and contrast the characterization of the unnamed woman in Iris's novel with Iris's characterization of herself (both in the past and in the present). If there are significant differences between the two, what might explain those differences?

Iris says at one point that Laura "had no thought of playing the doomed romantic heroine. She became that only later, in the frame of her own outcome and thus in the minds of her admirers" (418). Do you think the novel itself portrays Laura as a "doomed romantic heroine"? Why or why not?