Flexion

by

Cate Kennedy

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Abuse and Power Dynamics Theme Analysis

Themes and Colors
Abuse and Power Dynamics Theme Icon
Communication Theme Icon
Trauma and Support Theme Icon
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Abuse and Power Dynamics Theme Icon

“Flexion” focuses on Frank and Mrs. Slovak, a married couple whose relationship is riddled with abuse, neglect, and alienation. This is largely due to the couple’s imbalanced power dynamic: Frank is dominant to the point of cruelty, while Mrs. Slovak is submissive to a fault. However, when Frank is seriously injured in a farming accident and becomes disabled, this dynamic is switched: suddenly, Mrs. Slovak has power over Frank, as Frank is entirely dependent upon her to even do small tasks like showering. Through the couple’s role reversal, the story shows that an imbalance of power inevitably leads to abusive relationships, and it ultimately argues that trading places in an unequal dynamic doesn’t result in genuine empowerment for the formerly submissive person. Rather, making an effort to equalize the dynamic—that is, choosing compassion for rather than control over the other person—is what makes a relationship healthy for both parties.

Early on in the story, it’s clear that there is a severe imbalance of power between Frank and Mrs. Slovak that manifests in both verbal and physical abuse. Frank is overbearingly dominant, whereas Mrs. Slovak is submissive. Frank is known around town as having a “a temper like a rabid dog,” while his wife is known as “the quiet one” who “wouldn’t say boo” to anyone. Right away, readers can intuit that this mismatched combination of Frank’s controlling, hotheaded nature and Mrs. Slovak’s timidity doesn’t bode well for their relationship. Indeed, when Frank’s tractor overturns and pins him underneath, Mrs. Slovak knows that Frank’s injuries are serious when she “sees him swallow and close his eyes instead of shouting at her.” Later, when Frank is partially paralyzed in the hospital, he forcefully slaps Mrs. Slovak’s hand away when she tries to wipe his face for him. “That's Frank all over. Can't hold a fork, but can still find a way to smack her out of the way,” Mrs. Slovak thinks. Together, these instances imply that the couple’s unequal dynamic has led to abuse, both verbal (“shouting at her”) and physical (“smack her out of the way”)—and that this is something Mrs. Slovak has come to expect and silently tolerate in their marriage.

However, when Frank comes home from the hospital after his accident, the couple’s roles reverse: Frank is no longer physically capable of abusing Mrs. Slovak, and Mrs. Slovak has newfound power over him. As a disabled person trying to adapt to his new life, Frank is dependent upon Mrs. Slovak to help bathe, feed, and generally care for him. As such, he’s now the submissive one in the relationship by default. This causes Frank to feel a great deal of shame, as he’s adamant that he doesn’t want to be a burden on anyone. Mrs. Slovak senses this weakness and makes a decision to use it to her advantage, a vengeful attitude that shows how deeply Frank’s abuse affected her over the years. Mrs. Slovak actively wished that her cruel husband would die in the hospital—and now that he’s survived, she’s eager to treat him with the same cruelty he’s showed her over the years. Repulsed by Frank’s withered, frail body, she tells him to “take a good look” at himself in the mirror and forces him to call the people who did them favors while Frank was in the hospital—knowing that both of these things will degrade and humiliate the headstrong, prideful Frank. Mrs. Slovak has become the dominant one in the household, and her behavior confirms that such an unequal dynamic will inevitably lead to an abuse of power.

Ultimately, Mrs. Slovak doesn’t give in to replicating Frank’s abuse now that she has the upper hand—she realizes that domineering over another person and truly being empowered are two different things. On Frank’s first night home, as the couple lies in bed, Mrs. Slovak notices Frank silently crying next to her. Seeing this, Mrs. Slovak thinks she “has a sense of how it is, suddenly,” and she relates Frank’s physical paralysis in the hospital to her own figurative paralysis that she’s experienced for years in their abusive marriage. Essentially, Mrs. Slovak empathizes with Frank: she knows “how it is” to feel weak, helpless, and afraid. Further, Mrs. Slovak reflects that she “understands better than anyone” what it’s like to be hurt, likening Frank’s pain and humiliation to her own trauma within their relationship. As a kind of symbolic peace offering, she reaches across the bed, takes Frank’s hand in hers, and holds it over Frank’s heart. This empathy with Frank’s suffering and subsequent gesture of togetherness imply a realization on Mrs. Slovak’s part: that controlling and abusing Frank like he controlled and abused her won’t give her lasting empowerment or fulfillment. Instead, she opts to extend compassion and make a subtle but meaningful attempt to reach out and equalize their dynamic—something that will benefit them both in the long run.

The story ends ambiguously with Mrs. Slovak holding Frank’s hand in this way, tentatively opening the door for a new chapter of their marriage wherein Mrs. Slovak and Frank are a teammates rather than adversaries. And significantly, Frank doesn’t resist or slap Mrs. Slovak’s hand away like he did in the hospital. This mutual gesture of solidarity, then, suggests that compassion is the way forward—only by regarding each other as equals can two people come together and make progress toward a healthier relationship.

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Abuse and Power Dynamics Quotes in Flexion

Below you will find the important quotes in Flexion related to the theme of Abuse and Power Dynamics.
Flexion Quotes

‘I’m not going to be a burden on anyone, is that clear?’ he mutters to her when the physios finally leave them alone for the afternoon. And knocks her hand away, as she goes to wipe some gravy off his chin.

That’s Frank all over. Can’t hold a fork, but can still find a way to smack her out of the way.

Related Characters: Frank Slovak (speaker), Frank’s Wife / Mrs. Slovak
Related Symbols: Frank’s Body
Page Number: 6
Explanation and Analysis:

Because now any fool can see how it’s going to be. Frank unable to sit at the desk, standing over her telling her how to do the books, ordering her round and snapping at her. In the ute beside her as she drives, sighing with contempt every time she crunches the gears, unable even to get out and open the gates for her, Frank hovering over her entire working day, badgering her and criticising her and depending on her for everything. And her, running the gauntlet outside church and in town, having to dutifully tell everyone how lucky they’d been.

Related Characters: Frank’s Wife / Mrs. Slovak, Frank Slovak
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:

‘Bob Wilkes did it,’ she calls, but he doesn’t turn or respond. She imagines him giving up and toppling, curled there on the ground. She’s never seen him curled up, not even when she sat there with him in the dirt, waiting for the ambulance. He’d stayed in control then too, sprawled there licking his lips every now and again, his eyes losing focus with something like bewilderment as he stared up into the blue, something almost innocent.

Related Characters: Frank’s Wife / Mrs. Slovak (speaker), Frank Slovak
Related Symbols: Frank’s Body
Page Number: 11
Explanation and Analysis:

God, the flesh is hanging off him. His knuckles are white and waxy as they cling to the handles; he’s as scared and frail as an old, old man. Scared to turn his head or take one hand off the rail. One misstep away from a nursing home. His hair needs a cut and she decides she’ll do it later at the kitchen table.

‘That’s better,’ he says as she adjusts the hot tap.

And she can hear that he’s about to say thank you, then stops and swallows. Even without the thanks, though, she thinks it’s probably the longest conversation they’ve had for months.

Related Characters: Frank Slovak (speaker), Frank’s Wife / Mrs. Slovak
Related Symbols: Frank’s Body
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:

She’s never seen this, and it’s mortifying. They’d warned her about acute pain; she wonders about getting up and giving him some tablets, but she’s so shocked all she can do is turn her head back to look up at the ceiling and spare him the shame of her scrutiny. They lie rigidly side by side.

‘When you stood up to run home and call the ambulance,’ he says, ‘I thought, well, now I've got ten minutes. Now would be the good time to die, while you weren’t there. That's what I could give you.’

Lying there, she has a sense of how it is, suddenly: willing your limbs to move but being unable to lift them. The terrible treasonous distance between them that must be traversed, the numbed heaviness of her arm.

Related Characters: Frank Slovak (speaker), Frank’s Wife / Mrs. Slovak
Related Symbols: Frank’s Body
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:

She lies there feeling the pulse in her husband’s pitifully thin wrist under her little finger. She understands better than anyone, she thinks, the painful stretch of sinew, the crack of dislocation. Remembers herself running back over the paddocks, flying barefoot over stones and earth, looking down distractedly in the ambulance later to notice the dried blood on her feet. How fast she’d run, and how much faster she’d run back. Now, in the dark bed, she raises her arm with Frank’s and gently flexes both their elbows together. She places his hand wordlessly, determinedly, over his heart, and holds it there.

Related Characters: Frank’s Wife / Mrs. Slovak, Frank Slovak
Related Symbols: Frank’s Body
Page Number: 15-16
Explanation and Analysis: