Flexion

by

Cate Kennedy

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Themes and Colors
Abuse and Power Dynamics Theme Icon
Communication Theme Icon
Trauma and Support Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Flexion, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Communication Theme Icon

In addition to the outright abuse that plagues married couple Frank and Mrs. Slovak’s relationship, a lack of communication also has a devastating effect on them. The Slovaks are notably closed off and lack any vulnerability or emotional intimacy, a dynamic that leaves them miserable and estranged from each other. However, this status quo is threatened when Frank has a farming accident that leaves him disabled, and communication becomes necessary for the couple to navigate their new situation. In tracing the Slovaks’ progression from a detrimental a lack of communication to this tentative fresh start, the story ultimately suggests that openness, vulnerability, and mutual effort are essential for any relationship to function properly.

Prior to Frank’s accident, he and Mrs. Slovak barely communicate, and this lack of openness leads to a great deal of resentment and marital strain. Years before Frank’s accident—in which his tractor overturns and injures his spine—Mrs. Slovak lost a pregnancy. Frank refused to let anyone else know about the miscarriage and still won’t talk about it, which has resulted in Mrs. Slovak feeling like they’re dragging the loss “like a black deadweight at their backs.” Mrs. Slovak is already haunted by the trauma of the loss, and Frank’s enforced silence only exacerbates it. Her pain is further compounded by Frank’s general stoicism. After Frank is left disabled by the accident, Mrs. Slovak thinks, “Limited mobility is actually going to suit Frank […] he’s been minimising all his movements for years, barely turning his head to her when she speaks, sitting there stonily in the kitchen, immoveable as a mountain. Unbending.” Lack of communication has damaged the couple’s relationship to the point that Mrs. Slovak has come to expect being ignored and having no one to confide in—the Slovaks are totally alienated from each other. In fact, there is so much unspoken resentment in their relationship that Mrs. Slovak actually hopes Frank will die in the hospital. She “[tries] to show brightness and gratitude” as the doctors deliver the good news that Frank will recover, “while inside her, choking rage burns like a grassfire, like gasoline.” In lieu of being able to voice her concerns to her husband, Mrs. Slovak despises him and wishes ill will on him. Clearly, their uncommunicative marriage has all but destroyed itself.

But when Frank comes home from the hospital, the Slovaks find that their new life necessitates increased communication. The situation is unfamiliar and awkward for both of them: Frank is embarrassed that he needs help to care for himself and perform basic tasks, and Mrs. Slovak is disturbed by how weak and helpless Frank has become. She thinks about the possibility of Frank losing his balance and “toppling, curled there on the ground.” She’s only ever seen Frank poised, stoic, and in control—but both Frank and Mrs. Slovak realize that given Frank’s limited functioning and dependency on Mrs. Slovak, some level of vulnerability is now unavoidable. Indeed, when Mrs. Slovak is helping Frank shower, she senses that he wants to thank her. But “even without the thanks […] she thinks it's probably the longest conversation they've had for months.” Their new, uncomfortable reality clearly necessitates more communication than they’re used to, and even this simple conversation goes a long way in showing Mrs. Slovak that she’s appreciated. Thus, the story shows how openness and vulnerability are necessary for a relationship—especially one challenged by a tragedy—to function, and particularly for both parties to feel understood and appreciated. This idea also extends to the people who helped the Slovaks while Frank was hospitalized. After Frank’s shower, Mrs. Slovak insists that he call up everyone who did them a favor and thank them. Having just experienced the positive effects of even a small effort to communicate openly, Mrs. Slovak is now adamant that Frank should extend that courtesy to others. It seems there’s no going back to the way things were—just as the Slovaks’ daily lives were changed by the accident, so too must their communication (with each other and with everyone else in their lives) adapt and improve to ensure that they can weather those changes.

Near the end of the story, Mrs. Slovak reflects on the “flexion” exercises a physical therapist performed on Frank in the hospital to prevent his muscles from atrophying. At home, as the couple lies in bed, Mrs. Slovak raises Frank’s arm and flexes their elbows together, mimicking one of these therapeutic movements. This gesture is highly symbolic: it suggests that Mrs. Slovak realizes that she and Frank must perform a kind of “flexion” in their marriage as well, putting in habitual effort and maintenance to keep lines of communication open and prevent their relationship from atrophying just like Frank’s muscles. And with a path to better communication tentatively opened, the story’s conclusion provides hope that with consistent, mutual effort, even two estranged people can achieve a relationship that’s open, supportive, and intimate.

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Communication ThemeTracker

The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Communication appears in each chapter of Flexion. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Communication Quotes in Flexion

Below you will find the important quotes in Flexion related to the theme of Communication.
Flexion Quotes

Sees too, as she pulls his shirt up to shade his eyes, that every emotion he’s withheld from her for the last eighteen years, every flinch and grimace and jerk of the eyebrows and lips, is boiling and writhing across his face now. It’s as if the locked strongbox inside has burst open and everything in there is rippling free and exorcised to the surface, desperately making its escape.

Related Characters: Frank’s Wife / Mrs. Slovak, Frank Slovak
Related Symbols: Frank’s Body
Page Number: 2-3
Explanation and Analysis:

The year she’d lost the baby, he’d driven her home from the hospital—the big hospital, half an hour away, so that not even the local nurses would know—and told her, looking straight ahead through the windscreen, ‘We’re putting this behind us.’

No jars of jam then, no lavender soap, not a word spoken or confided, until she’d felt she might go mad with the denial of it. They put it behind them, alright. They harnessed themselves to it, and dragged it like a black deadweight at their backs. They became its beasts of burden. And not a neighbour in sight, then, to drop by with a crumb of pity or a listening ear. Frank had decided that nobody was to know.

Related Characters: Frank Slovak (speaker), Frank’s Wife / Mrs. Slovak
Page Number: 4
Explanation and Analysis:

Limited mobility is actually going to suit Frank, she thinks; he’s been minimising all his movements for years, barely turning his head to her when she speaks, sitting there stonily in the kitchen, immoveable as a mountain. Unbending.

Related Characters: Frank’s Wife / Mrs. Slovak, Frank Slovak
Related Symbols: Frank’s Body
Page Number: 9
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 thinks about the physiotherapist at the hospital, lifting Frank’s legs and folding them against his body, turning him on his side and gently bending his arms from shoulder to hip. Flexion, she’d called it. Exercises to flex the muscles and keep the memory of limber movement alive in the body, to stop those ligaments and tendons tightening and atrophying away.

‘Just like this, Mr Slovak,’ she’d said, that calm and cheerful young woman. ‘You can do these yourself, just keep at it,’ and she’d taken Frank’s hand and made his arm describe a slow circle, then flexed the elbow to make it touch his chest. Down and back again, over and over; a gesture like a woodenly acted entreaty.

Related Characters: Frank’s Wife / Mrs. Slovak, Frank Slovak
Related Symbols: Frank’s Body
Page Number: 13-14
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: