The Blind Assassin: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

In The Blind Assassin, the woman has been looking for the man’s story about the Lizard Men of Xenor in science-fiction magazines for weeks—today, she finally finds it. She is overcome with excitement but knows she can’t buy a copy in this store because the people there know her. She waits until the next time she goes out and slips into the train station. Smuggling the magazine into the bathroom at home, she flips through the pages, desperate to know what happens to the blind assassin and the girl.

In the story, Sakiel-Norn is attacked by the Lizard Men of Xenor. As a result, the class hierarchy of the city dissolves, with Snilfards and Ygnirods united in fighting a common enemy. The Xenorians, meanwhile, are only able to capture a few women from outside the gates of Sakiel-Norn before they are forced to retreat. The Xenorians regroup, hoping to find a solution to the technical problems that leave them vulnerable to the Zycronians. This installment of the story ends there, and the woman is disappointed to have heard nothing about the girl and the blind assassin. Over the next few months, she desperately awaits an update to the story, searching the magazines at every store. However, the next installment is never published.

The May 1937 gossip column of Mayfair magazine announces the birth of Iris’s daughter, Aimee Adelia Chase Griffen. Winifred threw a luncheon in honor of Iris and the new baby that was attended by many prominent society women.

In a letter written to Richard, the director of the BellaVista Sanctuary, Dr. Gerald P. Witherspoon, mentions how nice it was to meet Richard the previous Friday. Dr. Witherspoon shares the unfortunate news that Laura’s condition has not improved. She is still suffering from “delusions,” and the staff at BellaVista are planning to try electro-shock therapy. Dr. Witherspoon asks that Richard and Iris don’t visit or contact Laura because communicating with them will likely derail her recovery. He also encloses the bill for Laura’s treatment.

In The Blind Assassin, the woman feels “heavy” and dirty, like she has been “buried alive.” She isn’t alone, but the other people buried with her don’t realize what’s happened. She feels that the only way to escape is through climbing on the roof of her house up to the open sky. There’s a baby near her, which she sometimes hears crying. She’s propped up with pillows as she drifts in and out of sleep, thinking about “him” thinking about her. She remembers how biting and argumentative she and the man were to each other, and she longs for him. The man had wanted to protect her. He once accused her of leading “a sheltered life,” to which she replied that he was the only hope of her escaping it. 

An article in the Globe and Mail dated May 26, 1937 reports on clashes in Barcelona between different Republican factions, notably the Communists (who are backed by the U.S.S.R.) and the alliance between the Trotskyists and the Anarchists. The Republicans retain power in much of the rest of the country, but Franco’s forces are “making significant gains.” 

In The Blind Assassin, the woman dreams of the man getting on a train and sitting next to an elderly woman knitting a red sweater. She then imagines him falling asleep and dreaming of her, just like she is dreaming of him. After the train journey is over, she pictures the man arriving in a city where she is waiting to find him. However, she can’t reach him, and soon he begins to disappear.