A Multidisciplinary Research Journal - Devanga Arts College

piece. When Rennie asks her doctor evades the truth by saying that she is not yet dead and is
much more alive than many others. The markings which the surgeon leaves on her body makes
her feel that she has been physically colonized. This fear is due to her internalization of the
cultural values regarding female body. As Ruberstein says: Some of Rennie’s anxieties about
invasion and violation can be understood through the cultural attitudes toward both the female
flesh and cancer. Rennie is a double victim, of both disease and male exploitation. (262)
Mutilation by disease leaves scars in her body, but she suffers all the more due to sexual
mutilation at the hands of different men. Jake and Daniel Luoma, who invade her body, treat her
just as a raw material. Association with them makes her lose her faith in human relationships.
Once she had thought that there was a right man, now she understands that this belief was only
an illusion.
Rennie meets Jake while writing an article titled: “The young and the Solvent” for
Visor, a male – oriented magazine. Jake works as a designer for a packaging company, he
designs labels, container and visuals for advertising. He is a clever manipulator and “It look her
more time than it should have to realize that she was one of the things Jake was packaging”(BH
104). Jake starts packaging the house with different shades of paint, then he improves on the
furniture and finally attempts to modify Rennie, by repacking her in attractive and glamorous
clothes. When he makes adoring remarks on her body, Rennie asks, “What about my mind?”(BH
104) Jake confesses that he is not interested in a woman’s mind. According to him, mystery of a
woman lies in her body and not in her mind.
Jake views Rennie only as an object of sex and he is predatory in love. As Rubenstein
remarks: “Jake – a man with canine teeth and predatory desires – prefers sex that includes
bondage and sadism” (259) Rennie expects companionship and understanding from Jake, but he
wants her to be “passionately and voraciously desired” (BH 101). He has a debased view of man
– woman relationship and believes that woman has no individuality. He equates women with
animals, accuses them of having ‘voracious female animalistic desires’ and is of the opinion that
‘woman should be locked in cages’. (BH 73) Rennie understands that Jakes’ interest in her is
purely carnal and that is why when she expresses her longings to become a mother, he evades,
saying that he is not interested in life-time goals. After her mastectomy, he discards her, as he
does not wish to share his life with a diseased woman.