A Multidisciplinary Research Journal - Devanga Arts College

The inhuman conditions which Rennie experiences during her two week stay in the
prison and the torture which Lora suffers confirm her notion of the status of woman as a raw
material in a tyrannous political system. Lora becomes a symbol of the weak and the oppressed
of the world. Seeing her sufferings, Rennie discards her neutrality and begins to feel empathy
with Lora. By trying to bring life back to Lora, Rennie revives her own humanity.
In the prison, Rennie and Lora are subjected to pitiful conditions. Rennie understands that
the authorities are malicious and they do so because they can (BH 289) do anything. Rennie feels
that her memory is fading away. She tries to remember what she herself used to think about, but
she can’t. There’s the past, the present, the future: none of them will do. The present is both
unpleasant and unreal; thinking about the future only makes her impatient, as if she’s in a plane
circling and circling and circling an airport, circling and not landing […] She’ is tired of this
fear, which goes on and on, no end to it. She wants an end. (BH 282-83)
Lora, not able to withstand the deprivation, sells herself to the guards, for cigarettes,
chewing gum and toilet paper. Lora wants to get information about her lover, Prince of Peace.
The prison guards tell her that prince has been imprisoned and they will permit her to meet him if
she obliges their sexual demands. When Lora comes to know that Prince had been killed and the
guards had been fooling her, she reacts violently. Police retaliate by beating her almost to death:
“Lora twists on the floor of the corridor, surely she can’t feel it any more but she’s still twisting,
like a worm that’s been cut in half, trying to avoid the feet, they have shoes on, there’s nothing
she can avoid (BH 293). Lora has been invaded and mutilated her face” “[…] is not a face
anymore, it is a bruise, blood is still oozing from the cuts, there is one on the forehead and
another across the cheek, the mouth looks like a piece of fruit that has been run over by a car,
pulp”. (BH 298)
So far, Rennie has been proud of her ability to escape involvements, but now she does not
feel like abandoning Lora. There is no cloth or water in the prison cell which is not filthy, so
Rennie licks and cleans Lora’s face with her tongue. As Rennie begins to assess Lora’s tragedy
in a broader perspective of domination and oppression, she does not bother whether it is Lora’s
face or that of a danger. Lora’s face loses its identity and becomes just a bruise. Rennie perceives
the plight of millions of powerless women reflected on it. Rennie touches and licks Lora’s face
just as animals do to their new born off springs. Lora is on the other side of an invisible hole and
while straining to push her back to life, Rennie grits her teeth ‘with the effort’ and she can hear