Age of Iron Lesson Plan

How do the physical presence and the idea of blood permeate this chapter? What is blood's larger significance to Mrs. Curren?

Blood plays a role in several important scenes in this chapter. First, Mrs. Curren recalls how shocked she was to learn that Florence's husband worked slaughtering chickens for a living. Watching him work disturbs her but also makes her reflect. She considers "a universe of labor, a universe of counting: like sitting in front of a clock all day, killing the seconds as they emerged." For Mrs. Curren, this job seems to serve as a microcosm for the world at large. Perhaps most significant, however, is the scene in which Bheki and his friend get into...