120 LITERATURE Discuss possible reasons why a regime would want to introduce a law that disempowers half of the population. What advantages could they see in this move? What ideology could be behind this? When the narrator’s husband comes home, he tries to console her. Luke knelt beside me and put his arms around me. I heard, he said, on the car radio, driving home. Don’t worry, I’m sure it’s temporary. Did they say why? I said. He didn’t answer that. We’ll get through it, he said, hugging me. You don’t know what it’s like, I said. I feel as if somebody cut off my feet. I wasn’t crying. Also, I couldn’t put my arms around him. It’s only a job, he said, trying to soothe me. 9 How would you react in a similar situation? Why do you think the narrator feels she deserves losing her job? We stood in a cluster, on the steps outside the library. We didn’t know what to say to one another. Since none of us understood what had happened, there was nothing much we could say. We looked at one another’s faces and saw dismay, and a certain shame, as if we’d been caught doing something we shouldn’t. It’s outrageous, one woman said, but without belief. What was it about this that made us feel we deserved it? When the narrator gets home, she calls her best friend Moira and asks her to come over. It is from her that she learns that the status of women has changed utterly. […] I tried to tell her what had happened to me. When I’d finished, she said, Tried getting anything on your Compucard today? Yes, I said. I told her about that too. They’ve frozen them, she said. Mine too. […] Any account with an F on it instead of an M. All they needed to do is push a few buttons. We’re cut off. But I’ve got over two thousand dollars in the bank, I said, as if my own account was the only one that mattered. Women can’t hold property any more, she said. It’s a new law. Turned on the TV today? No, I said. It’s on there, she said. All over the place. She was not stunned, the way I was. In some strange way she was gleeful, as if this was what she’d been expecting for some time, and now she’d been proven right. She even looked more energetic, more determined. Luke can use your Compucount for you, she said. They’ll transfer your number to him, or that’s what they say. Husband or male next of kin. But what about you? I said. She didn’t have anyone. I’ll go underground, she said. Some of the gays can take over our numbers and buy us things we need. But why? I said. Why did they? 8 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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