"Bloodchild"

“I could have done that. I nearly did. That’s Qui’s away. I wonder if he knows.

(“Bloodchild,” p. 29)

One subject that we didn’t touch on in class yesterday (yes, I know this entry is somewhat late) but that still interested me was that of the role of Gan’s brother Qui in this story, and their different perspectives on what it means to be caged and free. Qui sees the Preserve as a cage, and tries to run away before he realizes that there is no “away” to run to. Unlike Gan, he sees T’Gatoi almost as their jailer rather than their protector, and claims that the Tlic don’t care about the Terrans as anything other than “host animals” for their eggs. What he is trying to escape though, is not so clear. He knows that as long as Gan is around, he will not have to carry any Tlic eggs, so it is not the fear of being implanted that causes him to run. I think it is knowing the reality of what will happen to his brother, and seeing how accepting Gan is of it all that makes him want to escape. We don’t see any other Terrans in this story beyond Gan’s family, but I imagine that in the past there were many more like Qui who couldn’t handle their place in this society. The only reason Terrans like Gan and Hoa are accepting of their fate, in his mind, is because they are never confronted with the reality of it. After seeing a human eaten alive by Tlic grubs, his response is t run, to try to escape the future he cannot stop. But he finds that there is nowhere to go.

The only escape Qui can find seems to be in the sterile eggs, where he can get lost in the drug-induced dream state and forget about the reality of the situation of Terrans. But he cannot stay in this state forever, and Gan thinks (as we can see above) that the only way Qui will find an escape is through destroying himself. Which, though tragic, makes sense: he cannot accept the world in which he lives, and has run out of ways to escape. It is interesting though, that when given the option for this “escape,” Gan doesn’t take it. He says it is because he cannot leave his sister to the fate that was meant to be his, but this is not the whole of it. I think part of the reason that he does not kill himself is that, unlike Qui, he has been brought up not to notice this cage—from birth, he has known what it is like to be encircled by T’Gatoi’s arms, and to see her as his protector rather than his jailer. He has been conditioned, almost, to not want to get away, to the extent that when he finally sees what will happen to him, he cannot bring himself to escape.

It is interesting, in the above passage, that Gan finally seems to have the upper hand. Throughout the story we see that Qui looks down on Gan for accepting what will happen to him, for not fighting back or running away. But it is Gan who has the last laugh, knowing as he does that his brother does not need any Tlic to destroy him, that he will ultimately bring it on himself. It is a somber tone set for the end of the book— it seems as if Gan’s surrender and Qui’s inability to stop it symbolize the last effort of the Terrans to break free of the Tlic. But, it is too late, their lives are too far intertwined, and there is no more point in trying to escape.