I don't necessarily agree that Anne isn't undeserving of
our sympathy in this excellent novel. If we analyse Chapter Ten closely, we can see that
actually there are a number of excellent reasons why we should feel sorry for Anne and
her situation. Note how she justifies her decision to Michael and the
others:
I'm a
woman--I've a right to marry and have children. There are three of you and five of us.
Are you saying that two of us must never marry? Never have any lives or homes of our
own? If not, then two of us have got to marry norms. I'm in love with Alan, and I intend
to marry him.
Anne presents a
clear and cogent argument based on the facts and also her right to enjoy life as much as
she can. Based on this perspective, we can see that Anne certainly has a point. Why
should she be forced to live a life without marriage and having children just because
there are not enough telepaths around for her to marry? In addition, the way she hangs
herself also makes her a sympathetic figure, as she is forced to face the fact that she
is different, and that this difference is something that she cannot
escape.
However, what definitely does not gain her sympathy
is her act of cutting herself off from the other telepaths and betraying them to her
husband. In a sense, by cutting off all communication and pretending to be a normal
person, she is essentially betraying herself as well. The letter that she writes before
killing herself could have easily resulted in the torture and/or death of all of the
rest of the telepaths. Anne never had the right to put the rest of the group in danger,
and as much as we can understand her frustrations, this is definitely something that
makes her an unsympathetic character.
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