It.

"The night before we left the house, that last time, I was walking through the rooms. Nothing was packed up, because we weren't taking much with us and we couldn't afford even then to give the least appearance of leaving. So I was just walking through, here and there, looking at the things, at the arrangement we had made together, for our life. I had some idea that I would be able to remember, afterwards, what it had looked like.

Luke was in the living room. He put his arms around me. We were both feeling miserable. How were we to know we were happy, even then? Because we at least had that: arms, around.

The cat, is what he said.

Cat? I said, against the wool of his sweater.

We can't just leave her here.

I hadn't thought about the cat. Neither of us had. Our decision had been too sudden, and then there had been the planning to do. I must have thought she was coming with us. But she couldn't, you don't take a cat on a day trip across the border.

Why not outside? I said. We could just leave her.

She'd hang around and mew at the door. Someone would notice we were gone.

We could give her away, I said. One of the neighbours. Even as I said this, I saw how foolish that would be.

I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before. You do that first, in your head, and then you make it real. So that's how they do it, I thought. I seemed never to have known that before."

(Atwood, 180)

This part makes me very sad, but at the same time somewhat amazed. I've never considered before what it would take for an ordinary person to kill. It makes perfect sense that they would create a distance between themselves and the object of their violence. But how long would it take for them to be convinced of this distance? I don't think it's very believable that Luke had created a divide between himself and his beloved pet in that instant, that simultaneously. Or would he be able overlook the distance at the time because it was necessary to kill the cat to keep his family safe? Could he put just enough distance in between to be able to commit the murder, and then justify it at a later time?

It also makes me wonder if soldiers are trained in some way to distance themselves from their enemies, or if it is something they learn for themselves --something inherent in them. There must be some part of the human mind that is able to close itself to the horrors of war. On the other hand, many soldiers respond dreadfully to the atrocities they witness on the battle field -- doctors call it post-traumatic stress. There must be some way to train those in the military to separate their minds from the brutality around them.