The Watchers

The concept of mirroring haunts every page of the novel in one form or another, whether the watchers take on the appearance of certain people or whether the captives are forced to consider aspects of doubling in the ever-present two-way mirror that dominates their time in the coop. The mirror takes up an entire, large wall of the coop and relentlessly reflects the prisoners’ appearance every night. When the light of the coop is on, the reflections—“their doppelgängers”—are described as “[standing] guard tirelessly, calling for their attention whenever their thoughts drift[] towards that which watche[s] them from behind the mirror” (65). Behind the mirror itself, the watchers learn to imitate their prisoners, but they remain invisible to the captives. Instead, the humans see their own reflections, which come to represent the hidden horror of the watchers’ scrutiny and efforts to duplicate them. Also, this nonconsensual exposure to a mirror eventually has negative effects on the captives’ self-image, especially when they see how their bodies have been undernourished and harmed.

When the sun rises and the mirror turns to glass, the captives also feel like they have lost some essential part of themselves along with the loss of their reflection. They have adapted to seeing their reflections and miss them when they vanish at dawn.