The Silver Pen and Eye Gouging: Vision, Identity, and Resistance in Blood on Her Tongue

What Is the Silver Pen? Its Literal Role in the Story

The silver pen is a birthday gift from Michael Schatteleyn to Lucy Goedhart. It appears in the novel as a finely sharpened writing instrument, but it becomes a weapon of self-mutilation when Sarah, possessed or driven by the parasitic entity inside her, uses it to stab her own eye. The pen is described as “wonderfully sharp” — an object that symbolically links writing, communication, and the piercing of vision. Sarah finds the pen on the floor, where Lucy had dropped it moments earlier, and drives it into her eye with such force that only the end remains visible. The eye “burst like a soft-boiled egg,” a visceral image that connects the pen to both destruction and a grotesque form of birth or release.

Eye gouging recurs later as Lucy, in the novel’s climax, kills Michael by thrusting her thumbs into his eyes. Lucy recalls an earlier piece of advice about self-defense: “If you are ever attacked, remember that eye gouging is extremely effective … Thrust hard and thrust deep.” The act parallels Sarah’s earlier self-mutilation, but here Lucy performs it as a deliberate, violent act of resistance against a man who has manipulated and abused her.

Where the Motif Recurs and How Its Meaning Shifts

The silver pen appears only once as a physical object, but the act of destroying eyes — or the vulnerability of eyes — recurs throughout the novel. The recurrence chart below shows key moments:

In the first instance, the eye gouging is self-inflicted and born of terror. Sarah is screaming, writhing, and trying to “get it out” of her head. The pen becomes a tool of attempted exorcism, even if it fails to dislodge the entity. In the second instance, the lack of a blink reflex shows that Sarah’s body is no longer responding to normal stimuli — she is becoming a host, not a person.

The third instance, Lucy’s gouging of Michael, is a calculated, premeditated act. She positions her thumbs gently over his eyes, then thrusts hard. This is not a desperate reaction but a cold, planned killing. The meaning shifts from self-destruction to outward-directed violence. Lucy takes the same destructive impulse that Sarah turned on herself and redirects it at her oppressor.

Character and Theme Connections

Characters

• Sarah: The initial victim of the eye gouging. Her self-mutilation expresses the horror of being colonized by another consciousness. She later loses even the instinct to blink, showing how thoroughly the entity erases her autonomy.
• Lucy: Performs the second eye gouging. She moves from passive observer (watching Sarah destroy her own eye) to active agent. The act simultaneously saves her sister from Michael’s plan to institutionalize Not-Sarah and severs her own ties to Michael, her former lover.
• Michael: The recipient of Lucy’s violence. His eyes are destroyed, symbolically stripping him of the power to observe, control, and objectify the women around him. His blindness mirrors the moral blindness he has shown throughout the story.
• Not-Sarah: The entity that occupies Sarah’s body. It delights in drinking blood and consuming flesh. The eye motif connects to its parasitic nature: eyes are windows to identity, and the entity attacks or occupies vision itself.

Themes

The motif ties directly to several major themes explored in the novel:

• Sisterhood and Codependency: The twin bond is tested when Sarah’s eye is destroyed. Lucy feels a “phantom pain” in her own head, symbolizing the deep physical and emotional connection between them. Later, Lucy’s act of murder is done to protect her sister and the entity she hosts, showing how far codependency can stretch.
• Madness and Social Control: Sarah’s self-gouging is interpreted by the doctor and Michael as madness. The novel critiques how society uses the label of insanity to control women. Lucy’s calculated blindness of Michael inverts this: she uses violence to escape being controlled.
• Parasitism and Identity: The entity is compared to a tick or a parasitic fungus, as Sarah notes in her annotations. The eye gouging represents an attempt to expel a parasite from the mind. The failure of this attempt shows how deeply identity can be invaded.
• Moral Compromise and Violence: Lucy’s eye gouging is both a mercy killing (to prevent Michael from committing Not-Sarah) and an act of revenge. She must compromise her own morality to protect her sister, echoing the novel’s exploration of difficult ethical choices.
• Female Desire and Agency: Lucy’s earlier affair with Michael was an expression of nascent desire, but it became a form of exploitation. By destroying his eyes, she reclaims her body and her narrative. The pen, originally a gift from Michael that Lucy used for writing, becomes a symbol of her ability to write her own ending.

The Silver Pen as a Symbol of Writing and Identity

The pen is not just a weapon; it is a writer’s tool. Lucy uses it to compose letters and diary entries, acts of self-expression that define her identity separate from her sister. When Sarah uses the pen to blind herself, she interrupts Lucy’s power of articulation. The pen becomes a bridge between the two sisters: it belongs to Lucy but is taken by Sarah in a moment of crisis. Later, Lucy herself becomes the instrument of eye gouging with her bare hands, no longer needing an object. This progression suggests that Lucy has internalized the capacity for violent action that the pen once represented. Writing — and the identity it constructs — is replaced by physical force.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Sarah use the silver pen specifically to stab her own eye, rather than any other object?

Sarah is in the grip of a hallucination or possession. She has been screaming about getting “it” out of her head. The pen is the sharp object closest to her, having fallen from Lucy’s hand. Its status as a writing implement owned by Michael (who is both Sarah’s husband and Lucy’s lover) adds symbolic weight. Penetrating the eye — the organ of sight and perception — is an attempt to excise the entity that she believes is inside her skull. The eye is the seat of the self in many traditions, and destroying it may be an effort to destroy the self that has been invaded.

2. How does the motif of eye gouging connect to the theme of parasitism in the novel?

The entity is repeatedly compared to a parasite: a fungus that takes over an ant, a tick that drinks blood. A parasite often enters through openings of the body or alters the host’s behavior. The eye is a vulnerable orifice. Sarah’s self-gouging is a desperate attempt to remove the parasite. Later, Lucy’s blinding of Michael mimics the parasitic takeover: she uses his own vulnerability (his trust in her touch) to commit violence. The eye gouging becomes a way to physically and symbolically remove or neutralize a parasite — whether supernatural or human.

3. In what ways does Lucy’s eye gouging of Michael parallel or invert Sarah’s earlier action?

Both actions involve thrusting something into an eye (a pen / thumbs), but the roles are reversed. Sarah acts on her own body; Lucy acts on another’s. Sarah is driven by terror and loss of control; Lucy acts with cold calculation. Sarah’s action fails to expel the entity; Lucy’s successfully kills Michael. The parallel emphasizes that violence can take many forms — self-harm versus outward aggression — and both sisters are capable of extreme measures to protect themselves and each other. The inversion also shows Lucy’s development from passive witness to active agent.

4. The pen is a gift from Michael and is later used in his destruction. What does this suggest about objects and power?

The pen represents Michael’s control over Lucy — he gave it as a birthday gift, and she treasured it. But its use as a weapon of self-destruction by Sarah subverts that gift. The object ceases to be a symbol of affection and becomes a tool of agony. Then, when Lucy kills Michael with her own hands (not the pen), she discards the literal object and relies on her own body. This progression suggests that true power cannot be bestowed by another; it must be claimed through action. The pen, once a token of male patronage, is replaced by Lucy’s own physical agency.

Conclusion

The silver pen and the motif of eye gouging in Blood on Her Tongue are central to understanding the novel’s meditation on identity, autonomy, and resistance. The destruction of eyes — organs of perception and windows to the soul — signals a rupture in the characters’ sense of self. Sarah loses her eye and her blink reflex, becoming a vessel for the entity. Lucy blinds Michael and in doing so seizes control of her own story. The pen itself transitions from a symbol of communication to one of violence, and finally to an object discarded in favor of the body’s own capacity for action. Together, these moments form a cohesive symbolic network that deepens the novel’s gothic horror.

For further exploration, see the full book analysis and related themes: sisterhood and codependency, madness and social control, parasitism and identity, moral compromise and violence, female desire and agency.