One of the secrets being kept from the readers in this story is whether or not Ray has been telling us the truth or not. To me, while reading this story I was a little unsure to if he was telling the truth. He sounded a bit believable for a while when he was telling Una that he told the lady he was seeing the whole story about the two of them. He later confessed that he lied and he really did not tell her anything for he didnt want to ruin what they have. To me this was the turning point, it proved to me that he did not have trouble or remorse for lieing. It made me quesiton the rest of the book.
Comparing this to another secret, Ray was telling Una that she was special and he had such strong feelings for her and she was mature for her age. In the last couple pages of the book quotes "The door opens and a Girl of twelve enters". This other secret (is he with this girl too?) makes us question the words that come out of Rays mouth.
This secret is very significant because if we knew the answer to it, we would know that answer to the entire book. This secret is what makes the book. If we knew the answer there wouldnt be any secrets.
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I agree. I don't think the story would be nearly as interesting without all of the secrets. The secrets are what make it captivate the reader/audience want to find out what happens next.
I also agree with you about the turning point--up until then I had mostly believed everything Ray said, but after he revealed that he actually hadn't told his girlfriend about their former relationship, everything became much different. He was no longer a trustworthy narrator at all, and from that point forward I doubted everything he said.
Harrower wrote Blackbird in such a way that there is no real way to ever find out what happened, and that's what makes it such a fascinating play.
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