Margaret Atwoods Surfacing Essay - 1293 Words

Margaret Atwoods Surfacing Throughout the book the narrator constantly intertwines the past and present as though it is side by side. Atwood shows this in the opening sentence ‘’I can’t believe I’m on this road again’’. The use of the adjective ‘again’ reveals the narrator has been in this place in an earlier life. The narrator seems to repress a lot of her past and continuously contradicts herself, which at times confuses the reader as we can not tell whether she is talking about her past or her present and whether she regards it as home as she says ‘’Now were on home ground foreign territory’’. This links in with one of the key divisions in the story between the Americans and the Canadians that is portrayed throughout†¦show more content†¦This links in with when the narrator says â€Å"I never identified it as mine† and â€Å"all the time it was in me I felt like an incubator†, as a mother she should not be feeling this way suggesting she lacks the emotional intelligence as a nurturer and a lover, which is ironic as later we find she never actually gave birth to this child. Another key point of the narrators division from her emotion is when she refers to her child as ‘†it†. This impersonal singular pronoun reiterates the protagonist’s lack of sentiment. This also links in with chapter 3 as the narrator reveals her relationship with Joe as predominantly sexual â€Å"cool he called it, was the way I took off my clothes and put them on again later very smoothly as if I wee feeling no emotion† reiterating her lack of emotion/affection. In chapter three we see the conflict between the two languages of French and English starting to arise. On page twenty we see the first utterance occurring when the waitress in the restaurants utters â€Å"Amburger† impersonating the protagonist’s English dialect. The narrator then states â€Å"This is border country†. In this simple sentence it is clear to see the notion of division twenty protagonist holds. The protagonist seems to be somewhat paranoid as to whether she belongs in this place. Again on page t we see the narrator being placed in a paradoxical position when she thinks â€Å"if you live in a place you should speak the language. But this isn’t where IShow MoreRelated Quest for Self-Identity in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing and The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath2136 Words   |  9 Pagesthat there was still much work to be done. This paper is an attempt to have a closer look at famous novels Surfacing by a Canadian women writer Margaret Atwood and The Bell Jar by an American women writer Sylvia Plath, Even though Surfacing, is the work of a Canadian Ecofeminist a novelist who played a crucial role in forming the Canadian literary canon and Atwood’s novel Surfacing was published in 1972. But The Bell Jar is American writer and poet Sylvia Plaths only novel, which was originallyRead More The Wilderness in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing, Mary Austin’s Land of Little Rain, and Gary Snyder’s2524 Words   |  11 Pagesin Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing, Mary Austin’s Land of Little Rain, and Gary Snyder’s The Practice of the Wild Journeys into the wilderness test far more than the physical boundaries of the human traveler. Twentieth century wilderness authors move beyond the traditional travel-tour approach where nature is an external diversion from everyday life. Instead, nature becomes a catalyst for knowing our internal wilderness and our universal connections to all living things. In Margaret Atwood’s SurfacingRead MoreBiography of Margaret Atwood Essay example1511 Words   |  7 Pages Female writes most of the time focused their stories in experiences or personal point of view on what is going on around them. Other women write fiction of unusual worlds and character that people can relate to with the struggle or experiences. Margaret Atwood the â€Å"Canadian nationalist poetess is a prominebt figure concerned with the need for a new language to explore relations between subjects and societyâ€Å" (Omid, Pyeaam 1). Atwood wrote her first novel called, â€Å"The Edible Woman†; this first novelRead MoreEssay on The Malignant American in Surfacing1440 Words   |  6 PagesThe Malignant American in Surfacing   Ã‚  Ã‚   Before traveling through Europe last summer, friends advised me to avoid being identified as an American.   Throughout Europe, the term American connotes arrogance and insensitivity to local culture.   In line with the foregoing stereotype, the unnamed narrators use of the term American in Margaret Atwoods Surfacing is used to describe individuals of any nationality who are unempathetic and thus destructive.   The narrator, however, uses the word in theRead More Fall of Man Depicted in Atwoods Backdrop Addresses Cowboy Essay1086 Words   |  5 Pages Fall of Man Depicted in Atwoodsnbsp; Backdrop Addresses Cowboynbsp;nbsp; The sexual politics of the man-woman relationship, or more specifically the sexual exploitation of women by men, is a clear concern in Margaret Atwoods Backdrop Addresses Cowboy. Although the oppressor-as-male theme is by no means an original source of poetic inspiration, Atwoods distinction is that she views the destructive man-woman relationship as a metaphor for, symptom and symbol of, bigger things. From theRead MoreSurfacing by Margaret Atwood Essay1086 Words   |  5 PagesSurfacing by Margaret Atwood In Surfacing, by Margaret Atwood, the unnamed protagonist acquires a radical perception of reality that is developed through an intense psychological journey on the island that served as her childhood home. Truth can be taken from the narrators viewpoint, but the reader must explore the inner turmoil plaguing her in order to understand the basis of such beliefs. The narrators perception of reality can be deemed reliable once all of these factors are understood;Read MoreThe Life and Works of Margaret Atwood614 Words   |  2 PagesAn Examination the Life and Works of Margaret Atwood Born on November 18, 1939, Margaret Eleanor Atwood was raised by Carl Edmund and Margaret Dorothy Atwood (â€Å"Atwood, Margaret 1939-.† Concise Major 21st Century Writers). Born in Ottawa and raised in Toronto she spent the larger part of her youth in Canada (â€Å"Atwood, Margaret (1939-).†Gothic Literature: A Gale Critical Companion). As a young child she was raised in an intellectually stimulating environment and was encouraged to pursue a life inRead More The Black and White World of Atwoods Surfacing Essay2219 Words   |  9 PagesThe Black and White World of Atwoods Surfacing  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚   Many people elect to view the world and life as a series of paired opposites-love and hate, birth and death, right and wrong. As Anne Lamott said, it is so much easier to embrace absolutes than to suffer reality (104). This quote summarizes the thoughts of the narrator in Margaret Atwoods novel Surfacing.   The narrator, whose name is never mentioned, must confront a past that she has tried desperately to ignore (7). She sees herselfRead MoreFemale Dominance And How The Male Characters Within Atwood s Article1394 Words   |  6 PagesMargaret Atwood’s novel Surfacing consists of an unnamed heroine visiting her childhood home with three other friends, two of which are married to one another, Anna and David and Joe, the narrator’s boyfriend. As the narrator takes us through her experience, we learn a lot about the characters within the text. This essay will exclusively focus on male dominance and how the male characters within Atwood’s text appose thei r power upon the women in their lives and what allows them to do so. There areRead More Comparing the Feminine Quest in Surfacing and Song of Solomon3530 Words   |  15 PagesThe Feminine Quest in Surfacing and Song of Solomon      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Margaret Atwood in her novel Surfacing and Toni Morrison in her novel Song of Solomon require their heroines to pass through a stage of self-interpretation as a prerequisite for re-inventing the self.   This stage in the feminine journey manifests a critical act typically absent in the traditional male journey, and one that places Atwood and Morrisons heroines at odds with the patriarchal community.   If authors of feminine journeys