An Analysis Of Cat's Eye

Cat’s Eye, by Margaret Atwood tells the story of painter who returns to Toronto for a retrospective of her art. The protagonist and narrator, Elaine Risley delves into her childhood through a series of flashbacks to show the true motives behind her art and rediscover parts of her identity from an older and wiser point of view.

For first eight years of her life, Elaine Risley lived a nomadic lifestyle with her parents. When her father, and entomologist, accepts a job to work as a professor at a university, the family moves to Toronto. Everything is new to Elaine: school, sitting at a desk, straws, and especially real girls. Since her brother does not want to be teased for having a younger sister, Elaine is on her own. At first it is difficult

Finestein, Miss Stuart, and Mr. Banerji. These three people all faced persecution. Mrs. Finestein, Elaine’s Jewish neighbor, faced the horrors of World War II. Miss Stuart, Elaine’s former teacher, was exiled from Scotland. Mr. Banerji was an Indian student of her father’s.

One Wing, a painting of two airplanes and a man falling with no parachute, holding a wooden sword, is for Elaine’s brother, done after he died. “This is the kind of thing [Elaine and her brother] do, to assuage pain” (446). This painting shows that Elaine wants to remember her brother, like the brother she grew up with- smart, wild, curious.

Cat’s Eye is a “self-portrait, of sorts” (446). It contains Elaine’s face from the upper half of the nose up. Behind the head, a pier glass hangs in which part of her hair, younger hair, is visible in addition to three small figures in the snow. This painting represents Elaine’s identity as a child. Her half face shows uncertainty, her uncertainty of who she was. Although cat’s eye was what her marble was called, there is no marble in the painting. However, when looking at the marble, Elaine sees her “life entire” (434). The painting also shows her entire life, as it includes and older Elaine and a young