Feminism in Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye

2493 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Equality and justice for women

Feminism is defined as supporting the Equal Rights Amendment. Feminism interests in the “equality and justice for all women” and “seeks to eliminate systems of inequality and injustice” for all women (Shaw and Lee 10). The Equal Rights Amendment was presented into Congress in 1923 from the failure in referencing women and citizenship in the Fourteenth Amendment. If the Equal Rights Amendment passed, women would have the same equal rights as men. Women would also not be separated or singled out by other men. In the book Cat’s Eye, written by Margaret Atwood, Elaine Risley, who is the main character in the book, is an artist living within the Second World War to the late 1980’s, and participates in the modern art movement. Due to childhood bullying and being victimized by girls her age, Elaine’s adult life is different than others. In Cat’s Eye, Elaine finds her identity by going back in time willfully and accepting the past, along with the people, to embrace the women she was and is. Elaine is an independent woman artist. This independence eventually contributes the successes Elaine achieves as a painter. It does cause Elaine difficulty in interacting and founding relationships with other women. In spite of what she believes, Elaine’s symbolization of her isolated experiences in each of her paintings speaks to other women. Her artistic career proves that, through art, women artists can open up and be creative and create opportunities for themselves and other women. In the beginning of Cat’s Eye, Elaine returns to her previous hometown, Toronto Canada, after being called for a retrospective show of her artwork. According to spectators, Elaine’s paintings that she created are feminine, making Elaine a ... ... middle of paper ... ..., Alice. "What Little Girls Are Made Of." The New York Times. N.p., 5 Feb. 1989. Web. Osborne, Carol. “Constructing the Self through Memory: Cat’s Eye as a Novel of Female Development.” Frontiers 14.3 (1994):95. ProQuest. Web. Richelle, Lorren. "The Story Girl: Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood." The Story Girl: Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood. BlogSpot, 16 May 2011. Web. Sharpe, Martha. “Margaret Atwood and Julia Kristeva: Space-Time, the Dissident Women Artist, and the Pursuit of Female Solidarity in Cat’s Eye.” Essays on Canadian Writing.50 (1993): 174-189. ProQuest. Web. Shaw, Susan M., and Janet Lee. Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print. Vickroy, Laurie. “Seeking symbolic immortality: visualizing trauma in Cat’s Eye.” Mosaic [Winnipeg] 38.2 (2005): 129+. Academic OneFile. Web.

Show More
Related

  • Paper On Florence Mcclung

    294 Words  | 1 Pages

    During the 1940s and 1950s women artists were not always appreciated and seen as polished educated women artist. As an inspiring painter, printmaker and art teacher Florence McClung accomplished many awards in her life time, faced a difficult period of discrimination towards women artist, and faced exclusion by printmaker companies. On the other hand, McClung did not let anything impede her great achievements.

    Read More

  • The Hero Journey in Princess Bride

    975 Words  | 2 Pages

    Emerson, David. “Innocence as a super-power: little girls on the hero’s journey.” Mythlore 28.1-2 (2009): 13lt. Literature resource center.web.17oct.2013

    Read More

  • Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees: The Nature of Grief

    1715 Words  | 4 Pages

    Brown, Rosellen. “Honey Child.” Women’s Review of Books. Vol. 19. No. 7. Philadelphia: Old City Publishing. 2002. 11. Print.

    Read More

  • The Hero's Journey in The Maze Runner, by James Dashner

    1808 Words  | 4 Pages

    Emerson, David. "Innocence as a Super-power: Little Girls on the Hero's Journey." Literature Resource Center. Gale, n.d. Web.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Cassatt's The Child And Mother Nursing Her Child

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    Aristotle once claimed that, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” Artists, such as Louise-Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun and Mary Cassatt, captured not only the way things physically appeared on the outside, but also the emotions that were transpiring on the inside. A part no always visible to the viewer. While both artists, Le Brun and Cassatt, worked within the perimeters of their artistic cultures --the 18th century in which female artists were excluded and the 19th century, in which women were artistically limited-- they were able to capture the loving relationship between mother and child, but in works such as Marie Antoinette and Her Children and Mother Nursing her Child 1898,

    Read More

  • Analysis From Feminist/Gender Critic Of Book Wicked

    1930 Words  | 4 Pages

    One definition of gender is the membership of a word or grammatical form, or an inflectional form showing membership, in such a class. Gender critics take masculinity and feminism, as well as male and female, and use those theories to analyze writings. In books, or other writings, masculinity and feminism are used in order to describe how a character is seen by other characters. Feminism is the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men. It is also a feminine character. After the women’s rights movement, women began to write works and put in their own views and beliefs. This era became known as the feminist writing era. Women felt that by writing their feelings and then getting their works published, that people would see why women should be equal to men.

    Read More

  • Alice Neel Nude Analysis

    155 Words  | 1 Pages

    Alice Neel's most talked about painting, a Self-Portrait of herself, shocked the world when she painted herself in the nude at the age of 80-years-old. Neel, a 20th Century American Portrait Artist, painted models for over 50 years before turning the attention to herself (Tamara Garb). Neel wasn't a pinup girl and had depicted herself as the complete opposite (Jeremy Lewison). Unlike Neel, women avoided self-portraits of themselves, and nude self-portraits barely made it to canvas (Tamara Garb). Because of these reasons alone, Neel's Self-Portrait attracted scrutiny (Jeremy Lewison). Though Neel declared the painting to be frightful and indecent (Ibid), it still directed its focus on femininity, and the challenges women had to endure in our

    Read More

  • The Significance of Art in Chopin's The Awakening

    887 Words  | 2 Pages

    Edna seeks occupational freedom in art, but lacks sufficient courage to become a true artist. As Edna awakens to her selfhood and sensuality, she also awakens to art. Originally, Edna “dabbled” with sketching “in an unprofessional way” (Chopin 543). She could only imitate, although poorly (Dyer 89). She attempts to sketch Adèle Ratignolle, but the picture “bore no resemblance” to its subject. After her awakening experience in Grand Isle, Edna begins to view her art as an occupation (Dyer 85). She tells Mademoiselle Reisz that she is “becoming an artist” (Chopin 584). Women traditionally viewed art as a hobby, but to Edna, it was much more important than that. Painting symbolizes Edna’s independence; through art, she breaks free from her society’s mold.

    Read More

  • From Poverty to Fame: Biography of Louisa May Alcott

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    Weisgall, Deborah. “The Mother of All Girls’ Books.” The American Prospect. n.p. 11 June 2012. Web. 29 March 2014. .

    Read More

  • Harlem Dancer Poem Analysis

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Rossetti’s poem “In an Artist’s Studio”, she illustrates a man in the art studio surrounded around his canvases. On each of his canvases, he has painted the same woman in different positions, as depicted in, “One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans” (Rossetti 104). This man continuously paints the same women, each time depicting her differently as demonstrated, “A saint, and angel…” (Rossetti 104). Similarly, in McKay’s poem he illustrates for the readers, a dark skinned, half clothed woman dancing. Both of these poems focus on how men view women, and how men idealize women for their beauty, or some other desirable part of them. Both of these poets express that men do not appreciate the wholeness and complexity of both of these women. McKay’s idealized woman is also a woman of colour, which may lead into a discussion of race gender, and sexuality. In Rossetti’s poem, the artist “feeds upon” (Rossetti 104) the object of his affection, “not as she is, but as she fills his dreams” (Rossetti 104). Also, McKay’s narrator idealizes her physical beauty and describes how everyone “devoured” her beauty, even though “her self was not in that strange place” (McKay 18). The main difference is that McKay’s narrator sees his desired woman as having “grown lovelier for passing through a storm” (McKay 18), whereas Rossetti’s artist uses his art to wash away the pain-and by extension, the

    Read More

  • Religion as a Gothic Element in American Romanticism

    1697 Words  | 4 Pages

    Bradstreet, Anne. "To My Dear Children." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: Norton & Company, 1999. 144-147.

    Read More

  • Different Illustrations of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

    989 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the story, Alice is a seven-year-old girl. John Tenniel illustrates Alice to fit her age group exactly. He draws her as a tiny little girl with big innocent eyes. However, one point that could be discussed with children is how some portrays of Alice seem to look older than seven years of age, for ins...

    Read More

  • Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour and Feminism in the 1800s

    1313 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, feminism is defined as the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism is a major part of the short story, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, which is a story that portrays women’s lack of freedom in the 1800s. Women had no rights, and had to cater to all of their husband’s needs. The main character in “The Story of an Hour” is a woman who suffers from heart trouble, named Mrs. Mallard. When Mrs. Mallard was told about her husband’s death, she was initially emotional, but because of her husband’s death, she reaped freedom and became swept away with joy.

    Read More

  • In An Artist's Studio By Christina Rossetti Summary

    1170 Words  | 3 Pages

    Christina Rossetti's poem, “In An Artist’s Studio”, explores how men foster a need for control by creating unrealistic expectations for women through their fantasies. Through the use of repetition, contrast of imagery, and symbolism, Rossetti guides us through the gallery inside of an artist’s mind, portraying the fantasies that give him a sense of control over the women he creates.

    Read More

  • The Harmful Effect of Feminism

    1409 Words  | 3 Pages

    Feminism is defined as the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. It began as an organized activity on behalf of women?s rights and interests. This concept was developed to help women earn a place in a predominantly male society. Unfortunately over the years, the intentions of feminism have become distorted, not only by anti-feminists, but also by the feminists themselves. The principle of equality for women and men has turned into a fight in which feminists wish to be better than men. Feminism has been twisted and misunderstood so much that it has become a harmful idea.

    Read More

More about Feminism in Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye

Open Document