Margaret Atwood's '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 the book.
This paradoxical declarative reveals that the protagonist feels she
should belong there but feels detached from this childhood place,
suggesting she may feel alienated from this place revealing something
oppressive about this home ground. Also David is the key person who
emphasizes this division between the Americans and Canadians. On page
three David stresses ‘’Bloody fascist pig Yanks’’, reiterating the
stereotypical Canadian disliking of the Americans, using his usual
hostile, aggressive language. Ironically David seems to be the
fascist pig being the unpleasant chauvinistic pig. The use of the
adjective ‘foreign’ links in with the division of language between
French and English that we see later in the book.
In chapter 2 we see that there is a clear division between the
narrator and any emotions. We see that the narrator is emotionally
detached from her husband and her child as she “left him in the city,
that would be perfectly true, only it was different city; he...
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...ust them, I can’t think
of anyone else I like better, but right now I wish they weren’t
here”. This shows that the narrator is showing her regrets for
bringing them with her reiterating her distrust in them.
We also begin to see the narrators distrust in those who are closest
to her, her family. When she begins to reminisce on the past she
refers to her family with the third person pronoun “they” for example
when she says “they used to go over it as fast a possible” then later
realizes this mistake she is making and states “that won’t work, I
can’t call them ‘they’ as if they were somebody else’s family”.
However the tables are turned as we the readers begin to realize that
it is the protagonist that we are unable to trust. This is due to the
protagonist’s constant self contradictions and self corrections as she
says “my husband, my former husband”.
In the story “Incoming Tide” by Elizabeth Strout, one character haunted by the past, Kevin. Many readers overlook what happens in the past but it can certainly affect the future for a person. What happened in the past translates to a dark future for him. The past is a dark symbol that helps present the underlying mood of the story.
Often, when a story is told, it follows the events of the protagonist. It is told in a way that justifies the reasons and emotions behind the protagonist actions and reactions. While listening to the story being cited, one tends to forget about the other side of the story, about the antagonist motivations, about all the reasons that justify the antagonist actions.
Throughout the span of the book, Esther Greenwood slowly descends into madness. The first sign is her uncertainty with her future. Though she dreams of going to graduate school or traveling to Europe, Esther realizes that she doesn’t know what she wants to do; a discovery as shocking as meeting “some nondescript person” who “introduces himself as your real father” (Plath 32). Later when she’s at the UN, she realizes that she will lose all of her abilities once she leaves college, as she believes that the only skills she has is winning scholarships. She compares her current place in life as that of a fig tree, wanting all life paths given to her yet not taking any of them. Later, Esther goes to a country club where she has a rough encounter with Marco, a Peruvian man who attempts to rape her. Regardless of this instance, she continues to wear his blood afterwards viewing it “like a relic of a
At the age of 9, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with terminal cancer. In her book, The Autobiography of a Face, Grealy explains the hardships she faces throughout her journey and how she dealt with them. I would highly recommend this book to my classmates because it shows the atrocity of cancer, the importance of having a support system, and puts in perspective how the little things throughout society can mean so much when you're going through such trials and tribulations.
The Female Body by Margaret Atwood looks at the different ways the female body is viewed. She uses seven vignettes to show how the female body is viewed in the world. Additionally, she uses many rhetorical devices to reveal her perception of the fallacies associated with women.
A stereotype is a trap, a cage, which restricts individuals to one identity. Once a stereotype is created, it is hard to overcome and leaves traces of prejudice. In agreement with Alicia Ostriker’s The Thieves of Language: Women Poets and Revisionist Mythmaking, Margaret Atwood’s poem “Siren Song” is a reach out for women to express feelings on gender discrimination without coming across in a way that would engender negative support. “Siren Song”, is written from the perspective of a siren, in a mythological setting but with a contemporary tone, that is restricted to the stereotype of a seductress who seeks to sing men to their deaths but in reality, she wants to break free and find someone that will not fall for her song.
Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake is considered to be a world time dystopian masterpiece. Atwood presents an apocalyptic atmosphere through the novel’s antagonist, Crake, and protagonist, Jimmy/Snowman. She does this when Crake uses his scientific knowledge and wickedness to eliminate and recreate an entirely new society. “Future-Technology was envisioned as a way to easing the burden of life, and it was accepted that slavery would remain a tacit part of human existence until there would be some effective replacement for it, for until the shuttle would weave and the plectrum touch the lyre without a hand to guide them (bk.1, pt.4), there would be a need for the enslavement of other to ease life’s load” (DiMarco 172). Since there was a need for perfection for a better life it was always understood that there would have to be many occurring disasters in which led to the ending of the human race. Through the presences of separation in social class to form a perfect community, the creation of perfect people (Crakers), and a society full of technology that allows humans to be free from diseases has warned readers of the possible outcome of the novel. The idea of a perfect everything foreshadows the future toward an end in civilization after recreation.
Trace the development of the bullying. How convincing are the situation and Elaine's feelings are portrayed.
In a world dominated by religion it was thought that the only place where perfection existed was within God. In some cases, for instance the ontological argument, it was the proof to his existence. But in a modern world the concept of perfection has been distorted and comes with an abundance of seemingly negative consequences, ultimately putting into question whether or not perfection is even possible. In Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake the concept of perfection is constantly challenged in a world run by corporations who are trying to package human perfection and profit from it. The desire and attempt towards attaining perfection brings moral instability and corruption. Even though perfection seems as if it is the ultimate and most excellent way to live, it is always accompanied with negative results making true perfection unattainable. As previously mentioned, the society that is most present in the novel is run by large corporations that attempt to provide a perfect life for the people within the Compounds. The corporations are riddled with immoral actions that are projected onto the lives of the people they are trying to provide for. Jimmy, on the other hand, lacks this desire for perfection and is pleased with his mediocrity; this level of being content with himself allows him to feel and exercise more valuable traits like empathy. Finally, through the novel Crake is slowly trying to grasp at, or create perfection and he is slowly losing his moral grounding. What seems to be a positive goal for man to have is actually the opposite, causing men to lose what makes them most different from animals, leaving them cruel and ruthless.
Margaret Mitchell’s epic tale is impossible to dissolve down to a “brief” description. Her story is the War and Peace of Southern Literature. It is a tale of extremes and contrasts, telling the tragic story of peaceful affluence destroyed by the ravages of war and the destitution and desolation of its aftermath. It is a love story that examines the motivations of the heart contrasted against the will to survive. It is a story of the destruction of an aristocratic society and its disintegration from nobility, honor and hope to humility, disgrace and despair. It is a historical novel and graphic retelling of the Civil War and the Reconstruction of the South as well as a journal of the human side of those events as it recounts the characters struggles to adapt as their lives and their world crumbles. Gone with the Wind is a literary classic that gives the reader a compelling history wrapped in a thrilling romance. Mitchell recreates an idyllic Antebellum Society complete with simpering Southern Belles and Noble Gentlemen, grand plantations and vast fields of cotton, privileged white land-owners contrasted against the poverty of captive black slaves. She details a horrific reenactment of the bloody clash between the Southern Rebels and the Northern Yankees, then like the Phoenix, she raises the South from its own ashes to a new, but very different way of life. Somehow in this rich and vibrant historical tale she manages to bring her equally rich and vibrant character’s lives along the same metaphorical path of affluence, destruction and survival in a mesmerizing account that is the stuff of legend.
her. Throughout the text, Ondaatje mixes flashes of Hana’s past into the narrative through other
How does one go about discovering the veiled mysteries of oneself? First and foremost, what is the self? The self is who we are as an individual. It is the ethics, beliefs, values, opinions, thoughts, actions and everything that one does. Knowing oneself is also knowing what one desires out of life, ones goals and aspirations. External appearances have very little to do with the self.
story, a story she could not have told if she was dead. It is also
Rape Fantasies by Margaret Atwood "Rape Fantasies" was written by Margaret Atwood in 1977. Basically, this short story is about the narrator, named Estelle, recalling a conversation between several women during their lunch hour. It starts with one of Estelle's co-workers, asking the question 'How about it, girls, do you have rape fantasies? ' (pg 72) The story goes on with each woman telling their supposed 'rape fantasy' to one another.
My eyes were caught by the title "rape fantasy" at the first time I saw this essay because it was so sensitive that most people are not willing to talk about it. After finish reading this novel, Estelle and her six fantasies gave me deep impression.