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Reconstructing Margaret Atwood's Protagonists

Author(s): Patricia F. Goldblatt
Reviewed work(s):
Source: World Literature Today, Vol. 73, No. 2, On Contemporary Canadian Literature(s)
(Spring, 1999), pp. 275-282
Published by: Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma
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Reconstructing MargaretAtwood's Protagonists

To construct:

to build;tofabricate;to deviseor invent.

To RECONSTRUCT:
to rebuild.

By PATRICIAF. GOLDBLATT A weaver employsfragments

from life, silk,
raw yarns, wool, straw, perhaps even a few twigs,
stones, or feathers,and transformsthem into a tapestryof color, shape, and form. An author'swork is
similar, for she selects individuals, locations, images, and ideas, rearrangingthem to createa believable picture.Each smacksof reality,but is not. This
is the artist's art: to reconstructthe familiar into
new, fascinating,but often disturbingtableauxfrom
which storiescan unfold.
MargaretAtwood weaves stories from her own
life in the bush and cities of Canada.Intenselyconscious of her political and social context, Atwood
dispels the notion that caribou-cladCanadiansremain perpetuallylocked in blizzardswhile simultaneously seeming to be a polite mass of gray faces,
often indistinguishablefrom their Americanneighbors. Atwood has continuallypondered the lack of
an identifiable Canadian culture. For over thirty
years her work has aided in fashioning a distinct
Canadian literary identity. Her critical catalogue
and analysis of Canadian Literature,Survival, offered "a political manifesto telling Canadians . . .
[to] value their own" (Sullivan,265). In an attempt
Atwood has poputo focus on Canadianexperiences,
lated her storieswith Canadiancities, conflicts, and
contemporarypeople, conscious of a landscape
whose bordershave been permeatedby the frost of
Nature, her colonizers and her neighbors.Her examinationof how an individualinteracts,succeeds,
or stagnateswithinher world speaksto an emerging
a sense of self and often parallelsthe battles fought
to establishself-determination.
In her novels, MargaretAtwood createssituations
in which women, burdened by the rules and inequalitiesof their societies, discoverthat they must
reconstructbraver,self-reliantpersonaein order to
survive.Not too far from the Canadianblueprintof
Patricia F. Goldblatt, afterreceivingher doctoratein 1996,
has had her shortstories,book reviews,and longerarticleson literatureand multiculturalstudiespublishedin the United States
(EnglishJournal, MulticulturalReview, Journal of Education), England (MulticulturalTeaching), Canada (English Quarterly,Journal
of the Canadian Societyfor Education ThroughArt, Canadian Women's Studies), and Korea (Asian Journal of Women'sStudies).

the voyageurfaced with an inclement, hostile environment,these women struggleto overcomeand to

change systemsthat block and inhibittheir security.
Atwood'spragmaticwomen are drawnfromwomen
in the 1950s and 1960s: young women blissfully
building their trousseausand imagininga paradise
of silverbells and picketfences.
Yet the author herself was neither encumbered
nor restrictedby the definition of contemporary
femalein her life as a child. Having grown up in the
Canadian North, outside of societal propaganda,
she could criticallyobservethe behaviorsthat were
indoctrinatedinto her urban peers who lacked diverse role models. As Atwood has noted, "Not even
the artisticcommunityofferedyou a viablechoice as
a woman" (Sullivan,103). Her storiesdeal with the
transformationof female charactersfrom ingenues
to insightfulwomen. By examiningher heroes, their
predators,and how they cope in society,we will discover where Atwood believes the ability to reconstructour lives lies.
Who are the victims? "But pathos as a literary
mode simply demands that an innocent victim suffer"

(Sv, 75). Unlike Shakespeare'shubris-ladenkings

or Jane Austen's pert and private aristocratic
landowningfamilies, MargaretAtwood relies on a
collection of ordinarypeople to carryher tales:university students, museum workers, market researchers, writers, illustrators, and even housemaids. In her novels, almost all dwell on their
childhoodyears in flashbackor in the chronological
telling of their stories. Many of her protagonists'
early days are situated in a virtualGardenof Eden
setting, repletewith untamednaturalenvironments.
Exploring shorelines, gazing at stars, gathering
rocks, and listeningto waves, they are solitarysouls,
but not lonely individuals:innocent, curious, and
affablecreatures.Elaine Risley in Cat'sEye and an
unnamednarratorin Surfacingare two women who
recall idyllic days unfolded in a land of lakes,
berries, and animals. Offred in The Handmaid's
Tale, in her city landscape, also relates a tale of a
happy childhood. She is a complacentand assured
child, her mother a constant loving companion.In
their comfortablemilieus, these girls intuit no danger.

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276

WORLDLITERATURE
TODAY

However, other Atwood protagonistsare not as

fortunate.Their backgroundssuggest an unhealthy,
weedy soil that causes their young plants to twist
and permutate. Lady Oracle'sJoan is overweight.
Her domineering,impatient mother and her weak
fatherpropelher to seek emotionalsatisfactionaway
from them. Lesje in LifeBeforeMan is the offspring
of dueling immigrant grandmotherswho cannot
agreeon the child'sproperupbringing.Not allowed
to frequentthe Ukrainian"golden church with its
fairytaleonion" (LBM, 93) of the one, or the synagogue of the other, Lesje is unable to develop selfconfidence and focuses instead on the inanimate,
the solid traditionsof rocks and dinosaurs as her
progenitors. Similarly, the females in The Robber
Briderevealmiserablechildhoodsunited by parental
abuse, absence,and disregard:Roz must performas
her mother's helper, a landlady cum cleaning
woman;her fatheris absent,involvedin shadydealings in "the old country."Charis,a second character in The RobberBride, abandonedby her mother
and depositedwith Aunt Vi and Uncle Vern, is sexuallyviolatedby those who should have offeredlove
and trust.Toni, the thirdof the trio, admitsto loneliness and alienation in a well-educated, wealthy
family.Markedby birth and poverty,Grace Marks,
an Irishimmigrantin the early 1800s in Alias Grace,
loses her mother en route to Canada. Grace is almost drownedby the demands of her drunkenfather and clinging,needy siblings.These exiled little
girls,fromweak, absent,or cruelfamilies,made vulnerableby their earlysituations,cling to the notion
that their lives will be improvedby the arrivalof a
kind stranger,most likelya handsomesuitor.Rather
than becoming recalcitrantand cynical, all sustain
the golden illusion of the fairy-taleending. In short,
they hold to the belief, the myth perpetratedby society:marriage.
Atwood's women are cognizantof the nurturing
omissions in their environments.They attempt to
cultivateand cope. Charis in The RobberBridedecides to reinventherself.She changesher name and
focuses on what she considers her healing powers
inherited from her chicken-raisinggrandmother.
She, Roz, and Toni turn their faith to the power of
friendship,a solid ring that lessens the painful lack
of supportivefamilies. In Alias GraceGrace's burden of an absent family is briefly alleviatedby her
friendshipwith anotherhousemaid,Mary Whitney.
Mary takes an adoring Grace under her wing and
createsfor Gracea fleetingvision of sisterlysupport.
Unfortunately for Grace, Mary herself, another
trustingyoung woman, is deceived by her employer's son and dies in a botched abortion, leaving
Graceonce againabandonedand friendless.
In an attempt to reestablish stable, satisfying
homes, these women pursue a path, as have women

throughouthistory, to marriage.They search for a

male figure, imagininga refuge. Caught up in the
romantic stereotypes that assign and perpetuate
genderroles, each girl does not doubt that a man is
the solutionto her problems.
In TheEdibleWomanMarianand her co-workers
at Seymour Surveys, "the office virgins,"certainly
do not question that marriagewill provide fulfillment. In spite of the fact that Marianis suspended
between two unappealingmen, she does not deviate
from theproperbehavior.Marian'ssuitor,Peter,with
his well-chosen clothes and suave friends, his perfectly decoratedapartment,and even Marianas the
appropriatemarriagechoice, is renderedas no more
than the wedding cake's blanklysmiling ornament.
If appearanceis all, he should suffice.Peter is juxtaposed to the slovenly, self-centeredgraduate student, Duncan, whose main pleasureis watchinghis
laundry whirl in the washing machine. Marian is
merelya blankslate upon which each man can write
or erasehis concept of female.
The narratorand her friend Anna, in Surfacing,
are also plagued by moody men who are not supportiveof women's dreams.In one particularlyhorrifying scene, Anna's husband Dave orders her to
strip off her clothes for the movie camera. Anna,
humiliated by the request, nevertheless complies.
She admits to nightly rapes but rationalizeshis behavior:"He likes to make me cry because he can't
do it himself" (S/, 80). Similarly,whenJoe, the narrator'sboyfriend,proposes,"We should get married
... we might as well" (56), he is dumbfoundedand
furious at her refusal. Men aware of the role they
play accept their desirabilityas "catches."They believe that women desirelives of "babiesand sewing"
(LO, 159). These thoughtsare parrotedby Peter in
TheEdibleWomanwhen he proclaims,"Peoplewho
aren'tmarriedget funny in middle age" (EW, 102).
Men uphold the valuesof the patriarchyand women
conform, few trespassinginto gardensof their own
design.
In Alias GraceGrace's aspirationsfor a brighter
future also dwell on finding the right man: "It was
the custom for young girls in this country to hire
themselvesout, in orderto earn the money for their
dowries, and then they would marry . . . and one
day ... be mistress of a tidy farmhouse"(AG,
157-58). In the employmentof Mr. Thomas Kinnear in Richmond Hill, Grace quickly ascertains
that the handsome,dark-hairedhousekeeper,Nancy
Montgomery,enjoys many privilegesas the reward
for being her master'smistress.Yet, althoughmen
may be the only way to elevate status, Grace learns
that they cannot be trustedwhen their advancesare
rejected.Grace, on trial for the murdersof Kinnear
and Montgomery,is incredulouswhen she hears a
formerfriend,JamieWelsh, testifyagainsther.

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GOLDBLATT
Then I was hoping for some token of sympathy from
him; but he gave me a stare filled with such reproach
and sorrowful anger. He felt betrayed in love. ... I was
transformed to a demon and he would do all in his
power to destroy me. I had been counting on him to
say a good word for me ... for I valued his good opinion of me, and it was a grief to lose it. (AG, 360)

Women, it seems, must be made malleableto men's

desires, accepting their proposals, their advances.
They must submit to their sociallydeterminedroles
or be seen as "demons."

277

She learnstheir torturedsecrets and uses their confidences to spirit away the men each woman believes to be the cornerstonein her life.
From little girls to sophisticated women, Atwood's protagonists have not yet discerned that
trust can be perverted,that they can be reeled in,
taken advantageof, constantly abused, if they are
not carefulof lurkingpredatorsin their landscapes.
Joan in Lady Oracle,longing for friendship,endures
the inventivetormentsof her Browniefriends:deadly ploys that tie little girls to trees with skipping

I
|
a

Margaret Atwood

However, it is not only men but also women as

agents of society who betray. In The RobberBride
Charis,Roz, and Toni are trickedin theirfriendship
by Zenia, an acquaintance from their university
days. Each succumbsto Zenia'sweb of deceit. Playing the part of a confidanteand thoughtfullistener,
Zenia encouragesthe three women to divest themselves of their tales of their traumaticchildhoods.

ropes, exposing them to strangeleering men under

cavernousbridges. Her assassinsjeer, "How do ya'
like the club?"(LO, 59). Elaine Risleyin Cat'sEye,
like Joan, is a young girl when she discovers the
power of betrayalby membersof her own sex. For
years she passively succumbs to their games. Perhaps, because she has grownup alone in the Canadian North with her parents and brother, Elaine

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278

TODAY
WORLDLITERATURE

seeksthe warmingsocietyof girls. Only when Elaine

is deserted, left to freeze in a disintegratingcreek,
does she recognizeher peers' malevolencethat almost leads to her death. Elaine knows that she is a
defeated human, but rather than confrontingher
tormentors, she increases her own punishment
nightly:she peels the skin off her feet and bites her
lips.
Unable to turn outwardin a society that perpetuates the ideal of a submissivefemale, these women
turn inwardto theirbodies as shields or ploys. Each
has learned that a woman is a commodity, valued
only for her appearance.Thereforeit comes as no
surprisethat Atwood's protagonistsmeasure their
worth in terms of body. Joan in Lady Oraclesees
herself as "a huge shapeless cloud" (LO, 65); she
drifts.However,her soft edges do not keep her from
the bruising accusations of society. Although she
loves to dance, Joan'sbulgingbody is an affrontto
her mother and ballet teacher'ssensibilities,and so
at her ballet recital she is forced to perform as a
mothball,not as a butterflyin tulle and spangles.
Joan certainlydoes not fit her mother'sdefinition
of femininity.Because her ungainlyshape is rejected, Joan decides to hide her form in a mountain of
fat, food serving as a constant to her mother's reproaches: "I was eating steadily, doggedly, stubbornly, anythingI could get. The war between myself and my motherwas on in earnest:the disputed
territory was my body" (LO, 67). Interestingly,
Joan's loving, supportive,and also fat aunt Louisa
bequeathsto Joan an inheritancewith the stipulation that she lose one hundredpounds. Atwoodherself was fascinatedby transformationsin fairy stories: a person could not become a swan and depart
the dreaded scene that mocked the tender aspirations of an awkwardingenue in real life; she could,
however, don a new mask and trick those people
who had previouslyprofferedharm.
In TheEdibleWomanMarian'sbody is also a battlefield. Unable to cope with her impending marriageto Peter, Marianfinds herselfunable to ingest
any food that was once alive. Repulsedby her society's attitude of consumerism, Marian concludes
that her refusalto eat is ethical.However,her mind
and body have split away from each other. Her
mind's revulsionat a dog-eat-dog world holds her
body hostage: captive territorywhen a woman disagrees with her world. Marian "tri[es] to reason
with [her body], accusfing] it of having frivolous
whims." She coaxes and tempts, "but it was
adamant"(EW, 111). Marian'smind expressesher
disapprovalon the only level on which she possesses
control:ironically,herself.Her punishmentis circular: first, as a victim susceptible because she is a
woman subjectto her society's values; and second,
as a woman only able to command other women,

namely herself. Her sphereis so small she becomes

both victim and victimizer.
This view of a woman who connects and projects
her image of self onto her body also extends to the
functionsof a femalebody: the abilityto controllife
by givingbirth. Sarahin the story"The Resplendent
Quetzal"(1977) is drainedof all vitalityand desire
when her baby dies at birth. Her concept of identity
is entangled with her ability to produce a child.
When this biological function fails, Sarah's being
ebbs. Lesje in Life BeforeMan also observes that,
without children, "officiallyshe is nothing" (LBM,
267). Offred'sidentityand value as a childbeareras
well, in TheHandmaid'sTale>are proclaimedby her
clothes in her totalitariancity of Gilead. She is "two
viable ovaries" (HT, 135). She no longer owns a
name; she is "Of Fred," the concubine named for
the man who will impregnateher. Everystep, every
mouthfulof food, everymove is observed,reported,
circumvented,or approvedfor the sake of the child
she might carryto term. Her only worth resides in
her biologicalfunction. Her dreamsand desiresare
unimportant.Her goal is survival.
The women describedhere do not lash out openly. Each who once trusted in family, marriage,and
friendship discovers that treading societal paths
does not result in happiness. These disillusioned
women, with abortedexpectations,turn theirmisery
inward,acceptingresponsibilitythat not society and
its expectationsbut they themselves are weak, unworthy,and have thereforefailed.
Who has laid prey and why? "Sometimes
fear of
these obstaclesbecomesitself the obstacle"(Sv, 33). At-

wood's girlsare a vulnerablelot, manipulated,packaged, and devastatedby the familiarfaces in uncar-

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GOLDBLATT 279
ing, dictatorialcirclesthat reinforcesocietalimperatives. Those once free to roam and explore as children as well as those repressedfrom an earlyage are
subject to the civilizingforcesthat customize young
girls to the fate of females. Ironically,this process,
for the most part,is performedby mothers.
Mothers, rather than alleviatingtheir girls' distress, increase their children's alienation. When
Elaine'smotherin Cat'sEye venturesto discuss the
crueltyof Elaine'sfriends,her words do not fortify
Elaine; they admonish her: "Don't let them push
you around. Don't be spineless. You have to have
more backbone"(CE, 156). Fearingher weaknessis
comparableto the tiny crumblingbones of sardines,
Elaine maligns herself: "What is happening is my
own fault, for not having more backbone" (156).
Joan'smother in Lady Oracledoesn't mince words:
"Youwere stupid to let the other girls fool you like
that" (LO, 61). Instead of offering support, the
mothersblame their daughters,aligningthemselves
with the girls'accusers.
Mothers who themselveshave not found acceptance, success, or ease in society persistin transmitting the old messages of conformity.Joan's mother
in Lady Oracleis dumbfoundedthat "even though
she'd done the right thing, . . . devoted her life to
us, . . . made her familyher careeras she had been
told to do," she had been burdenedwith "a sulkyfat
slob of a daughterand a husbandwho wouldn'ttalk
to her" (LO, 179). Joan echoes her mother's complaintswhen she murmurs,"How destructiveto me
werethe attitudesof society"(102).
Even the work women do conspiresto maintain
the subjectionof their own kind. In her job, in The
EdibleWoman,Marianinvestigateswhat soups, laxatives,or drinkswill please and be purchased.Sanctioned female activitiesalso reinforcethe imposition
of correct values. In Surfacingand Cat's Eye little
girls are engrossed in cutting up pictures from
Eaton's catalogues that offer labor-savingdevices
along with fashionableclothes: children piece together a Utopia of dollhouse dreams. So brainwashedare these girls that when askedto indicatea
possiblejob or profession,they answer,"A lady"or
"A mother"(CE, 91).
In Cat's Eye Elaine Risley's mother does not fit
the stereotype.She wears pants, she ice skates, she
"does not give a hoot" (CE, 214) about the rules
that women are supposedto obey. Renderedimpotent as a role model in her daughter'seyes because
she does not abide by the Establishment'scode of
correct deportment,Elaine's mother is an outsider
to a woman'sworldthat captivatesElaine.
Instead of her own nonconforming mother,
Elaine is most deeply affected by the indictments
from her friend Grace Smeath's mother. Mrs.
Smeath, spread out on the sofa and covered with

afghans every afternoon to rest her bad heart,

damns Elaine for being a heathen: there is something very wrong with Elaine's family, who ignore
the protocol of properwomen's wear, summercity
vacations, and regular church attendance. Worse
yet, Mrs. Smeath,awareof the cruelgamesinflicted
on Elaine, does not intervene.Instead she invokes
deserved suffering when she decrees, "It's God's
punishmentfor the way the other childrentreather
[Elaine]. It serves her right" (CE, 180). With God
on her side, Mrs. Smeath relies on the Bible as the
oldest and surestway of prescribinga femaleidentity- and instillingfear.
In TheHandmaid'sTalethe Bible is likewisethe
chief source of female repression.Words are corrupted,perverted,or presentedout of context to establisha man's holy vision of women: Sarah'suse of
her handmaid,Hagar, as a surrogatewomb for an
heir for Abrahambecomes the legalizingbasis for
fornicationwith the handmaids.Acts of love are reduced to institutionalizedrapes,and randomacts of
violence,banishmentto slag heaps, publichangings,
endorsed public killings, bribery, deceit, and
pornographyall persist under other names in order
to maintaina pious hold on women endorsedby the
GileadFathers.
In spite of the fact that Gilead is praisedby its
creators as a place where women need not fear,
carefully chosen "aunts" persist in treacherythat
robs women of trust. To perpetuatethe status quo,
women are kept vulnerableand treatedas children:
girls must ask permission,dress in silly frocks, are
allowed no money, play no part in their own selfdetermination.Yet Atwood'sgirlstire of their rigidly enforced placement that would preserve some
outdatednotion of femaleacceptability.
The escape. "She feels the need for escape" (Sv,
131). After enduring, accepting, regurgitating,
denying, and attempting to please and cope, Atwood's protagonists begin to take action and change
their lives. Atwood herself, raised on Grimms'Fairy
Tales, knew that "by using intelligence, cleverness
and perseverance" (Sullivan, 36), magical powers
could transform a forest into a garden. However,
before realizing their possibilities, many of Atwood's
protagonists hit rock bottom, some even contemplating death as an escape. In Surfacingthe narrator,
fed up with the superficiality of her companions,
banishes them and submits to paranoia.
EverythingI can't break... I throwon the floor. ... I
take off my clothes ... I dip my head beneaththe water
... I leave my dung, droppingson the ground ... I
hollow a lairnearthe woodpile... I scrambleon hands
and knees ... I could be anything,a tree, a deer skeleton, a rock. (Sf, 177-87)

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280

WORLD LITERATURE TODAY

She descends to madness, stripping herself of all the

trappings of civilized society.
Although often consumed with thoughts of suicide in Cat's Eye and The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood's heroines never succumb. Instead they consciously assassinate their former identities through
ritual deaths by water. Joan in Lady Oracle orchestrates a baptism in Lake Ontario. Pretending to
drown, she relinquishes her former life. With sun-

glasses and scarf, she believes herself reborn, free to

begin anew in Italy. Elaine Risley, after her bonechilling encounter in the icy ravine in Cat's Eye, is
finally able to ignore the taunts of her friends. Resurrected after two days in bed, a stronger Elaine affirms that "she is happy as a clam, hard-shelled and
firmly closed" (CE, 201) against those who would
sabotage her; she announces, "I'm ready" (203).
Fortified by a new body image with a tougher veneer and a protective mask, Elaine no longer heeds
her former tormentors. She has sealed herself from
further outrage and invasion.
Marian's revelation in The Edible Woman is experienced at the precipice of a ravine, where she comments, "In the snow you're as near as possible to
nothing" (EW, 263). Perhaps the fear of becoming
one with the ubiquitous whiteness of the landscape
and forever losing herself motivates a stand. Similarly, Sarah in "The Resplendent Quetzal" forges a
more determined persona after her trial by water.
Instead of throwing herself into the sacrificial well in
Mexico as her husband Edward fears, she hurls a
plaster Christ child stolen from a creche into the
water. Believing the tribal folklore that young children take messages to the rain god and live forever
in paradise at the bottom of the well, Sarah pins her

hopes on a representative facsimile that she hopes

will bring her peace for her lost child in the next
world as well as rebirth, freeing herself from anxiety
and guilt regarding the child's death.
Rather than resorting to the cool, cleansing agent
of water, Grace Marks, the convicted murderess in
Alias Grace, reconstructs her life through stories of
her own invention. She fashions a creature always
beyond the pale of her listeners' complete comprehension. As told to Dr. Simon Jordan, who has
come to study Grace as a possible madwoman, her
story ensnares him in a piteous romance. Grace appears outwardly as a humble servant girl always at
peril from salacious employers; however, when
Grace ruminates in her private thoughts, she reveals
that she is worldly wise, knowing how to avoid bad
impressions and the advances of salesmen. She is
knowledgeable, stringing along Dr. Jordan: "I say
something just to keep him happy. ... I do not give
him a straight answer" (AG, 66, 98). After rambling
from employ to employ in search of security, Grace
constructs a home for herself in her stories. Her
words, gossamer thin, have the power to erect a
facade, a frame that holds her illusions together.
In an attempt to discover the missing parts and
prove the veracity of Grace's story, her supporters
encourage her to undergo a seance. Although she
recognizes Dr. Jerome Dupont, the man who will
orchestrate the event, as a former button peddler,
she does not speak out. When a voice emerges from
the hypnotized Grace, it proclaims, "I am not
Grace" (403). As listeners, we ponder the speaker's
authenticity. Just who our narrator might be, madwoman or manipulator, is cast into doubt. We can
only be sure that the young innocent who arrived on
Canada's shores penniless and motherless has been
altered by the necessity to cope with a destructive
hierarchical society unsympathetic to an immigrant
girl. Rather than persist and be tossed forever at the
whim of a wizened world, each saddened young girl
moves to reconstruct her tarnished image of her self.
How? "One way of coming to termsy making sense
of one's rootsy is to become a creator" (Sv, 181). At-

wood's victims who take control of their lives discover the need to displace societal values, and they
replace them with their own. In Lady Oracle Joan
ponders the film The Red Shoes, in which the moral
warns that if a woman chooses both family and career, tragedy ensues. Reflecting on childbirth, the
narrator in "Giving Birth" (1977) hopes for some
vision: "After all she is risking her life. . . . As for the
vision, there wasn't one" (GB, 252; italics mine).
Toni in The RobberBride and Grace Marks in Alias
Grace acknowledge that it is not necessary to procreate. Each is more than her body. A grown-up Elaine
Risley in Cat's Eye and the narrator in Surfacing ac-

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GOLDBLATT 281
cept motherhood,but not as an outcome of their
gender that will foreclose the possibilitiesof a creative job. In fact, Roz in The RobberBrideis quite
able to combine motherhood and a successful career. Dissatisfied with traditional knowledge, Atwood's women again turn inward, now avoiding
masochistic traps, fully able to deviate from society's dicta. Freed from constrainingfears, they locate talents,wings that free them.
Ratherthan becoming cynical and devastatedby
society's visions and its perpetrators, Atwood's
women forge on. Roz, Toni, and Charisin TheRobber Bride, who have been betrayed by Zenia, put
their faith back into friendship, allowing mutual
supportto sustainthem. It is solid; it has been tested. They have turned to one another, cried and
laughed, shared painful experiences,knowing that
their friendshiphas enduredin a labyrinthof twisted paths.
Offredin TheHandmaid'sTalealso begins to reshape her world. She envisionsa better place in her
thoughts, recording her words on tape. She has
hope. Consciously,she reconstructsher present reality, knowingshe is makingan effort to projectan
optimistic picture. She says, "Here is a different
story, a better one. . . . This is what I'd like to tell"
(HT, 234). She relatesthat her tryst with Nick the
chauffeur, arrangedby her commander'swife, is
caringand loving, enhancedby memoriesfrom her
earlierlife in orderto conjurean outcome of happiness. In the short story "HairJewellery"(1977) Atwood's narratoris an academic,a writerwho warns,
"Be careful.. . . Thereis a future"(113). With the
possibilityof a new beginning,there is a chance that
life can improve.In Alias GraceGrace'sfabrications
in her stories provide an escape hatch, a version of
realitytailoredto fit her needs. For both Offredand
Grace, stories are ways of rebelling,of avoidingthe
tentacles of a society that would demean and remold them. Their stories are outward masks, behind which they franticallyrepair their damaged
spirits. Each alters her world through language.
Each woman speaksa reconstructedworld into existence, herself the engineeringgod of her own fate.
Offred confides that handmaidslive in the spaces
and the gaps between their stories, in their private
silences: only alone in their imaginationsare they
free to controltheirown destinies.
However,Atwood'sprotagonistsinhabitnot only
their minds in secret, but also their bodies in the
outside world. Joan, after her disappearancefrom
Toronto in Lady Oracle,decides that she must return home and supportthe friendswho have aided
her disguise.In the past, just as she had wieldedher
bulk as a weapon, so she has used her writing in
order to resolve relationships.She has indulged in
Gothic romances, positing scenarios;she has even

playedout roles with loversin capes. In the end, she

rejectsher formercraftof subterfuge:"I won't write
any more Costume Gothics." Yet we must ponder
her choice to "trysome science fiction"(LO, 345).
Although it is difficult to extirpate behavior,
women trust the methods that have helped them
cope in the past in orderto alter the future. In The
EdibleWomanthe womanly art of baking provides
Marianwith a way to free herself:she bakes a cake
that resemblesherself.Offeringa piece to Peter, she
is controllingthe tasty image of a woman, allowing
him and, more importantly,herselfto ingest and destroy it. "It gave me a peculiarsense of satisfaction
to see him eat," she says, adding,"I smiledcomfortably at him" (EW, 281). Her pleasurein their consumptionof her formerself is symbolicof the death
of the old Marian.
One might say that Marian'singestionof her own
image, Joan's adoption of science fiction, and both
Offred's and Grace's stories "in the head" do not
promise new fulfillinglives, only tactics of escape.
However, their personal growth through conscious
effort representsa means to wrest control of their
lives from society and transform their destinies.
These women become manipulatorsratherthan allowingthemselvesto be manipulated.
In Cat'sEye Elaine Risley deals with the torment
of her early life in her art by moving to Vancouver
and exerting power in paint over the people who
had condemned her. She creates surrealstudies of
Mrs. Smeath:"I paint Mrs. Smeath . . . like a dead
fish. . . . One picture of Mrs. Smeath leads to another. She multiplies on the walls like bacteria,
standing,sitting,with clothes,withoutclothes"(CE,
338). Empoweredby her success as an artist,Elaine
returnsto Toronto for a showing of her work, able
to resist the pleas of her formertormentor,Cordelia, now a pitifulpatientin a psychiatricfacility.In a
dream, Elaine surpassesher desire for revengeand
offers CordeliaChristiancharity:"I'm the stronger.
... I reachout my armsto her, bend down. . . . It's
all right,I say to her. Youcan go home"(CE, 419).
Elaineis reinforcedby the verywords spokento her
in the vision that saved her life years before. Her
work fosters her liberation.By projectingher rage
outside of herself,she confrontsher demons and exalts herselfas a divineredeemer.
Conclusion. "Youdon'tevenhave to concentrate
on rejecting
theroleof victimbecausetheroleis no longer
a temptation
for you" (Sv, 39). The creativeaspect
that fortifieseach woman enablesher to controlher
life: it is the triumphanttool that resurrectseach
one. As artists,writers,friends,each amelioratesher
situationand her world, positivelymetamorphosing
reality in the process. In societies tailored to the
submissionof females,Atwood'sprotagonistsrefuse

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282

TODAY
WORLDLITERATURE

to be pinned down to the measurementsof the perfect woman. Instead.,they reconstruct their lives,
imprintingtheir own designs in worlds of patterned
fabric.Atwoodhas observedthat all writingis political: "The writersimplyby examininghow the forces
of society interactwith the individual. . . seek[s] to
changesocial structure"(Sullivan,129).
Literaturehas alwaysbeen the place where journeys have been sought, battles fought, insights
gleaned. And authorshave always dallied with the
plight of women in society: young or old, body or
mind, mother or worker, traveler or settler. The
womanhas been the divided or fragmented icon
who, brokenand downcast,has gazedback forlornly
at us fromthe pages of her tellingtale. MargaretAtwood has reconstructedthis victim, provingto her
and to us that we all possess the talent and the
strength to revitalizeour lives and reject society's
well-troddenpaths that suppressthe human spirit.
She has shown us that we can be vicariouslyempoweredby our surrogate,who not only now smiles
but winks back at us, daringus to reclaimour own
femaleidentities.

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. Cat'sEye.Toronto.McClelland& Stewart.1988. (CE)
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. Lady Oracle.Toronto. McClelland & Stewart. 1976.
(LO)
. LifeBeforeMan. Toronto. McClelland& Stewart.1979.
(LBM)
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. Survival:A ThematicGuide to Canadian Literature.
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Toronto

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions