Surviving Women In Search Of Self-Identity

Margaret Atwood (1939-), acknowledged as one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Canadian literature, is a poet, novelist, remarkable literature critic, and the author of about 40 literary works. She wins many literary honors including the 2000 Booker Prize, Giller Prize and Governor General's Award. Because of her great contribution to the development of Canadian literature, she is regarded as "Canadian Literature Empress".As a creative female writer, Atwood focuses on the dilemmas and perplexities of Canadian women in male-dominated society in her works. The protagonists of Atwood's novels are mostly career women who received higher education. But they find they are trapped by patriarchal values in society and they are in a marginal position both in marriage and society. With the awakening self-consciousness, the female individuals come to realize that they are victims of social, economic and political discrimination. Thus they attempt to reject it. So they begin to explore the way to quest for self-identity. They finally realize self-reconstruction and transform from victims to survivors through the tough spiritual pilgrimage of "self-awareness---self-exploration---self-realization".The whole thesis is made up of six parts. Introductory part aims to give a brief introduction to Margaret Atwood and her life as well as multiple themes of her works. It also introduces briefly the summary of Atwood's first two novels The Edible Woman and Surfacing. The goal and perspectives of the thesis are indicated therein.Chapter One focuses on the description of the female characters in dilemmas and perplexities who are trapped and victimized in the male-dominated society in her novels The Edible Woman and Surfacing. The traditional patriarchal values define women as subordinated and inferior dependants in society, who play passive, obedient and submissive roles of servants without pay and instruments to multiply lives. The protagonist of The Edible Woman named Marian works in a market survey company after she graduated from college. She has great ambitions and believes she can realize her value of life through hard work. But to her dismay she finds she has no hope of promotion although she is responsible for her duty and works diligently. The central departments of the company are dominated by the male, while the female are in inferior position. The prejudice against women in the company makes her disappointed and depressed. Marian's fiancéPeter is a prosperous lawyer, but he is extremely selfish, indifferent and self-centered. The reason that he pursues Marian is just because she conforms to the traditional standard of a submissive and obedient wife and can satisfy his desire and needs. The relationship between Peter and Marian is the dominator and the dominated, the hunter and the hunted, the victimizer and the victimized, the consumer and the consumed. When Marian stays with Peter, she suffers from anxiety and panic, for she identified herself the prey hunted and food devoured by Peter. Later Marian suffers from anorexia and a kind of nerve breakdown because of her anxiety and victim complex. As Marian realizes her role of victimization, she engages herself against the victim status.The female protagonist in Surfacing is deeply tortured by the painful experience in the past. She underwent an unfortunate love affair with a married professor and was forced to abort the fetus by him. She thought herself a murderer, the extreme torture made her change into a cold, unemotional person feeling alienated from the outside people. She finds she can't adjust to society and can't communicate with other people. She leaves the professor and meets another man Joe. Although Joe loves her, she can't fall into love because she has lost the ability to love. She doesn't believe anyone. Because of her painful experience, she is justified to consider her as a victim of the male world. So she suffers from a kind of nerve breakdown and split in personality.Chapter Two highlights the female images' transformation from the entrapped victims to the active survivors through the journey of their quest for identity. After Marian realizes her role of victim, she begins to reject the role of being a stereotyped femininity imposed on the female by society. She is not willing to become the prey hunted by Peter and the consumer goods that can satisfy his desire. Then Marian escapes from Peter. With the help of her friend Duncan, she realizes that escape can't solve the problem. Only by confronting with reality can she get rid of her dilemma. She gains self-knowledge and takes action to break out of her entrapment. So she begins to search for her new identity with the help of Duncan and struggles to survive.The nameless protagonist in Surfacing is deeply tortured by her miserable abortion and her bitter experience. With the sensation that a part of her body has been sliced off since the abortion, she suffers from mental madness and split in personality. She is determined to refuse to be victimized as before. Therefore she begins to take her spiritual pilgrimage of self-exploration as she returns to hometown to search for her missing father. Later she finds her lost self with the spiritual guidance from her parents. With the help of the "legacy" and "gift" left by her parents, she gains rebirth and wholeness. Finally she succeeds in transforming from a passive victim to an active survivor.Chapter Three analyzes the end of the female protagonists---They realize self-construction and become survivors in the wake of the journey of "lost---rebellion---reconstruction". After Marian returns home, she bakes a woman-shaped cake (The cake is an effigy of her former compliant and obedient self and her identity as a consumable item in a consumer society) and invites Peter to partake, but Peter refuses and leaves in anger. Marian shares with Duncan the cake that symbolizes traditional feminine identity. Then her anorexia is cured. By eating the cake Marian rejected victim mentality and her compliant former self, and reconstructs a new, brave persona. The eating of the cake also shows her gaining of her human status and balanced identity. From then on she gains her new identity and ultimately transforms from a passive victim to an active survivor.The nameless protagonist begins her journey of self-exploration and self-reconstruction under the spiritual guidance of her parents. Through descent into the bottom of the lake, she encounters her dead father, which reminds her of her aborted fetus. Through descents into the lake water, she confronts her past memory and acquires self-knowledge. Later she obtains some hints and suggestions from the drawings that her parents left her. And she finds the approach to gain rebirth, that is, she can gain a whole and new self by creating a new baby. From then on she recovers her ability to love and rejoins society. Finally she succeeds in transforming from a victim to a survivor through self-exploration.Chapter Four compares the similarities and differences between the two novels. The typical similarity that both novels share is the same narrative pattern that Atwood employs to manifest the theme and illustrate the protagonists' journey in quest for identity.However there are three main different points that can be summarized as follows. Firstly, the degrees of the protagonists' victimization are different. Compared with the nameless protagonist in Surfacing, Marian suffers from less pain physically and psychologically. Secondly, they go through different processes of seeking for identity. The former realizes rebirth by destroying the former "me", while the latter gains new birth by creating a new life. Thirdly the end of the story is different and two protagonists survive on different levels. Marian's life is a circle, for she returns to her starting point, losing job and love but achieving freedom and independence with new identity. Compared with Marian's life road, the latter's life is a spiral. She attains not only a whole and complete self, but also love. She decides to rejoin society with her new identity. Hence the latter succeeds in surviving to a more successful degree, which is the advancement of Surfacing.The last part is the conclusion, which emphasizes that the female characters succeed in transforming from victims to survivors after the exploration of identity. Finally both of them gain rebirth and realize self-reconstruction. Most important of all, they succeed in becoming survivors through the journey of quest for identity.