On The Image Of Wilderness In Margaret Atwood’s Three Fictions

Margaret Atwood is a famous Canadian woman writer who has written a lot ofwonderful works about ecologism. The image of wilderness appears frequently inAtwood’s works which becomes one of her important hallmarks, especially inSurfacing, Cat’s Eye, Wilderness Tips. This thesis will proceed with these threefictions, and analyze the rich meanings in her fiction writing according to the imageof wilderness. It is divided into three chapters. Chapter one mainly analyzes the deathand the regeneration in wilderness that show the way of spiritual liberation and theregression of soul. Chapter two demonstrates the reason why Atwood adopted lots ofwilderness images in her fiction writing that concern with her experiences in thewilderness and Canadian’s specific culture tradition. Chapter three concludes that thefreedom spirit of the return and the transcendence from the analyzing of the Atwood’sworks which represent the emotion dimension of awe and closeness. And Atwoodappeal to people to appreciate the beauty of the wilderness and be responsible for thewilderness. We could conclude Atwood’s value judgment of deaths and the primitiveimpulse to return to the wilderness from the study of the image of wilderness inAtwood’s works. As the source of life, wilderness becomes the indirect path ofself-growing and the secret aisle of self-retrieval and secret harbor of giving warmthto heart. In the ultimate sense, wilderness is the restart and fulfillment of self and life.Whether the heroines are alive or dead, the quality of their lives has undergonefundamental changes. In Atwood’s works, we could find not only the beauty ofwilderness, but also the habitat of the human spirit.