Growth Never Runs Smooth:an Interpretation Of Magaret Atwood’s Cat Eye From The Perspective Of Gaze Theory

Cat’s Eye, Magaret Atwood’s seventh novel, is claimed as her "most artistically accomplished novel thus far".The novel begins with the return of the protagonist Elaine Risley to Toronto for a retrospective of her paintings.She is haunted by the past memories during the trip and finally forgives the people who have once hurt her. This thesis, based on Gaze Theory, makes a detailed analysis of the protagonist’s struggles of growing up as an artist in an often hostile cultural context.The thesis is mainly informed and inspired by Foucault’s Gaze Theory, which holds that gaze represents a way of looking interwoven with the power system of a patriarchal society. The looker controls the object through gazing, while the object feels the pressure from the gazing and internalizes the values of the looker. In light of this theory, the thesis makes an interpretation of the gazes closely linked with the protagonist’s growth in order to demonstrate the influence of gazes on her growth.Living in a patriarchal society, Elaine has received three different kinds of gazes in her life. These gazes help form Elaine’s personality yet bring her so much pain and suffering. In order to defend herself and exert revenge, Elaine finds two ways to fight back. She substitutes herself for an observing and judging eye so that she is able to control others through gazing instead of being affected by them.To strengthen such power, she becomes a painter, using the painterly gaze to take charge of her enemies. Elaine’s "an eye for an eye" strategy does not bring her any spiritual liberation. It’s not until Elaine as an onlooker re-interprets her paintings on her retrospective that she has the courage to forgive the people she hated once.The thesis concludes that though Elaine has learned to forgive others, the passing of her mother and the disappearance of Cordelia symbolize that the unjudgmental gaze does not exist in the patriarchal society and Elaine can not escape from the control of the gaze of the patriarchal society.