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Critical analysis of margaret atwood
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Margaret Atwood works of literature
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Cat’s Eye, by Margaret Atwood tells the story of painter who returns to Toronto for a retrospective of her art. The protagonist and narrator, Elaine Risley delves into her childhood through a series of flashbacks to show the true motives behind her art and rediscover parts of her identity from an older and wiser point of view.
For first eight years of her life, Elaine Risley lived a nomadic lifestyle with her parents. When her father, and entomologist, accepts a job to work as a professor at a university, the family moves to Toronto. Everything is new to Elaine: school, sitting at a desk, straws, and especially real girls. Since her brother does not want to be teased for having a younger sister, Elaine is on her own. At first it is difficult
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Finestein, Miss Stuart, and Mr. Banerji. These three people all faced persecution. Mrs. Finestein, Elaine’s Jewish neighbor, faced the horrors of World War II. Miss Stuart, Elaine’s former teacher, was exiled from Scotland. Mr. Banerji was an Indian student of her father’s.
One Wing, a painting of two airplanes and a man falling with no parachute, holding a wooden sword, is for Elaine’s brother, done after he died. “This is the kind of thing [Elaine and her brother] do, to assuage pain” (446). This painting shows that Elaine wants to remember her brother, like the brother she grew up with- smart, wild, curious.
Cat’s Eye is a “self-portrait, of sorts” (446). It contains Elaine’s face from the upper half of the nose up. Behind the head, a pier glass hangs in which part of her hair, younger hair, is visible in addition to three small figures in the snow. This painting represents Elaine’s identity as a child. Her half face shows uncertainty, her uncertainty of who she was. Although cat’s eye was what her marble was called, there is no marble in the painting. However, when looking at the marble, Elaine sees her “life entire” (434). The painting also shows her entire life, as it includes and older Elaine and a young
She would mostly be alone and sit by herself being buried in books or watching cartoons. In high school she attended a program for troubled adolescents and from there she received a wide range of support from helping her get braces to helping her get information to attend community college. (59) Even with this she was already too emotionally unstable due to her family issues and felt like she couldn’t go through with her dreams to travel and even go into the art of culinary. She suffers from psychological problems such as depression and worries constantly about almost every aspect in her life from work to family to her boyfriend and just hopes that her life won’t go downhill. (60) Overall Kayla’s family structure shows how different is it now from it was in the 1950’s as divorce rates have risen and while before Kayla’s type of family structure was rare now it is becoming more common. This story helps illustrate the contributions of stress that children possess growing up in difficult homes in which they can’t put their own futures first they must, in some cases, take care of their guardian’s futures first or others around them. Again, this adds into the inequality that many face when it comes to being able to climb up the ladder and become successful regardless of where one
Eric Fishl’s Scarsdale is a painting that is done on three canvases. When placed together, they appear to make one whole picture. The focal point of the painting is the woman, dressed in a white gown and veil. It appears that she is wearing a wedding dress, since the dress is white and includes a veil. To the left is a cat and to the right is a dog. The woman represents the focal point, not only because she is the largest figure in the painting, but also because everything else is slightly in darkness. Fischl’s cat and dog can only be made out if one looks at the painting carefully. Fischl also paints the woman so that she almost appears to be floating in air. One can see that she is sitting on a chair, but the dog is directly under her, and he does not really use perspective to make it clear that the woman is not floating in midair.
One of the biggest challenges Francie faces while growing up is loneliness. As a young child living in a Brooklyn slum, Francie has no friends her age. The other children either find her too quiet or shun her for being different because of her extensive vocabulary. Betty Smith describes how most of Francie's childhood days are spent: "in the warm summer days the lonesome child sat on her stoop and pretended disdain for the group of children playing on the sidewalk. Francie played with her imaginary companions and made believe they were better than real children. But all the while her heart beat in rhythm to the poignant sadness of the song the children sang while walking around in a ring with hands joined." (106). Francie is lonely, and longs to be included. As Francie matures, she begins to experience a different kind of loneliness. Betty Smith portrays her feelings as she observes her neighborhood: "spring came early that year and the sweet warm nights made her restless. She walked up and down the streets and through the park. And wherever she went, she saw a boy and a girl together, walking arm-in-arm, sitting on a park bench with their arms around each other, standing closely and in silence in a vestibule. Everyone in the world but Francie had a sweetheart or a friend she seemed to be the only lonely one in Brooklyn without a friend." (403). Loneliness is a constant challenge for Francie but it is through her loneliness that she finds a new companion in her books. Francie reads as an alternative for her lack of friends and companions. It is through her love of reading that Francie develops her extensive, sophisticated vocabulary. Her books lead her into maturity and help her learn to be independent and overcome her many hardships.
At the age of ten, most children are dependent on their parents for everything in their lives, needing a great deal of attention and care. However, Ellen, the main character and protagonist of the novel Ellen Foster, exemplifies a substantial amount of independence and mature, rational thought as a ten-year-old girl. The recent death of her mother sends her on a quest for the ideal family, or anywhere her father, who had shown apathy to both she and her fragile mother, was not. Kaye Gibbons’ use of simple diction, unmarked dialogue, and a unique story structure in her first novel, Ellen Foster, allows the reader to explore the emotions and thoughts of this heroic, ten-year-old girl modeled after Gibbons’ own experiences as a young girl. Kaye Gibbons’ experiences as a child are the foundations for this.
Trace the development of the bullying. How convincing are the situation and Elaine's feelings portrayed? -How it changes and increases We are first introduced to Cordelia and prepared for the future conflict between the two girls when it is mentioned, "The third girl doesn't wave". This lack of warmth towards Elaine is a premonition of what is to come, and is at the same time believable- new girls are often wary of each other, uncertain of what the other will be like.
...ainting; Nighthawks and Two Women do not seem similar in the least, upon a second deeper look one begins to notice their similarities. Similarities which are found both in the actual paintings; as well as in the places in their lives which the respective artists found themselves. Both were going through a period of isolation, which was taking place in either their personal lives, society around them, or both. These feelings were passed on to their paintings, leaving us, the viewer to gaze at them, study them and hear the message which they speak.
Finally in Cat’s Eye, the cat’s eye marble does appear in the last painting, (Unified Field Theory,430), which depicts the Virgin of Lost Things holding the marble in front of her, in the place where the cold little girl had once seen a red heart (200). Beneath her is the ‘night sky’, but Elaine explains that the darkness hides all the things that are there as well, things in the ‘underside of the ground’ (431). The last painting is in other words, a depiction of darkness. What the Virgin and the marble she holds represent is Elaine’s recovery of her memory of the dark time of her childhood and also of the value of seeing that darkness.
...lized." Alice had a daughter, my mother, Elaine, who completed her high school and even graduated from college. Elaine hoped, just as countless generations before her had, to achieve a better life. When Elaine's husband walked out on her and her six children, she feared that her hope would not be realized. But she was wrong. She raised her children well and sent every one off to college, each bearing the hopes of a better life. And now that it is my turn, I have more reason than ever to seek out the best education I can.
Theo and the young Narrator similarly discover the revelatory capacity of art through a single pivotal painting and author respectively, both which become significant motifs in either text. Tartt utilizes an existent painting ‘The Goldfinch’ as a fixed point of reference, which, for both Theo and the reader provides a sense of reality and constancy ‘rais[ing him] above the surface’ of an otherwise tumultuous childhood. Whereas Proust uses a fictional author, ‘Bergotte’, to communicate the universality of art, and invite the reader, through the vivid immediacy with which the Narrator’s early reading experiences are described, to participate in his epiphanic discovery that art can translate ‘imperceptible truths which would never have [otherwise] been revealed to us’ (97). Artistic imagery becomes a motif in Proust’s descriptions of scenes of domesticity and nature. In a scene recounting Francoise ‘masterful’ preparation of a family meal the Narrator describes asparagus in the technical language of painting as ‘finely stippled’ provoking an association between his observations of asparagus and the creation of a painting. By forming this improbable link he elevates unremarkable asparagus to the ‘precious’ status of art in the eyes of the reader. Proust’s presentation of his Narrator’s ‘fascination’ and pleasure at their ‘rainbow-loveliness’, forces the reader to consider asparagus with unfamiliar and attentive appreciation, conveying the idea that art can uncover the overlooked beauty of the mundane. Though Theo reveals a far more cynical view of ordinary life as a ‘sinkhole of hospital beds, coffins and broken hearts’ Tartt conveys the similar belief in art’s capacity to create a ‘rainbow-edge’ of beauty between our perceptions and the harshness of reality. In the most
This story shows children a fun and silly way on what it means to be themselves through a cat that does not literally fit into her surroundings. In the end, the cat discovers she is special in her own way. By showing someone who does not fit in in a very obvious way the child might find someone to look up to and see how to deal with the situation and feelings on what it means to not fit in. These important lessons show children, that even if they are different they always have something special about themselves. I think this story was chosen because it helps teach children at a young age what it is like to fit
Human eyes receive and form images from outside, also automatically changes in light and seeing things close up and at a distance. Therefore, we can see most of things from outside world. But without light, we can't see anything. Light travels though space and the sun gives off light rays then enter the eyes they are bent or refracted and these light rays create images or picture of all the objects around you, that's why we can see things very clearly. How light enter the eye, first light enters the eye though pupil which control different amounts of light into our eye. Then crystalline lens helps us see clearly, when we look at near objects crystalline lens will grows thicker and when we look at far objects then it will grows flatter. The crystalline lens and the cornea (the window of the eye) are bending light rays and sending them to the retinain the right direction. For our perfect vision, light rays must focus at one point on the retina.
A solitary woman sits in conversation with a benign tumour that had just recently been removed from her ovary. As the woman speaks, the inanimate tumour, which she has named Hairball, looks on from its glass encased perch atop the fireplace. The scene is macabre and certainly unusual, but such is the life of Kat, the main character in Margaret Atwood’s short story, Hairball. Kat’s life is filled with the unusual and the shocking, a lifestyle that has been self-imposed. Throughout the years, Kat, an "avant garde" fashion photographer, has altered her image, even her name, to suit the circumstances and the era. Over time Kat has fashioned a seemingly strong and impenetrable exterior, but as Kat’s life begins to disintegrate we discover that the strong exterior is just a facade devised to protect a weak and fragile interior. Kat’s facade begins to unravel and she undergoes significant personal losses; in fact, the losses go so far as to include her identity or lack there of. As Kat begins to lose control, her mental and physical disintegration is hastened by three major conflicts: The conflict with the society in which she lives, the conflict with her romantic interests (specifically Ger), and finally the physical conflict she faces with her own body. In the end, these conflicts will threaten to strip Kat of her lifestyle as well as her name.
Edna seeks occupational freedom in art, but lacks sufficient courage to become a true artist. As Edna awakens to her selfhood and sensuality, she also awakens to art. Originally, Edna “dabbled” with sketching “in an unprofessional way” (Chopin 543). She could only imitate, although poorly (Dyer 89). She attempts to sketch Adèle Ratignolle, but the picture “bore no resemblance” to its subject. After her awakening experience in Grand Isle, Edna begins to view her art as an occupation (Dyer 85). She tells Mademoiselle Reisz that she is “becoming an artist” (Chopin 584). Women traditionally viewed art as a hobby, but to Edna, it was much more important than that. Painting symbolizes Edna’s independence; through art, she breaks free from her society’s mold.
The first of these three characters is Gertrude. She is the sister of Stephen Kumalo, a black Christian priest, and the main character. Gertrude leaves her village to Johannesburg to look for her missing husband and she is not heard from again until Stephen receives an urgent letter about her from a concerned fellow priest, Msimangu.. Wh...
The Eye is the organ of sight. Eyes enable people to perform daily tasks and to learn about the world that surrounds them. Sight, or vision, is a rapidly occurring process that involves continuous interaction between the eye, the nervous system, and the brain. When someone looks at an object, what he/she is really seeing is the light that the object reflects, or gives off.