In Margaret Atwood’s “Cat’s Eye,” Atwood tells the story of a Canadian artist, Elaine Risley. While back in Toronto for an art show, Elaine reflects on the pain of her childhood, and how it has impacted the rest of her life. Atwood relies on the motif of physical structure to illuminate the lack of emotional and personal structure Elaine experiences in her youth - which ultimately resurface as low self-image, as well as the toxic relationships she engages in as an adolescent and adult. Atwood calls on the ideas of renovation, acknowledging the chance for closure a middle-aged Elaine experiences while in Toronto.
Atwood utilizes metaphor to convey Elaine’s constant search for sustainable, healthy, and meaningful structure in her youth.
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When her family finally settles down, Elaine begins to grapple with crafting an identity, especially with what it mean to be a girl. Elaine subconsciously searches for acceptance, and her initial lack of structure leads her to fall into toxic relationships with girls in her neighborhood. She meets Carol, Grace, and Cordelia. Elaine begins to find comfort in her new relationships with other girls, but Cordelia senses Elaine’s differences. At the bridge, which comes to symbolize Elaine’s struggles with her identity as she’s coming of age, Atwood examines the girls’ relationship. The bridge is described as “rotten” with junk and litter around the ravine’s “dark waters”. The rotting bridge symbolizes the deterioration of Elaine’s childhood innocence, marking the beginning her transition into young-adulthood. Atwood illustrates the power Cordelia has over the other girls: “As a rule we walk down the middle, but today Cordelia goes right to the railing and leans on it, looking over. One by one and gingerly we follow”(81). Not only does Cordelia break one of their “rules”, she gets all three of the other girls to follow her lead, as they “gingerly”, or cautiously, go up the edge. Cordelia’s …show more content…
When Elaine comes back to Toronto, she is forced to face the demons of her past so that she can hopefully move on in the future. Atwoods calls the reader to reflect on the hardship in one’s life by examining Elaine’s story. She calls into question what it means to be at peace with one’s self, what that peace costs, the sacrifices that must be made to achieve and maintain
...ors to describe her life and situation. This comes primarily from the fact that in her therapy sessions that is how she is taught to deal with everything. For example, one metaphor she talks about is “… she comes up with the idea of lighting candles to symbolize my past, present, and future…I’ve noticed my past melting… my present candle has stayed pretty much the same,” (D 266). She explains them as her past is become less controlling, her present is her and concrete ideas and her future is bright and untouched. These metaphors show how much she has grown and allow the things she is learning to have more meaning. All of these combine to make the piece very effective and insightful. They help to get her point across and call people to action to help against these crimes.
Do we control the judgments and decisions that we make every day? In the book,
Flannery O'Conner has again provided her audience a carefully woven tale with fascinating and intricate characters. "The Displaced Person" introduces the reader to some interesting characters who experience major life changes in front of the reader's eyes. The reader ventures into the minds of two of the more complex characters in "The Displaced Person," Mrs. McIntyre and Mrs. Shortley, and discovers an unwillingness to adapt to change. Furthermore, the intricate details of their characters are revealed throughout the story. Through these details, the reader can see that both Mrs. McIntyre and Mrs. Shortley suffer from a lack of spiritual dimension that hinders them as they face some of life's harsher realities. Mrs. McIntyre struggles throughout the story, most notably during the tragic conclusion. Her lack of spiritual dimension is revealed slowly until we ultimately see how her life is devastated because of it. Mrs. Shortley, on the other hand, seems to have it all figured out spiritually -- or at least she believes that she does. It is only in the last few minutes of her life that she realizes all she has convinced herself of is wrong.
As Harper Lee phrased the famous quote, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Lee’s quote appears in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which explores racial and cultural stereotypes, exemplifies the differences between good and evil, and challenges the reader to find empathy for societal outcasts. Growing up in Lorain, Ohio during the Great Depression era, Morrison, raised by parents who moved to the North to escape southern racism, learned to value African American heritage and recognize situations, regarding alienated people, as unfair. Morrison’s unique upbringing has developed a conscientious perspective within her that gives her the advantage to speak not only with truth, but experience as well. While possessing a thoroughly defined perspective herself, Morrison is capable of weaving topics and messages meaningful to her into the divergent viewpoints of her many characters. Toni Morrison uses different points of view throughout the novel, The Bluest Eye, to give the reader a more detailed and realistic understanding of the characters’ situations and backgrounds and the novel as a whole. Morrison
The dialogue a narrator uses with characters in a short story reflects on how the story is being understood by the reader. A character’s dialogue is assumed to be controlled by the author, and then the reader comprehends the dialogue through different points of view in which is told by a narrator. Which point of view the author uses can change how the reader may understand the story. Understanding a story is not just based off the ability to comprehend the plot, setting, characters, and theme. But importantly, understanding what point of view the narrator is in and whether the narrator has dialogue with characters within the story is important. The short story “Lusus Naturae”, written by Margaret Atwood, it’s a short story told by a first person narrator who is a main character in the story but has very minimum dialogue with the other characters. Another short story, “Sonny’s Blues”, written by James Baldwin, is
Atwood describes her father’s ambition to show her some of the finer things in life and the beauty of nature and nature’s way of life.
... the novel. Ranging from clothes, to birds, to the “pigeon house”, each symbol and setting provides the reader with insight into Edna’s personality, thoughts, and awakening.
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
Center stage in Kaye Gibbons’ inspiring bildungsroman, Ellen Foster, is the spunky heroine Ellen Foster. At the start of the novel, Ellen is a fiery nine-year old girl. Her whole life, especially the three years depicted in Ellen Foster, Ellen is exposed to death, neglect, hunger and emotional and physical abuse. Despite the atrocities surrounding her, Ellen asks for nothing more than to find a “new mama” to love her. She avoids facing the harsh reality of strangers and her own family’s cruelty towards her by using different forms of escapism. Thrice Ellen is exposed to death (Gibbons 27). Each time, Ellen has a conversation with a magician to cope with the trauma (Gibbons 22-145). Many times Ellen’s actions and words cause it to be difficult to tell that she is still a child. However, in order to distract herself, Ellen will play meaningful games (Gibbons 26). These games become a fulcrum for Ellen’s inner child to express itself. Frequently, Ellen will lapse into a daydream (Gibbons 67). Usually, these daydreams are meant to protect herself from the harsh reality around her. Ellen Foster’s unique use of escapism resounds as the theme of Kaye Gibbon’s Ellen Foster.
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.
...from one another and as a result, grew up with different values and senses for what was truly important in life and what was truly necessary to survive. Jane emerged from a strict, abusive upbringing, into a well-rounded, strong-minded, responsible, and dedicated adult who triumphed in the end. Lily suffered a fate that she almost seemed destined for. Lily shares her name with a common flower. This fact may contain an aspect of symbolism in that like a dying flower, Lily’s character gradually begins to “wilt” as
She continues in this sequel to talk about the abuse she faced and the dysfunction that surrounded her life as a child and as a teen, and the ‘empty space’ in which she lived in as a result. She talks about the multiple personalities she was exhibiting, the rebellious “Willie” and the kind “Carol”; as well as hearing noises and her sensory problems. In this book, the author puts more emphasis on the “consciousness” and “awareness” and how important that was for her therapeutic process. She could not just be on “auto-pilot” and act normal; the road to recovery was filled with self-awareness and the need to process all the pieces of the puzzle—often with the guidance and assistance of her therapist. She had a need to analyze the abstract concept of emotions as well as feelings and thoughts. Connecting with others who go through what she did was also integral to her
It was a dark, menacing night as she stood there in the shadows. Waiting for the finale of the show that was playing, she glanced toward the exit through which people would soon be leaving. The rich, as patrons of the theatre house, promised her a salary at least for today. Her tattered clothes revealed the effects of personal destitution; the emaciated frame, that presently existed, harked back upon a body she must have once possessed. Driven by poverty to the realms of "painted cohorts," she makes up her face daily, distinguishing her life from the respected (264). She is an outcast, a leper, a member of the marginalized in society; she envelops the most degraded of positions and sins against her body in order to survive. As she looks up, her eyes reflect a different kind of light, a glimmer of beauty that has not yet faded despite her present conditions. She was, at one time, a "virtuous" woman, most likely scorned by a dishonest love. Finding no comfort or pity for her prior mistakes, she must turn to the streets and embrace the inevitable - the dishonor and shame from her previous engagement will follow her unto death. Shunned from society she becomes the woman who sells herself for money and sadly finds no love. She is the abandoned, the betrayed, and the lost, embarrassed girl; she is "of the painted cohorts," the female prostitute of the streets (264).
The reciprocated romantic love symbolized by the pear tree is found to be unnecessary as Janie reaches her horizon at the end. The horizon reflects the state of happiness that Janie thought she could only reach through true love, but changes as she finds the strength to be happy with her independence. This message is important as it disproves the restricting status quo that women are dependent on men pushing for further equality between the
I found that Elegy for the Giant Tortoises by Margaret Atwood had a more powerful depiction of extinction. Through the poem Atwood demonstrates that humans have a tendency of caring more about species that are extinct, but at the same time do very little to prevent these other species from ending up that way in the beginning. In the last stanza, Atwood says, “the relic of what we have destroyed” (line 23) probably had the most impact on me. This is because we tend to value the image of the species more once they are extinct rather than honoring their actual lives, as well as honoring them while they were living. Human activity contributes to the extinction of species like the giant tortoise, in which Atwood demonstrates that we lessen these