This Is A Photograph Of Me Analysis

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Recommended: History of Canadian colonization and the effect it had on the Indigenous population

The photograph in “This is a Photograph of Me” is smeared and blurred, like the public memory of the decimation of an entire race. The photograph gets clearer at a second glance and depicts the landscape as being picturesque, as if nothing is wrong with it. At first, the photograph only allows a (mis)recognition of the Canadian landscape, with “[...]a gentle/ slope, a small frame house.” There is a casual mention of a lake and some low hills beyond, and it is in this casualty of their appearance that the reader realises that something is not right. The reader’s intuition is proved right when the poem goes on to talk about an “I” that has drowned in the lake. “I” here stands for the history of Canada’s colonialism, which cannot be seen anywhere …show more content…

The history of Canadian colonialism is out of sight at the bottom of the lake.
“This is a Photograph of Me” is, thus, an attempt by Atwood to make the “insiders” (Canadians) delve into the deepest recesses of their memories and pull out what has vanished with barely a trace. Additionally, it also urges “outsiders” (the world) to recognise the history of Canadian colonialism. For, it is only when this history receives recognition that the first steps of guilt and responsibility be taken.

“PROCEDURES FOR UNDERGROUND”
“Procedures for Underground” uses various myths to point out the harsh realities of the land the whites occupy. The poem talks about a journey to the underworld and back, which is a movement in and out of history, and thus, the residents of the underworld “are always hungry” —for …show more content…

If one survives the confrontation with the violent history of colonisation and can return to the present, Atwood believes that one will be blessed with the “gift” of recognition of the past, but it comes at the price of one’s suffering. This suffering is what Staines referred to as the duality with respect to Atwood: a white person in Canada calls it their home but there is a history of violence behind this construction of Canada as home for them. It is precisely this suffering that originates from the knowledge of the violent history of settlement that will mark these people out from the rest who are

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