Margaret Atwoods Surfacing Essay -- Margaret Atwood Surfacing Essays

Margaret Atwoods SurfacingThroughout the book the fabricator constantly intertwines the past andpresent as though it is side by side. Atwood shows this in theopening sentence I heapt believe Im on this road again. The useof the adjective again reveals the narrator has been in this placein an earlier life. The narrator suck upms to repress a lot of her pastand continuously contradicts herself, which at times confuses thereader as we can not tell whether she is talking about her past or herpresent and whether she regards it as home as she says Now were onhome ground contrary territory. This links in with one of the key segments in the story between theAmericans and the Canadians that is portrayed throughout the book. This paradoxical declarative reveals that the protagonist feels sheshould belong at that place but feels detached from this childhood place,suggesting she may feel alienated from this place revealing somethingoppressive about this home ground. Also David is the key p erson whoemphasizes this division between the Americans and Canadians. On pagethree David stresses Bloody fascist pig Yanks, reiterating thestereotypical Canadian disliking of the Americans, using his usualhostile, aggressive language. Ironi titley David seems to be thefascist pig being the unpleasant chauvinistic pig. The use of theadjective foreign links in with the division of language betweenFrench and English that we see later in the book. In chapter 2 we see that there is a clear division between thenarrator and any emotions. We see that the narrator is emotionallydetached from her husband and her child as she left him in the city,that would be perfectly true, only it was different city he... ...ust them, I cant conceptualiseof anyone else I like better, but right now I wish they werenthere. This shows that the narrator is showing her regrets forbringing them with her reiterating her distrust in them. We also begin to see the narrators distrust in those who are closestto he r, her family. When she begins to reminisce on the past sherefers to her family with the third person pronoun they for examplewhen she says they used to go over it as fast a possible then laterrealizes this mistake she is making and states that wont work, Icant call them they as if they were somebody elses family.However the tables are turned as we the readers begin to realize thatit is the protagonist that we are unable to trust. This is due to theprotagonists constant self contradictions and self corrections as shesays my husband, my former husband.