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Reconstructing Margaret Atwood's Protagonists Author(s): Patricia F. Goldblatt Reviewed work(s): Source: World Literature Today, Vol. 73, No. 2, On Contemporary Canadian Literature(s) (Spring, 1999), pp. 275-282 Published by: Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40154691 . Accessed: 11/02/2013 04:47
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Reconstructing MargaretAtwood's Protagonists

To construct: to build;tofabricate;to deviseor invent.
To RECONSTRUCT: to rebuild.

By PATRICIAF. GOLDBLATT A weaver employsfragments from life, silk, raw yarns, wool, straw, perhaps even a few twigs, them into a tapstones, or feathers,and transforms An author'swork is and form. of color, shape, estry similar, for she selects individuals, locations, imthem to createa believages, and ideas, rearranging able picture.Each smacksof reality,but is not. This is the artist's art: to reconstructthe familiar into but often disturbingtableauxfrom new, fascinating, which storiescan unfold. MargaretAtwood weaves stories from her own life in the bush and cities of Canada.Intenselyconscious of her political and social context, Atwood dispels the notion that caribou-cladCanadiansremain perpetuallylocked in blizzardswhile simultaneously seeming to be a polite mass of gray faces, from their Americanneighoften indistinguishable bors. Atwood has continuallypondered the lack of an identifiable Canadian culture. For over thirty years her work has aided in fashioning a distinct Canadian literary identity. Her critical catalogue and analysis of Canadian Literature,Survival, offered "a political manifesto telling Canadians . . . [to] value their own" (Sullivan,265). In an attempt Atwood has poputo focus on Canadian experiences, lated her storieswith Canadiancities, conflicts, and contemporarypeople, conscious of a landscape whose bordershave been permeatedby the frost of Nature, her colonizers and her neighbors.Her examinationof how an individualinteracts,succeeds, or stagnateswithinher world speaksto an emerging a sense of self and often parallelsthe battles fought to establishself-determination. Atwood createssituations In her novels, Margaret in which women, burdened by the rules and inequalitiesof their societies, discoverthat they must reconstructbraver,self-reliantpersonaein order to survive.Not too far from the Canadianblueprintof
Patricia F. Goldblatt, afterreceivingher doctoratein 1996, has had her shortstories,book reviews,and longerarticleson litstudiespublishedin the United States eratureand multicultural
(EnglishJournal, MulticulturalReview, Journal of Education), England (MulticulturalTeaching), Canada (English Quarterly,Journal Art, Canadian Womof the Canadian Societyfor Education Through en's Studies), and Korea (Asian Journal of Women'sStudies).

faced with an inclement, hostile envithe voyageur ronment,these women struggleto overcomeand to change systemsthat block and inhibittheir security. Atwood'spragmaticwomen are drawnfromwomen in the 1950s and 1960s: young women blissfully building their trousseausand imagininga paradise of silverbells and picketfences. Yet the author herself was neither encumbered nor restrictedby the definition of contemporary femalein her life as a child. Having grown up in the Canadian North, outside of societal propaganda, she could criticallyobservethe behaviorsthat were indoctrinatedinto her urban peers who lacked diverse role models. As Atwood has noted, "Not even the artisticcommunityofferedyou a viablechoice as a woman" (Sullivan,103). Her storiesdeal with the of female charactersfrom ingenues transformation to insightfulwomen. By examiningher heroes, their predators,and how they cope in society,we will discover where Atwood believes the ability to reconstructour lives lies.
Who are the victims? "But pathos as a literary mode simply demands that an innocent victim suffer"

(Sv, 75). Unlike Shakespeare'shubris-ladenkings or Jane Austen's pert and private aristocratic landowningfamilies, MargaretAtwood relies on a collection of ordinarypeople to carryher tales:university students, museum workers, market researchers, writers, illustrators, and even housemaids. In her novels, almost all dwell on their childhoodyears in flashbackor in the chronological telling of their stories. Many of her protagonists' early days are situated in a virtualGardenof Eden setting, repletewith untamednaturalenvironments. Exploring shorelines, gazing at stars, gathering rocks, and listeningto waves, they are solitarysouls, but not lonely individuals:innocent, curious, and affablecreatures.Elaine Risley in Cat'sEye and an in Surfacing are two women who unnamednarrator recall idyllic days unfolded in a land of lakes, berries, and animals. Offred in The Handmaid's Tale, in her city landscape, also relates a tale of a happy childhood. She is a complacentand assured child, her mother a constant loving companion.In their comfortablemilieus, these girls intuit no danger.

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WORLDLITERATURE TODAY throughouthistory, to marriage.They search for a male figure, imagininga refuge. Caught up in the romantic stereotypes that assign and perpetuate genderroles, each girl does not doubt that a man is the solutionto her problems. Marianand her co-workers In TheEdibleWoman at Seymour Surveys, "the office virgins,"certainly do not question that marriagewill provide fulfillment. In spite of the fact that Marianis suspended between two unappealing men, she does not deviate Marian'ssuitor,Peter,with behavior. from theproper his well-chosen clothes and suave friends, his perfectly decoratedapartment,and even Marianas the choice, is renderedas no more marriage appropriate than the wedding cake's blanklysmiling ornament. If appearance is all, he should suffice.Peter is juxtaposed to the slovenly, self-centeredgraduate student, Duncan, whose main pleasureis watchinghis laundry whirl in the washing machine. Marian is merelya blankslate upon which each man can write or erasehis concept of female. The narratorand her friend Anna, in Surfacing, are also plagued by moody men who are not suphorportiveof women's dreams.In one particularly her to Dave orders Anna's husband scene, rifying strip off her clothes for the movie camera. Anna, humiliated by the request, nevertheless complies. his beShe admits to nightly rapes but rationalizes havior:"He likes to make me cry because he can't whenJoe, the nardo it himself" (S/, 80). Similarly, rator'sboyfriend,proposes,"We should get married ... we might as well" (56), he is dumbfoundedand furious at her refusal. Men aware of the role they as "catches."They beplay accept their desirability lieve that women desirelives of "babiesand sewing" (LO, 159). These thoughtsare parrotedby Peter in TheEdibleWoman when he proclaims,"Peoplewho aren'tmarriedget funny in middle age" (EW, 102). Men uphold the valuesof the patriarchy and women of few into conform, gardens their own trespassing design. In Alias GraceGrace's aspirationsfor a brighter future also dwell on finding the right man: "It was the custom for young girls in this country to hire themselvesout, in orderto earn the money for their dowries, and then they would marry . . . and one day ... be mistress of a tidy farmhouse"(AG, 157-58). In the employmentof Mr. Thomas Kinnear in Richmond Hill, Grace quickly ascertains that the handsome,dark-haired Nancy housekeeper, Montgomery,enjoys many privilegesas the reward for being her master'smistress.Yet, althoughmen may be the only way to elevate status, Grace learns that they cannot be trustedwhen their advancesare rejected.Grace, on trial for the murdersof Kinnear and Montgomery,is incredulouswhen she hears a formerfriend,JamieWelsh, testifyagainsther.

However, other Atwood protagonistsare not as fortunate.Their backgrounds suggest an unhealthy, soil that causes their weedy young plants to twist and permutate. Lady Oracle'sJoan is overweight. Her domineering,impatient mother and her weak fatherpropelher to seek emotionalsatisfactionaway from them. Lesje in LifeBefore Man is the offspring of dueling immigrant grandmotherswho cannot Not allowed agreeon the child'sproperupbringing. to frequentthe Ukrainian"golden church with its fairytaleonion" (LBM, 93) of the one, or the synagogue of the other, Lesje is unable to develop selfconfidence and focuses instead on the inanimate, the solid traditionsof rocks and dinosaurs as her progenitors. Similarly, the females in The Robber Briderevealmiserablechildhoodsunited by parental Roz must performas abuse, absence,and disregard: her mother's helper, a landlady cum cleaning woman;her fatheris absent,involvedin shadydealings in "the old country."Charis,a second character in The Robber Bride, abandonedby her mother and depositedwith Aunt Vi and Uncle Vern, is sexuallyviolatedby those who should have offeredlove and trust.Toni, the thirdof the trio, admitsto loneliness and alienation in a well-educated, wealthy family.Markedby birth and poverty,Grace Marks, an Irishimmigrant in the early 1800s in Alias Grace, loses her mother en route to Canada. Grace is almost drownedby the demands of her drunkenfather and clinging,needy siblings.These exiled little girls,fromweak, absent,or cruelfamilies,made vulnerableby their earlysituations,cling to the notion that their lives will be improvedby the arrivalof a kind stranger, most likelya handsomesuitor.Rather than becoming recalcitrantand cynical, all sustain the golden illusion of the fairy-taleending. In short, they hold to the belief, the myth perpetrated by society:marriage. s women are cognizantof the nurturing Atwood' omissions in their environments.They attempt to cultivateand cope. Charis in The Robber Bridedecides to reinventherself.She changesher name and focuses on what she considers her healing powers inherited from her chicken-raisinggrandmother. She, Roz, and Toni turn their faith to the power of friendship,a solid ring that lessens the painful lack of supportivefamilies. In Alias GraceGrace's burden of an absent family is briefly alleviatedby her friendshipwith anotherhousemaid,Mary Whitney. Mary takes an adoring Grace under her wing and createsfor Gracea fleetingvision of sisterlysupport. Unfortunately for Grace, Mary herself, another trustingyoung woman, is deceived by her employer's son and dies in a botched abortion, leaving Graceonce againabandonedand friendless. In an attempt to reestablish stable, satisfying homes, these women pursue a path, as have women

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GOLDBLATT
Then I was hoping for some token of sympathy from him; but he gave me a stare filled with such reproach and sorrowful anger. He felt betrayed in love. ... I was transformed to a demon and he would do all in his power to destroy me. I had been counting on him to say a good word for me ... for I valued his good opinion of me, and it was a grief to lose it. (AG, 360)

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Women, it seems, must be made malleableto men's desires, accepting their proposals, their advances. They must submit to their sociallydeterminedroles or be seen as "demons."

She learnstheir torturedsecrets and uses their confidences to spirit away the men each woman believes to be the cornerstone in her life. From little girls to sophisticated women, Atwood's protagonists have not yet discerned that trust can be perverted,that they can be reeled in, taken advantageof, constantly abused, if they are not carefulof lurkingpredatorsin their landscapes. Joan in Lady Oracle, longing for friendship,endures the inventivetormentsof her Browniefriends:deadly ploys that tie little girls to trees with skipping

I
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Margaret Atwood

However, it is not only men but also women as Bride agents of society who betray. In The Robber Charis,Roz, and Toni are trickedin theirfriendship by Zenia, an acquaintance from their university days. Each succumbsto Zenia'sweb of deceit. Playing the part of a confidanteand thoughtfullistener, Zenia encouragesthe three women to divest themselves of their tales of their traumaticchildhoods.

ropes, exposing them to strangeleering men under cavernousbridges. Her assassinsjeer, "How do ya' like the club?"(LO, 59). Elaine Risleyin Cat'sEye, like Joan, is a young girl when she discovers the power of betrayalby membersof her own sex. For years she passively succumbs to their games. Perhaps, because she has grownup alone in the Canadian North with her parents and brother, Elaine

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TODAY WORLDLITERATURE namely herself. Her sphereis so small she becomes both victim and victimizer. This view of a woman who connects and projects her image of self onto her body also extends to the functionsof a femalebody: the abilityto controllife by givingbirth. Sarahin the story"The Resplendent Quetzal"(1977) is drainedof all vitalityand desire when her baby dies at birth. Her concept of identity is entangled with her ability to produce a child. When this biological function fails, Sarah's being ebbs. Lesje in Life BeforeMan also observes that, without children, "officiallyshe is nothing" (LBM, as 267). Offred'sidentityand value as a childbearer are proclaimedby her Tale> well, in TheHandmaid's clothes in her totalitarian city of Gilead. She is "two viable ovaries" (HT, 135). She no longer owns a name; she is "Of Fred," the concubine named for the man who will impregnateher. Everystep, every mouthfulof food, everymove is observed,reported, circumvented,or approvedfor the sake of the child she might carryto term. Her only worth resides in her biologicalfunction. Her dreamsand desiresare Her goal is survival. unimportant. The women describedhere do not lash out openly. Each who once trusted in family, marriage,and friendship discovers that treading societal paths does not result in happiness. These disillusioned women, with abortedexpectations,turn theirmisery that not society and inward,acceptingresponsibility its expectationsbut they themselves are weak, unworthy,and have thereforefailed. Who has laid prey and why? "Sometimes fear of
these obstaclesbecomesitself the obstacle"(Sv, 33). At-

seeksthe warmingsocietyof girls. Only when Elaine is deserted, left to freeze in a disintegratingcreek, does she recognizeher peers' malevolencethat almost leads to her death. Elaine knows that she is a defeated human, but rather than confrontingher tormentors, she increases her own punishment nightly:she peels the skin off her feet and bites her lips. Unable to turn outwardin a society that perpetuates the ideal of a submissivefemale, these women turn inwardto theirbodies as shields or ploys. Each has learned that a woman is a commodity, valued only for her appearance.Thereforeit comes as no surprisethat Atwood's protagonistsmeasure their worth in terms of body. Joan in Lady Oraclesees herself as "a huge shapeless cloud" (LO, 65); she drifts.However,her soft edges do not keep her from the bruising accusations of society. Although she loves to dance, Joan'sbulgingbody is an affrontto her mother and ballet teacher'ssensibilities,and so at her ballet recital she is forced to perform as a mothball,not as a butterflyin tulle and spangles. Joan certainlydoes not fit her mother'sdefinition of femininity.Because her ungainlyshape is rejected, Joan decides to hide her form in a mountain of fat, food serving as a constant to her mother's reproaches: "I was eating steadily, doggedly, stubbornly, anythingI could get. The war between myself and my motherwas on in earnest:the disputed territory was my body" (LO, 67). Interestingly, Joan's loving, supportive,and also fat aunt Louisa bequeathsto Joan an inheritancewith the stipulation that she lose one hundredpounds. Atwoodherself was fascinatedby transformations in fairy stories: a person could not become a swan and depart the dreaded scene that mocked the tender aspirations of an awkward ingenue in real life; she could, however, don a new mask and trick those people who had previously harm. proffered In TheEdibleWoman Marian'sbody is also a battlefield. Unable to cope with her impending marriageto Peter, Marianfinds herselfunable to ingest any food that was once alive. Repulsedby her society's attitude of consumerism, Marian concludes that her refusalto eat is ethical.However,her mind and body have split away from each other. Her mind's revulsionat a dog-eat-dog world holds her body hostage: captive territorywhen a woman disagrees with her world. Marian "tri[es] to reason with [her body], accusfing] it of having frivolous whims." She coaxes and tempts, "but it was adamant"(EW, 111). Marian'smind expressesher on the only level on which she possesses disapproval control:ironically,herself.Her punishmentis circular: first, as a victim susceptible because she is a woman subjectto her society's values; and second, as a woman only able to command other women,

wood's girlsare a vulnerable lot, manipulated, packaged, and devastatedby the familiarfaces in uncar-

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GOLDBLATT 279 circlesthat reinforcesocietalimperaing, dictatorial tives. Those once free to roam and explore as children as well as those repressedfrom an earlyage are subject to the civilizing forcesthat customize young the fate of females. to Ironically,this process, girls for the most part,is performed by mothers. Mothers, rather than alleviatingtheir girls' distress, increase their children's alienation. When Elaine'smotherin Cat'sEye venturesto discuss the crueltyof Elaine'sfriends,her words do not fortify Elaine; they admonish her: "Don't let them push you around. Don't be spineless. You have to have more backbone"(CE, 156). Fearingher weaknessis to the tiny crumblingbones of sardines, comparable Elaine maligns herself: "What is happening is my own fault, for not having more backbone" (156). Joan'smother in Lady Oracledoesn't mince words: "Youwere stupid to let the other girls fool you like that" (LO, 61). Instead of offering support, the mothersblame their daughters,aligningthemselves with the girls'accusers. Mothers who themselveshave not found acceptance, success, or ease in society persistin transmitting the old messages of conformity.Joan's mother in Lady Oracleis dumbfoundedthat "even though she'd done the right thing, . . . devoted her life to us, . . . made her familyher careeras she had been told to do," she had been burdenedwith "a sulkyfat slob of a daughterand a husbandwho wouldn'ttalk to her" (LO, 179). Joan echoes her mother's complaintswhen she murmurs,"How destructiveto me werethe attitudesof society"(102). Even the work women do conspiresto maintain the subjectionof their own kind. In her job, in The Marianinvestigateswhat soups, laxEdibleWoman, will please and be purchased.Sancor drinks atives, tioned female activitiesalso reinforcethe imposition and Cat's Eye little of correct values. In Surfacing girls are engrossed in cutting up pictures from Eaton's catalogues that offer labor-savingdevices along with fashionableclothes: children piece together a Utopia of dollhouse dreams. So brainwashedare these girls that when askedto indicatea possiblejob or profession,they answer,"A lady"or "A mother"(CE, 91). In Cat's Eye Elaine Risley's mother does not fit the stereotype.She wears pants, she ice skates, she "does not give a hoot" (CE, 214) about the rules that women are supposedto obey. Renderedimpotent as a role model in her daughter'seyes because she does not abide by the Establishment'scode of correct deportment,Elaine's mother is an outsider Elaine. to a woman'sworldthat captivates Instead of her own nonconforming mother, Elaine is most deeply affected by the indictments from her friend Grace Smeath's mother. Mrs. Smeath, spread out on the sofa and covered with afghans every afternoon to rest her bad heart, damns Elaine for being a heathen: there is something very wrong with Elaine's family, who ignore the protocol of properwomen's wear, summercity vacations, and regular church attendance. Worse yet, Mrs. Smeath,awareof the cruelgamesinflicted on Elaine, does not intervene.Instead she invokes deserved suffering when she decrees, "It's God's punishmentfor the way the other childrentreather [Elaine]. It serves her right" (CE, 180). With God on her side, Mrs. Smeath relies on the Bible as the oldest and surestway of prescribing a femaleidentiand fear. ty instilling In TheHandmaid'sTalethe Bible is likewisethe chief source of female repression.Words are corrupted,perverted,or presentedout of context to establisha man's holy vision of women: Sarah'suse of her handmaid,Hagar, as a surrogatewomb for an heir for Abrahambecomes the legalizingbasis for fornicationwith the handmaids.Acts of love are reduced to institutionalized rapes,and randomacts of violence,banishmentto slag heaps, publichangings, endorsed public killings, bribery, deceit, and all persist under other names in order pornography to maintaina pious hold on women endorsedby the GileadFathers. In spite of the fact that Gilead is praisedby its creators as a place where women need not fear, carefully chosen "aunts" persist in treacherythat robs women of trust. To perpetuatethe status quo, women are kept vulnerableand treatedas children: girls must ask permission,dress in silly frocks, are allowed no money, play no part in their own selfYet Atwood'sgirlstire of their rigiddetermination. enforced ly placement that would preserve some outdatednotion of femaleacceptability.
The escape. "She feels the need for escape" (Sv, 131). After enduring, accepting, regurgitating, denying, and attempting to please and cope, Atwood's protagonists begin to take action and change their lives. Atwood herself, raised on Grimms'Fairy Tales, knew that "by using intelligence, cleverness and perseverance" (Sullivan, 36), magical powers could transform a forest into a garden. However, before realizing their possibilities, many of Atwood's protagonists hit rock bottom, some even contemplating death as an escape. In Surfacingthe narrator, fed up with the superficiality of her companions, banishes them and submits to paranoia. I can't break... I throwon the floor. ... I Everything take off my clothes ... I dip my head beneaththe water ... I leave my dung, droppingson the ground ... I hollow a lairnearthe woodpile... I scrambleon hands and knees ... I could be anything,a tree, a deer skeleton, a rock. (Sf, 177-87)

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WORLD LITERATURE TODAY hopes on a representative facsimile that she hopes will bring her peace for her lost child in the next world as well as rebirth, freeing herself from anxiety and guilt regarding the child's death. Rather than resorting to the cool, cleansing agent of water, Grace Marks, the convicted murderess in Alias Grace, reconstructs her life through stories of her own invention. She fashions a creature always beyond the pale of her listeners' complete comprehension. As told to Dr. Simon Jordan, who has come to study Grace as a possible madwoman, her story ensnares him in a piteous romance. Grace appears outwardly as a humble servant girl always at peril from salacious employers; however, when Grace ruminates in her private thoughts, she reveals that she is worldly wise, knowing how to avoid bad impressions and the advances of salesmen. She is knowledgeable, stringing along Dr. Jordan: "I say something just to keep him happy. ... I do not give him a straight answer" (AG, 66, 98). After rambling from employ to employ in search of security, Grace constructs a home for herself in her stories. Her words, gossamer thin, have the power to erect a facade, a frame that holds her illusions together. In an attempt to discover the missing parts and prove the veracity of Grace's story, her supporters encourage her to undergo a seance. Although she recognizes Dr. Jerome Dupont, the man who will orchestrate the event, as a former button peddler, she does not speak out. When a voice emerges from the hypnotized Grace, it proclaims, "I am not Grace" (403). As listeners, we ponder the speaker's authenticity. Just who our narrator might be, madwoman or manipulator, is cast into doubt. We can only be sure that the young innocent who arrived on Canada's shores penniless and motherless has been altered by the necessity to cope with a destructive hierarchical society unsympathetic to an immigrant girl. Rather than persist and be tossed forever at the whim of a wizened world, each saddened young girl moves to reconstruct her tarnished image of her self.
How? "One way of coming to termsy making sense of one's rootsy is to become a creator" (Sv, 181). At-

She descends to madness, stripping herself of all the trappings of civilized society. Although often consumed with thoughts of suicide in Cat's Eye and The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood's heroines never succumb. Instead they consciously assassinate their former identities through ritual deaths by water. Joan in Lady Oracle orchestrates a baptism in Lake Ontario. Pretending to drown, she relinquishes her former life. With sun-

glasses and scarf, she believes herself reborn, free to begin anew in Italy. Elaine Risley, after her bonechilling encounter in the icy ravine in Cat's Eye, is finally able to ignore the taunts of her friends. Resurrected after two days in bed, a stronger Elaine affirms that "she is happy as a clam, hard-shelled and firmly closed" (CE, 201) against those who would sabotage her; she announces, "I'm ready" (203). Fortified by a new body image with a tougher veneer and a protective mask, Elaine no longer heeds her former tormentors. She has sealed herself from further outrage and invasion. Marian's revelation in The Edible Woman is experienced at the precipice of a ravine, where she comments, "In the snow you're as near as possible to nothing" (EW, 263). Perhaps the fear of becoming one with the ubiquitous whiteness of the landscape and forever losing herself motivates a stand. Similarly, Sarah in "The Resplendent Quetzal" forges a more determined persona after her trial by water. Instead of throwing herself into the sacrificial well in Mexico as her husband Edward fears, she hurls a plaster Christ child stolen from a creche into the water. Believing the tribal folklore that young children take messages to the rain god and live forever in paradise at the bottom of the well, Sarah pins her

wood's victims who take control of their lives discover the need to displace societal values, and they replace them with their own. In Lady Oracle Joan ponders the film The Red Shoes, in which the moral warns that if a woman chooses both family and career, tragedy ensues. Reflecting on childbirth, the narrator in "Giving Birth" (1977) hopes for some vision: "After all she is risking her life. . . . As for the vision, there wasn't one" (GB, 252; italics mine). Toni in The RobberBride and Grace Marks in Alias Grace acknowledge that it is not necessary to procreate. Each is more than her body. A grown-up Elaine Risley in Cat's Eye and the narrator in Surfacing ac-

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GOLDBLATT 281 cept motherhood,but not as an outcome of their gender that will foreclose the possibilitiesof a creative job. In fact, Roz in The Robber Brideis quite able to combine motherhood and a successful career. Dissatisfied with traditional knowledge, Atwood's women again turn inward, now avoiding masochistic traps, fully able to deviate from society's dicta. Freed from constrainingfears, they locate talents,wings that free them. Ratherthan becoming cynical and devastatedby society's visions and its perpetrators, Atwood's women forge on. Roz, Toni, and Charisin TheRobber Bride, who have been betrayed by Zenia, put their faith back into friendship, allowing mutual supportto sustainthem. It is solid; it has been tested. They have turned to one another, cried and laughed, shared painful experiences,knowing that their friendshiphas enduredin a labyrinthof twisted paths. Offredin TheHandmaid's Talealso begins to reshape her world. She envisionsa better place in her thoughts, recording her words on tape. She has hope. Consciously,she reconstructsher present reality, knowingshe is makingan effort to projectan optimistic picture. She says, "Here is a different story, a better one. . . . This is what I'd like to tell" (HT, 234). She relatesthat her tryst with Nick the chauffeur, arrangedby her commander'swife, is caringand loving, enhancedby memoriesfrom her earlierlife in orderto conjurean outcome of happiness. In the short story "HairJewellery" (1977) Atis an academic,a writerwho warns, wood's narrator "Be careful.. . . Thereis a future"(113). With the possibilityof a new beginning,there is a chance that life can improve.In Alias GraceGrace'sfabrications in her stories provide an escape hatch, a version of realitytailoredto fit her needs. For both Offredand Grace, stories are ways of rebelling,of avoidingthe tentacles of a society that would demean and remold them. Their stories are outward masks, behind which they franticallyrepair their damaged spirits. Each alters her world through language. a reconstructed world into exisEach woman speaks tence, herself the engineeringgod of her own fate. Offred confides that handmaidslive in the spaces and the gaps between their stories, in their private silences: only alone in their imaginationsare they free to controltheirown destinies. However,Atwood'sprotagonistsinhabitnot only their minds in secret, but also their bodies in the outside world. Joan, after her disappearancefrom Toronto in Lady Oracle,decides that she must return home and supportthe friendswho have aided her disguise.In the past, just as she had wieldedher bulk as a weapon, so she has used her writing in order to resolve relationships.She has indulged in Gothic romances, positing scenarios;she has even playedout roles with loversin capes. In the end, she "I won't write rejectsher formercraftof subterfuge: any more Costume Gothics." Yet we must ponder her choice to "trysome science fiction"(LO, 345). Although it is difficult to extirpate behavior, women trust the methods that have helped them cope in the past in orderto alter the future. In The EdibleWomanthe womanly art of baking provides Marianwith a way to free herself:she bakes a cake that resemblesherself.Offeringa piece to Peter, she is controllingthe tasty image of a woman, allowing him and, more importantly, herselfto ingest and destroy it. "It gave me a peculiarsense of satisfaction to see him eat," she says, adding,"I smiledcomfortably at him" (EW, 281). Her pleasurein their consumptionof her formerself is symbolicof the death of the old Marian. One might say that Marian'singestionof her own image, Joan's adoption of science fiction, and both Offred's and Grace's stories "in the head" do not promise new fulfillinglives, only tactics of escape. However, their personal growth through conscious effort representsa means to wrest control of their lives from society and transform their destinies. These women become manipulators ratherthan allowingthemselvesto be manipulated. In Cat'sEye Elaine Risley deals with the torment of her early life in her art by moving to Vancouver and exerting power in paint over the people who had condemned her. She creates surrealstudies of Mrs. Smeath:"I paint Mrs. Smeath . . . like a dead fish. . . . One picture of Mrs. Smeath leads to another. She multiplies on the walls like bacteria, standing,sitting,with clothes,withoutclothes"(CE, 338). Empoweredby her success as an artist,Elaine returnsto Toronto for a showing of her work, able to resist the pleas of her formertormentor,Cordelia, now a pitifulpatientin a psychiatric facility.In a dream, Elaine surpassesher desire for revengeand offers CordeliaChristiancharity:"I'm the stronger. ... I reachout my armsto her, bend down. . . . It's all right,I say to her. Youcan go home"(CE, 419). Elaineis reinforcedby the verywords spokento her in the vision that saved her life years before. Her work fosters her liberation.By projectingher rage outside of herself,she confrontsher demons and exalts herselfas a divineredeemer. Conclusion. "Youdon'tevenhave to concentrate on rejecting theroleof victimbecause theroleis no longer a temptation The creativeaspect for you" (Sv, 39). that fortifieseach woman enablesher to controlher life: it is the triumphanttool that resurrectseach one. As artists,writers,friends,each ameliorates her situationand her world, positivelymetamorphosing reality in the process. In societies tailored to the submissionof females,Atwood'sprotagonists refuse

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TODAY WORLDLITERATURE
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to be pinned down to the measurementsof the perfect woman. Instead.,they reconstruct their lives, imprintingtheir own designs in worlds of patterned fabric.Atwoodhas observedthat all writingis political: "The writersimplyby examininghow the forces of society interactwith the individual. . . seek[s] to changesocial structure" (Sullivan,129). Literature has alwaysbeen the place where journeys have been sought, battles fought, insights gleaned. And authorshave always dallied with the plight of women in society: young or old, body or mind, mother or worker, traveler or settler. The womanhas been the divided or fragmented icon who, brokenand downcast,has gazedback forlornly at us fromthe pages of her tellingtale. Margaret Atwood has reconstructedthis victim, provingto her and to us that we all possess the talent and the strength to revitalizeour lives and reject society's well-troddenpaths that suppressthe human spirit. She has shown us that we can be vicariouslyemwho not only now smiles poweredby our surrogate, but winks back at us, daringus to reclaimour own femaleidentities.
Toronto

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