Surfacing: Margaret Atwood

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A nameless protagonist is in northern Quebec, in a very remote area, in search of her father who has gone missing. She brings with her Joe (her boyfriend) and another couple, Anna and David (who are super effed up, btw). She also brings with her ghosts from her past, things that have haunted her her entire life and have somehow kept her separate from others, even from herself, even from the reader (who cannot hope to relate to her, and doesn't ever even learn her name). Paul’s wife. Madame is a French woman living in the village close to the narrator’s father’s island. Simple and polite, she speaks only French. Because they only speak English, the narrator and the narrator’s mother both experience long, awkward conversations with Madame. The Town Priest Soon after, David approaches the narrator and tries to seduce her, stating that Anna and Joe are having an affair. The narrator does not give in to his advances. When Anna hears of the narrator’s rejection of David, it causes her to feel guilty and she is cruel to the narrator instead of her husband. The friends’ relationships remain frayed. Anna is a friend of the narrator and the only other female in their party. She is married to David and at first appears to have a great marriage. However, as the story progresses, it is revealed that their marriage is far from what the narrator had imagined. She thinks of how she had a good childhood and was not aware of what was going on with WWII and the Holocaust (but her brother told her later). Now she walks through the familiar village and waits for nostalgia to hit. There are more boats than cars parked, which means it is a bad season.

There's another review to be written about the theme of Canadian national identity that was, in the early 70s, also (re-)surfacing: the Quebec v. rest of Canada theme, which gives the themes of language, of the difficulty communicating, and the idea of separation an entirely new meaning; and Canada v. America, with the idea of cultural appropriation and overtaking violence the undertone. These themes Atwood weaves together with the personal story. And there is, of course, an environmental / conservation theme that is important. So there are these three worlds colliding and transforming--the personal, the political and the natural--providing not just setting and context but illuminating the commentary the novel is making on separation / individuation, self-definition, and identity; creativity and destruction; birth (and rebirth) and death. Joe asks if there is any news of her father and she says no in a calm, level tone. Maybe that is what he likes about her—her cool demeanor. She cannot remember much about their first meeting except it was in a corner store and then they went and had coffee. He told her later he liked how she took off and put on her clothes like she had no emotion, but she secretly thought to herself that she really didn’t have any. Ever-insightful Margaret Atwood, who creates flawed and unlikable characters, projects us into their heads and makes us sympathize with them. I have yet to run into an Atwood novel I didn't enjoy, but I also think that this book is not quite the same caliber as some of her later work. You could decide she's losing her mind, there's plenty of things that would support that idea. But the way I see it, our girl is in the process of "surfacing" - which to me is someone coming out of the depths, to breathe air. She's rejecting the world she came from, rejecting marriage, kids, religion, French Canadians, Americans (SO anti-American... this I gotta say I didn't quite understand), career, and sex (described several times as death). She morphs into her true self, where titles, statuses, even forms are not necessary to define her identity. The seasoned American guide who takes the narrator, Joe, Anna, and David to and from the narrator’s father’s island. Evans is gruff and minds his own business; he is aware that the narrator’s father has disappeared, but he never asks the narrator about it. Madame

A character who never appears in person. The narrator’s brother fled from his parents years before the novel takes place. The narrator finds it difficult to imagine him as an adult. He nearly drowned as a child, and the narrator constantly reflects on the image of his drowning. He was loving toward his sister, but he had a rather dark childhood. He kept a laboratory on the island, running experiments on animals in jars. The “Fake Husband” Paul’s wife is referred to as “Madame” in the story. She was somewhat friendly with the narrator’s mother since their husbands were friends. However, since the narrator’s mother was an English speaker and Madame was a French speaker, the language barrier seems to have prevented a close friendship. The Narrator's Father

There is not much action at all. There is no fighting, no gun play, no tree masking, no aliens. For instance, in The Kurosawi Corpse Delivery Service which is a manga I have read there is mutilation, embalming and martial arts fighting, it is an exciting story. But in Surfacing there isn’t any of that. The Prot spends a lot of time looking for somethig, either the missing father or something else. If you ask me, I think it was excitement she was looking for. The narrator is glad the others are with her because if she were alone the vacancy and the loneliness would overtake her. David starts to talk about the dead animals this country was built on and Anna chastises him for lecturing and tells him they aren’t his students. She strokes his face lovingly and the narrator wonders what their secret is. They have been married nine years and the narrator remembers how when she got married her husband changed and started expecting things from her.The main characters in Surfacing are the unnamed narrator, her boyfriend, Joe, and their friends, David and Anna. The Unnamed Narrator On a personal level, the narrator's society has alienated her from herself as well as others. The narrator doesn't seem to have any control over her memories or sense of reality. Her stories don't quite blend when she talks about her past with her husband and child. It's almost as though she has been told so many different things, she doesn't know how to separate fact from fiction anymore. The narrator's false memories of her husband and child have been used to distance herself from the guilt of the abortion and affair. But the narrator's complete acceptance of the lies as truth shows how little control she has over her own identity. A young boy working at a generic bar attached to a new motel in the village. Claude gives fishing licenses to David and to other tourists and also guides American tourists on fishing expeditions. He speaks in a yokel dialect. Evans Through the protagonist, Atwood examines the destructive nature of human beings, against each other and the other living creatures they have to share spaces with. In such vivid prose she transports the reader to a Canadian lake surrounded by woods. The narrator discovers that the wall paintings are under the lake. David maliciously teases Anna, humiliating her by demanding she take her clothes off for his film project. Anna tells the narrator David is unfaithful to her and she is unhappy. The narrator later asks David why he is horrible to Anna, and he says he does it because she often cheats on him.

So, if you happen to know the general plot of Margaret Atwood's Surfacing, you can understand, with confidence, that I have very little in common with the Unnamed Protagonist. We both might have had unusual parents, but the commonalities stop there. In both cases, the camera symbolizes how the value of women and nature is commodified by the patriarchy, alienating both from the society in which they exist. The narrator eventually destroys the film as an act of rebellion against the oppression, exploitation, and alienation of women and their identities. Surfacing Themes Two Canadian campers whom the narrator initially mistakes for American tourists. They are avid fishers, and they befriend David. They are also responsible for killing and hanging a heron, and for their senseless violence the narrator believes them to be Americans. Claude The novel, grappling with notions of national and gendered identity, anticipated rising concerns about conservation and preservation and the emergence of Canadian nationalism. [2] It was adapted into a movie in 1981. He is the son of the owner of the village motel and bar. In addition to helping his father run the bar, he works as a fishing guide. MalmstromI sum him up, dividing him into categories: he's good in bed, better than the one before; he's moody but he's not much bother, we split the rent and he doesn't talk much, that's an advantage. When he suggested we should live together I didn't hesitate. It wasn't even a real decision, it was more like buying a goldfish or a plotted cactus plant, not because you want one ni advance but because you happen to be in the store and you see them lined up on the counter. I'm fond of him, I'd rather have him around than not; though it would be nice if he meant something more to me. The fact that he doesn't makes me sad: no one has since my husband. A divorce is like an amputation, you survive but there's less of you. Feminism, a theme in many of Atwood's novels, is explored through the perspective of the female narrative, exposing the ways women are marginalized in their professional and private lives. [6] Allusions to other works [ edit ] The narrator’s ex-lover. The fake husband is eventually revealed to be the narrator’s art professor, a married man with whom she had an affair. He forced the narrator into having an abortion. He is emotionally callous in nature and tries to avoid letting his affair with the narrator influence his actions. Bill Malmstrom