Feminist_Identity_in_Margret_Atwoods_Surfacing

FEMINIST IDENTITY IN MARGARET ATWOOD’S SURFACING RESEARCH PAPER Submitted to Regional Institute of English Sector-32, Chandigarh For the Proposed Research Project For PGCTE 93 Supervisor: Submitted by: Ms. Geetanjali Harpreet sidhu Assistant Professor RIE,SECTOR-32,CHANDIGARH Margaret Atwood is amongst the few women authors who enjoy immense popularity and eminence in the Commonwealth World . She has contributed significantly in the field of literature and is recognized, both at home and abroad , as the author of great accomplishments. She is amongst the selected few woman of letters who have , at the same time been poet , critic , nature – lover, fiction writer, autobiographer , and a true woman. Certainly one of the most talked about Canadian writers, Margaret Atwood has been referred to as the “female star of Canada’s literary elite”, “a prophet in her own country”, “the undisputed queen of Canadians letters and a cult heroine”(wikipedia). There has been a mythology built up around Atwood : everyone is fascinated by this woman who calls herself a literary freak and refers to her work as rather quirky and eccentric. Surfacing is Atwood’s best book to date and perhaps an enduring achievement . The portrait in depth of the main character , the thick texture of the narrative and the richness of the setting are so fully realized that the novelty is likely to last beyond the topicality of its themes. Its themes are such that the book would be a Canadian and a counter – classic , even if its portrayal of emotions were less concretely present within the novel and its themes treated less subtly and complexly. The problem of establishing both a personal and social identity is a recurrent theme in postcolonial literature , especially that composed by writers from subaltern groups. In Surfacing Atwood explores this problem in a manner which parallels that of Third World writes in striking ways. Atwood extends the theme of identity beyond the colonial situation , developing and generalising it. First, personal identity is not some sort of immediate self experience. It is rather a self-constitution. It is not how you feel but how u see and conceive of yourself. Moreover , this self-constitution is structured according to a hierarchy of categories. We do not understand in terms of series of attitudes , preferences , behaviour , etc. which we directly observe in ourselves ; rather , we understand ourselves in terms of general categories and simply assume that our attitudes fit in with those determined by such categories. For example men tend to assume that they have “masculine” traits , women that they have “feminine” traits. Men believe themselves to speak in a “masculine”way (e.g. not using tag questions) , while women believes themselves to speak in a “feminine” way(e.g. using tag questions) , relatively independently of what they actually do.(Hogan,181) Finally , this self-constitution is a matter of social attribution. Certain categories become broadly definitive in any society and these categories are more or less assigned to individuals. We are told , directly and indirectly , that male or female ,that we belong to a certain race , religion , or ethnic group and so on. In other words , our personal identities are defined in their very foundations by the socially valued categories to which we are assigned. It should be obvious that personal identity is inseparable from social identity. In Surfacing , the problem of subalternity is only a part of the larger problem , a problem we might refer to as “modernity”. Specifically , in this novel Atwood implicitly presents three alternative conceptions of identity : natural , traditional and what she calls “American” , or what we have just referred to as “modern”(Hogan,182). More exactly , Surfacing is structured as a sort of inverse history. Rather than moving from natural state through tradition to modernity , the novel begins with a return from the modern city to the more traditional countryside and ends with a failed attempt to achieve a natural condition. At the end of the novel , striving to return to nature , the protagonist discovers that nature provides no identity. Identity is necessarily bound up with history and memory , it is a form of synthesis. But to return to nature, in contrast , “Everything from history must be eliminated”(Surfacing,211). In the natural state , the narrator can not constitute herself perceptually ; she can not even allow herself a glimpse of her own face , to see herself as a visual object:”I must stop being in the mirror” she explains , turning the reflective surface toward the wall(Surfacing,209). Moreover , as if following Lacan’s concept of self constitution as based on both the mirror stage and the Name of / from -the -father , she renounces not only visual but verbal self-constitution:”I no longer have a name”(Surfacing,201) , she announces. Indeed , nature is anonymity , lacking not only patronyms , but all words:”the animals learned to eat without nouns”(Surfacing,176):they “have no need for speech”(Surfacing,217). Perhaps a good thing , she conjectures “Language divides us into fragments”(Surfacing,172). When she was a child ,”none of the women had names”(Surfacing,26) , they were just“Madame” , “Mrs” . they were not allowed personal identity , except relative to a husband. Just as Anna now defines herself by vague talk “about fluidity and being” , but falls back finally on saying ,”I’m David’s wife”(Surfacing,64). And as a child , “when they asked you what you were going to be when you grew up, you said ,’a lady or a mother’ ”(Surfacing,105). While her brother draws in his notebook , she-even this unusual girl , later to become an aspiring artist-does not draw. In her notebooks “there were no drawing at all , just illustrations cut from magazines and pasted in. they were ladies all kinds : holding up cans of cleanser , knitting , smiling , modelling toeless high heels and nylons with dark seams and pillbox hats and veils”(Surfacing,105)-“all kinds” , she tell us , but “all” here means only happily labouring housewives , only fashionably attractive spouses. And when the little girl did draw it was “ladies in exotic costumes….Their arms and legs….constrained in fashion model poses” ; “glamour” , she explains, “was a kind of religion”. This was tradition : no identity for woman. She can not and would not go back:”Impossible to be like my mother, it would need a time wrap”(Surfacing,56). And yet she feels her modern career – unexpressive, work, controlled commercial art-to be equally alien”the career I suddenly found myself having I did not intent to but I had to find something I could sell. I’m still awkward with it…it feels strapped to me like an aqualung or an extra , artificial limb”(Surfacing,56). The only order presumed that men should be in charge. She says, “I think men ought to be superior”(Surfacing,130)that would solve the problem. Sexual politics i.e. the imbalance of power between the sexes is one of Atwood’s major concern in Surfacing. She articulates the crippling effects on women of a social system which enforces rigid gender definitions. The novel deals with some basic concerns of feminine life for instance – marriage , divorce and abortion. Growing up female in a masculine world , Atwood’s protagonist has a n experience of Sexual colonialism when she is just a school going child. She vividly remembers how “the boys chased and captured the girls after school and tied them up with their own skipping ropes “(Surfacing,222). The protagonist is nameless . but it is not just she who is without a name and thus, without identity. In fact "none of the women had names then”(Surfacing,29). Atwood has been able to suggest that what is describing , not the agonies of a particular woman but of women at large.Infact, men would like women to remain oppressed as well as suppressed. The idea of woman as a free and independent existent is intolerable to them. No wonder David would like the housewives to learn just “to switch on the TV and switch of their heads” because he is convinced that “that is all they need to know”(Surfacing,129). Paul is surprised to see her without her husband when she returns to the island to look for her missing father. He feels that “a man should be handling this”(Surfacing,25). Atwood shows a serious concern with women’s destiny in a male dominated world. Among other issues , Surfacing has for its focus the fact that love between the sexes is complicated , corrupted or obscured by a unequal balance of power”(Hogan,185). She distrusts the word ”love” because for men love is nothing but sex. Even Joe is no less demanding and exploitative than any other man. Atwood believes compounds the problems for women “it seemed to me that getting married would be like a bind of death”(Surfacing,170). In a sharp contrast to her attitude to marriage is Anna’s who tells her friend that marriage was ”like skiing”(Surfacing,92). The protagonist also wanted to learn this secret trick. But as the narrative unfolds itself , the reader along with the protagonist comes to know that Anna with her hypocritical statements about marriage. The minds of both Anna and David are bruised by doubts about each other. So much so that Anna suffers from a devastating feeling that David wishes her dead. The reality of their situation is that David does not know “how to love”(Surfacing,138). He wishes to be loved absolutely and accuses Anna of infidelity. When he finds Joe and Anna missing , his entire nervous system gets shaken. Protagonist is disgusted with David , because for him , as for any other man , woman is nothing beyond sex and slave. Anna for example is never seen without her make up because as she says David “gets mad”(Surfacing,140) if he sees her without it. He tortures Anna to expose her naked body not only to him and his companion Joe but also to the camera. David forces Anna for a nude photograph , Anna resists David’s offer for a while thinking she can protect the sancitity of her body. Joe too bored or excited by Anna’s resistance pleadswith David to leave her alone but David shouts him down.“Shut up , she’s my wife”(Surfacing,155)Thus, Davis succeeds in taking the photograph of the naked body of his wife who is left to cry. But the protagonist displays tremendous courage to react against male oppression. She unwinds the camera film and throws it into the lake. The protagonist feels happy to free ”hundred of tiny naked Annas”(Surfacing,192) who were “no longer bottled and shelved”(Surfacing,192). The protagonist’s separation from the imagined husband whom she calls – “non husband”(Surfacing,205) is enough to destroy her. Her relationship with the man who betrayed her keeps haunting her and she keeps wearing the ring he gave her. Atwood is aware of the fact that a traditional society views divorce with the same disaster with which it views a spinster and this is the reason why she does not want Paul and his wife to know about it. Atwood displays a superb, penetrating awareness of the traumatic experience of abortion in the life of a sensitive woman. She is disgusted that the obsessive lust for power makes men feel that they have control even on the process of childbirth which nature has assigned exclusively to women. We can notice the devastating effect of abortion on a woman’s psyche. It gives her a feeling of emptiness. She has been deprived of the joys and thrills of motherhood. She remembers that he was not there with her during this painful experience. When finally she comes to understand her mother’s message of motherhood, she indulges in a kind of act of depersonalised sex with Joe and thinks that she has conceived. She tries to assure herself that this time she will be able to save the baby. Obviously, she is confessing her complicity in the act of abortion of the previous baby. This time she is also determined to prove that the process of childbirth is women’s power not men’s. Now, so far as her relations with Joe are concerned, she shares a flat with Joe in a way likes him for several reasons. There is no sexual bond. He is not so much different from other men. Even for him “chewing gum” and “holding my hand” serve the same purpose i.e. “they both pass the time”. Marriage just for the sake of convention and convenience makes no sense to her. If at all marriage is to take place, Atwood believes it should follow love. She is greatful to Joe for having given her “the part of himself I need”(Surfacing,117). The protagonist, is having him perform the sexual art with her, has actually used Joe and has no emotional involvement. Thus, in this case, it is the woman who has won, not the man. Thus the novel is a great feminist awakening. The New Woman as the rebel is prepare to confront “to struggle and survive with dignity”(Iqbal,36). She comes to realize that woman herself has got to have faith in her own powers. The nameless narrator of Surfacing , thus represents the feminine consciousness and shows a woman’s struggle to free herself. Through her protagonist, Atwood has revealed not only the stereotyped perception of woman and the traditional society’s expectations from her but she has also shown the changing man-woman relationships. Surfacing shows a new hope that a woman can emerge as a New Woman with a new courage to lead an authentic life. She can assert her powers and refuse to be “a mouse” or “a bird”(Surfacing,221). All on her own, she can face the challenges of life and needs no gods to help her now. But Atwood’s novel does not advocate sexual separatism. It does not say that men should or can be excluded and in this sense it does not transport the reader to any utopian land. In fact, woman can not aspire to be whole without becoming mother and she can not become a mother without man’s help. Hence, by implication woman needs man to complete her but then men should not be obsessed with lust for power which turns human beings into Americans and mars man-woman relationships which could be wonderful otherwise.(For Atwood, anyone obsessed with power is an American.) Thus, Surfacing is a superb exercise, in consciousness raising. It raises the consciousness among women that even though the male world tends to allow women no other place except that of an object, women can actualize themselves and refusing passivity they can aspire to the subject positions provided they can learn to rely on their own powers. It is difficult but not impossible for women to deconstruct the myth of ‘femininity’, to refuse a secondary place in the world vis-à-vis men, to carve out a place of significance for themselves. It raises the consciousness among men that women are not just commodities to be possessed. They are as much human as the men. It also tries to establish the fact that the two sexes are complementary and neither is complete without the other. Hence, what is recommended is a happy, harmonious coexistence between the two sexes, where neither of the sexes is considered ‘the first sex’ or ‘the second sex’. They are only different and complement each other. Works Cited * Atwood, Margaret. Surfacing. New York: Fawcett, 1972 * Hogan, Patrick C. Identity and Imperialism in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing. USA: University of Connecticut, 1986 * Kaur, Iqbal.”Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing” A Critical Study. Chandigarh: Arun Publication, 1994 * “Margaretatwood”.wikipedia.wikipediaorg,n.dweb.26sep.2010.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Atwood