428:: "One sexual role after another is presented but she seems unable to accept any of them." Marian is shaped first by her parents' plans for her future, then by Peter's. Once married, Marian fears Peter's strong personality will obliterate her own fragile identity. This subconscious perception of Peter as predator is manifested by Marian's body as an inability to eat, as a gesture of solidarity with other prey. Following her engagement, the switch to third-person narrative shows that Marian's story is controlled by someone other than Marian herself; following Marian's regaining of identity, Atwood returns to first-person narration.
240:, gloomy theatre or sleazy hotel. In comparison, Peter inhabits genteel bars and a sparkling new apartment. However these changing environments are also used to explore different angles of existence, contrasting a freer, wilder glimpse of life, with a civilised, gilded cage. This highlights the difficulties presented to women in the era, where freedom was synonymous with uncertainty but marriage presented problems of its own.
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dress. Before the party, Ainsley does Marian's makeup, including false eyelashes and a big lipsticked smile. When Duncan arrives, he says, "You didn't tell me it was a masquerade. Who the hell are you supposed to be?" He leaves and Marian follows. They end up going to a sleazy hotel, where they have unsatisfying sex. The next morning, they go out to breakfast and Marian finds that she cannot eat anything.
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construction: the body's assimilation of raw materials (food) is analogous to the social body's assimilation and processing of women into socially acceptable feminine subjects. By not eating, Marian refuses to take in the raw materials used to re-construct her into a role of domesticity. This struggle is made explicit when one of Duncan's roommates expounds on
451:, Nathalie Cooke argues that the characters of Peter, Lucy, and Mrs. Sims were drawn from people in Atwood's life—Peter being a fictionalized version of Atwood's boyfriend (also an amateur photographer) and later fiancé. It is also likely that the name of her roommate and friend Ainsley was inspired by
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Ainsley announces she wants to have a baby—and intends to do it without getting married. When Marian is horrified, Ainsley replies, "The thing that ruins families these days is the husbands." Looking for a man who will have no interest in fatherhood, she sets her sights on Marian's "womanizer" friend
413:
Marian's refusal to eat can be viewed as her resistance to being coerced into a more feminine role. In a description of Peter's apartment, Marian describes the "clutter of raw materials" that had, through "digestion and assimilation", become the walls of the lobby. She sees that consumption precedes
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After Duncan leaves, Marian decides that Peter is metaphorically devouring her. To test him, she bakes a pink cake in the shape of a woman and dares him to eat it. "This is what you really want", she says, offering the cake woman as a substitute to him feeding upon her. Peter leaves disturbed. Once
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In the transitions from first person to third person, Atwood demonstrates Marian's growing alienation from her body. At the company
Christmas party, Marian looks around at the other women, thinking "You were green and then you ripened: became mature. Dresses for the mature figure. In other words,
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Peter decides to throw a party, to which Marian invites "the office virgins" from her work, Duncan, and Duncan's roommates. Peter suggests that Marian buy herself a new dress for his party – something less "mousy" than her normal wardrobe. Marian submits to his wishes and buys a daring red
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Marian and Duncan have a surprise meeting in a laundromat, engage in awkward conversation, and kiss. Shortly afterwards, Marian's problems with food begin when she finds herself empathizing with a steak that Peter is eating, imagining it "knocked on the head as it stood in a queue like someone
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through characters who strictly adhere to them (such as Peter or Lucy) and those who defy their constraints (such as
Ainsley or Duncan). The narrative point of view shifts from first to third person, accentuating Marian's slow detachment from reality. At the conclusion, first person narration
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Ainsley's plot to seduce Len succeeds. When Len later learns that
Ainsley is pregnant, he talks to Marian, who confesses that pregnancy was Ainsley's plan all along. Len reveals his childhood fear of eggs, and from that point Marian can no longer face her soft-boiled egg in the morning. Soon
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Marian later has a dinner date with Peter and Len, during which
Ainsley shows up dressed as a virginal schoolgirl—the first stage of her plan to trick Len into impregnating her. Marian finds herself disassociating from her body as Peter recounts a gory rabbit hunt to Len:
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returns, consistent with the character's willingness to take control of her life again. Food and clothing are major symbols used by the author to explore themes and grant the reader insight on each of the characters' personalities, moods, and motivations.
27:
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From 1963 to 1964, Atwood worked for
Canadian Facts, a Toronto-based survey research firm, fact-checking and editing survey questionnaires. Canadian Facts had a similar work environment to the fictional Seymour Surveys where Marian worked. In
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Marian returns to her first person narrative in the closing pages of the book. Duncan shows up at her apartment; Marian offers him the remains of the cake, which he polishes off. "'Thank you,' he said, licking his lips. 'It was delicious.'"
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fat." Marian refuses to become likewise, which would transform her into a woman and as such be constrained by a sexist culture. Marian is, therefore, alienated from nature as she places herself outside the process of maturation.
267:(never named in the novel) with her roommate Ainsley and dates a dependable, hardworking but boring boyfriend, Peter. Marian also keeps in touch with Clara, a friend from college, who is now a constantly pregnant housewife.
302:"'I’d rather have you decide that. I’d rather leave the big decisions up to you.' I was astonished at myself. I’d never said anything remotely like that to him before. The funny thing was that I really meant it."
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about a new brand of beer. While walking from house to house asking people their opinions, she meets Duncan, a graduate student in
English who intrigues her with his atypical and eccentric answers.
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After a while I noticed that a large drop of something wet had materialized on the table. I poked it with my finger and smudged it around a little before I realized with horror that it was a tear.
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Marian runs from the restaurant and is chased down by Peter in his car. Unaware of
Ainsley's plan to get pregnant by Len, Peter chides, "Ainsley behaved herself properly, why couldn't you?"
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Marian MacAlpin works in a market research firm, writing survey questions and sampling products. She shares the top-floor apartment of a house in
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At the end of the night, Peter proposes to her. When asked to choose a date for the wedding, Marian slips into unexpected passivity:
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The
Dominion of Women: The Personal and the Political in Canadian Women's Literature (Contributions in Women's Studies)
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are becoming separated. Marian begins endowing food with human qualities that cause her to identify with it, and
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waiting for a streetcar." After this, she is unable to eat meat – anything with "bone or tendon or fiber".
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is another friend from college; Clara dropped out second year to marry Joe and now has three children
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Peter leaves, Marian feels hungry and realizes it's just a cake so she starts eating it.
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as having a "sexual-identity crisis", then goes on to describe the structure of both
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Eating
Disorders and Magical Control of the Body: Treatment through Art Therapy
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is a bachelor friend of Marian's from college; he works in television.
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and the first-person narrator during Parts One and Three of the novel.
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Len, who is infamous for his relationships with young, naive girls.
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Empire of Conspiracy: The Culture of Paranoia in Postwar America
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is a graduate student in English with whom Marian has an affair.
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198:-oriented world starts to slip out of focus. Following her
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The Obsession: Reflections on the Tyranny of Slenderness
549: : Introduction to the 1979 edition, selected pages
393:, Duncan's roommates, also graduate students in English.
251:" because it was written in 1965 and thus anticipated
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Engendering Genre : The Works of Margaret Atwood
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468:1969, Canada, McClelland & Stewart, hardcover
457:Victoria University in the University of Toronto
606:Bodies out of Bounds: Fatness and Transgression
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274:At work, Marian is assigned the task of
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567:Margaret Atwood: A Critical Companion
449:Margaret Atwood: A Critical Companion
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471:1969, UK, Andre Deutsch, hardcover
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997:Speeches for Doctor Frankenstein
417:Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
276:gathering responses for a survey
202:, Marian feels her body and her
112:281 pp (first edition, hardback)
1208:McClelland & Stewart books
1013:The Journals of Susanna Moodie
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866:Good Bones and Simple Murders
512:Nischik, Reingard M. (2009).
16:1969 novel by Margaret Atwood
1069:Morning in the Burned House
1005:The Animals in That Country
208:finds herself unable to eat
1224:
1021:Procedures for Underground
1183:Novels by Margaret Atwood
1112:Negotiating with the Dead
24:
377:: Lucy, Emmy, and Millie
932:The Resplendent Quetzal
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186:is the first novel by
162:PR6051.T9 E3 PR6051.T9
69:McClelland and Stewart
1198:Novels set in Toronto
906:Old Babes in the Wood
773:The Year of the Flood
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1188:New Canadian Library
1178:1969 Canadian novels
479:New Canadian Library
253:second-wave feminism
1147:Film and television
1120:Writing with Intent
874:The Labrador Fiasco
789:The Heart Goes Last
717:The Handmaid's Tale
463:Publication details
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834:Murder in the Dark
749:The Blind Assassin
569: : 48–52, 127
545:Atwood, Margaret.
230:gender stereotypes
1203:1969 debut novels
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565:Cooke, Nathalie.
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989:Expeditions
965:collections
818:collections
741:Alias Grace
709:Bodily Harm
693:Lady Oracle
608: : 216
595: : 124
582: : 125
362:Clara Bates
338:protagonist
215:cannibalism
1172:Categories
1061:Interlunar
953:Freeforall
858:Good Bones
623: : 69
502: : 61
486:References
442:Background
433:Alienation
381:Mrs. Bogue
373:The three
328:Characters
238:laundromat
200:engagement
781:MaddAddam
725:Cat's Eye
685:Surfacing
660:Works by
356:Len Slank
172:Surfacing
102:Paperback
98:Hardcover
65:Publisher
1104:Survival
1077:The Door
955:" (1986)
948:" (1983)
941:" (1983)
934:" (1977)
927:" (1977)
882:The Tent
797:Hag-Seed
223:feminist
196:consumer
150:813/.5/4
57:Language
1128:Payback
336:is the
265:Toronto
96:Print (
60:English
1158:(1987)
1139:(2022)
1131:(2008)
1123:(2005)
1115:(2002)
1107:(1972)
1088:(2020)
1085:Dearly
1080:(2007)
1072:(1995)
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963:Poetry
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669:Novels
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225:work.
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88:Canada
37:Author
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245:novel
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192:1969
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286:"
104:)
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