Margaret Atwoods Surfacing Essay -- Margaret Atwood Surfacing Essays

Margaret Atwood's 'Surfacing' Throughout the book the narrator constantly intertwines the past and present as though it is side by side. Atwood shows this in the opening sentence ‘’I can’t believe I’m on this road again’’. The use of the adjective ‘again’ reveals the narrator has been in this place in an earlier life. The narrator seems to repress a lot of her past and continuously contradicts herself, which at times confuses the reader as we can not tell whether she is talking about her past or her present and whether she regards it as home as she says ‘’Now were on home ground foreign territory’’. This links in with one of the key divisions in the story between the Americans and the Canadians that is portrayed throughout the book. This paradoxical declarative reveals that the protagonist feels she should belong there but feels detached from this childhood place, suggesting she may feel alienated from this place revealing something oppressive about this home ground. Also David is the key person who emphasizes this division between the Americans and Canadians. On page three David stresses ‘’Bloody fascist pig Yanks’’, reiterating the stereotypical Canadian disliking of the Americans, using his usual hostile, aggressive language. Ironically David seems to be the fascist pig being the unpleasant chauvinistic pig. The use of the adjective ‘foreign’ links in with the division of language between French and English that we see later in the book. In chapter 2 we see that there is a clear division between the narrator and any emotions. We see that the narrator is emotionally detached from her husband and her child as she â€Å"left him in the city, that would be perfectly true, only it was different city; he... ...ust them, I can’t think of anyone else I like better, but right now I wish they weren’t here†. This shows that the narrator is showing her regrets for bringing them with her reiterating her distrust in them. We also begin to see the narrators distrust in those who are closest to her, her family. When she begins to reminisce on the past she refers to her family with the third person pronoun â€Å"they† for example when she says â€Å"they used to go over it as fast a possible† then later realizes this mistake she is making and states â€Å"that won’t work, I can’t call them ‘they’ as if they were somebody else’s family†. However the tables are turned as we the readers begin to realize that it is the protagonist that we are unable to trust. This is due to the protagonist’s constant self contradictions and self corrections as she says â€Å"my husband, my former husband†.