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Analysis Of The Story ' Cat 's Eye '

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The story "Cat 's Eye" begins with an extremely short chapter, as the main character quotes her brother. She states, "Time is not a line, but a dimension, like the dimension of space." (Atwood 3) This starts off the story as she will continue to look back into her past, and what events made her who she is right now. She also quotes "You don 't look back along time but down through it, like water. " (3) This sets up the entire story as she proclaims that she isn 't looking at her past as if it 's something far away, but something that is easily tangible. If it was a line, it would feel like something that could easily fade away, something that could be covered up, something that isn 't easily seen. But it 's more like a reflection,…show more content…
Memories from when she first moved to Toronto when she was 8, and growing older as she becomes more accustomed to living there. She grew up in the 40 's, right after the Second World War. Elaine states in an interview with a young woman that "[t]he war. There are people who remember the war and people who don 't. There 's a cut off point, there 's a difference." (93) She grew up around a time when World War 2 still left a mark on many people, and society in the 1940 's was very rigid. Elaine was known for being a feminist painter, and the 1940 's could 've influenced this because around this time, since men had to go off and fight, women took on many new roles, such as factory jobs instead of staying at home. Elaine originally was used to travelling a lot as her father was a forest-insect field researcher, and after she moved to Toronto, she was forced to become a part of society, and was very desperate to fit in because it was her first time staying in such a city for a long period of time.
There are multiple characters that are introduced in the story. The most notable ones are Elaine, Cordelia, Grace, Carol, and Stephen. Elaine is the main character, and the sister of Stephen. In her middle age, she seems closed off, and still clings onto the need of impressing Cordelia. She states "If I were to
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