preview

Hairball Essay

Good Essays

Hairball A solitary woman sits in conversation with a benign tumour that had just recently been removed from her ovary. As the woman speaks, the inanimate tumour, which she has named Hairball, looks on from its glass encased perch atop the fireplace. The scene is macabre and certainly unusual, but such is the life of Kat, the main character in Margaret Atwood’s short story, Hairball. Kat’s life is filled with the unusual and the shocking, a lifestyle that has been self-imposed. Throughout the years, Kat, an "avant garde" fashion photographer, has altered her image, even her name, to suit the circumstances and the era. Over time Kat has fashioned a seemingly strong and impenetrable exterior, but as Kat’s life begins to disintegrate …show more content…

Finally, when she found her way to England, she became Kat, “[the name Kat] was economical, street-feline, and pointed as a nail.” The short, hard name was a reflection of her hard demeanor. Kat constantly tried to separate herself from the commonality of her environment. When she was told that her tumor was fairly common her reply was that, “She would have preferred uniqueness.” Kat wanted to stand out; she did not want to be another “Clarissa, Meliassa or Penelope,” but she understood that conformity, to the values of her society, would be a requirement if she wanted to succeed in her personal and professional life. With this in mind, Kat chose to integrate those values into her own personal approach.

She’d shaved off most of her hair, worked on the drop-dead stare, perfected a certain turn of the neck that conveyed an aloof inner authority. What you had to you had to make them believe was that you knew something they didn’t know yet. (p.17)
As the conflict between Kat and her society, she finds herself losing the fight. Despite accolades she received while working on the razor’s edge, Kat’s life is less than successful. Her relationships with competitive men and left her broken and hurt. “Twice she had abortions, because the men in question were not up for the alternative” (pp.17). Kat’s choice to

Get Access