Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace

In “Gathering” by Margaret Atwood, the authors use imagery to describe the aging process of the people around her. She use many forms of imagery throughout her story, however there are some instances where her use of imagery really helps to portray her idea of what the aging process visually looks to her; this use of imagery is clearly seen when the author compares aging to” raw wood in a salt wind” (line 5). The authors uses the comparison of aging and the wood to create a image in the readers mind that is very recognizable, because most of her readers have either seen or know that when wood is left close to water especially salt water it becomes very soft and eventually disintegrates. The use of the wood near a salt wind this helps to give

The essay The Writer's Responsibility by Margaret Atwood is written with the intent of urging the privileged writer to utilize their position to speak out for those who are unable to. Her intention is a noble one which I am in agreement with, however, in order for her to express this intent her tone is quite straightforward. It is this candid tone in combination with several generalizations which I have a gripe with. For example, on several occasions Atwood degrades her readers through grand generalizations such as when she says “on a whole the audience prefers art not to be a mirror held to life but a disneyland of the soul” (Atwood 1).

What would you do if you were accused of a crime you did not commit? Would you be angry, or would you fight it? What would you do if you were punished for proclaiming you were innocent? This was the reality of many people in Massachusetts in the late-1600s. The poem “Half-Hanged Mary”, by Margaret Atwood, is written about this situation. It tells the story of an alleged witch, Mary Webster, being hanged and left over night. The next morning, to the villager’s surprise, she was still alive. Mary continued living for another 14 years after the incident. Although, the theme seems to be about a witch surviving an execution; it is actually about an innocent person surviving an unjust assumption.

June 1893, Lizzie was arrested and sent to trial. The all-male jury was put into a difficult position. (Lizzie). It was the Victorian Era where women were considered delicate flowers and not capable of killing someone and it was not a common issue to deal with in those times. (History Channel). After only an hour of deliberating, the jury declared Lizzie to be not guilty. It is said it only took them 15 minutes to decide, but out of respect for the prosecution, they waited another 45 minutes before they informed the court of their decision. (Lizzie).

I did not realize how unfortunate of a life she really lived. It made me sad to see how much caregivers of a child can affect the child’s quality of life. Throughout this paper I often wondered if someone else would have raised Aileen would she still have killed seven men or have been even remotely as violent as she was. I wonder this because I reviewed photos of the victims, all were older white men in their 40’s to 60’s. I believe that maybe Aileen committed these murders sublimely to gain control of her grandfather. I found Aileen interesting to write about as she is one of the United States first forty female serial killers but often referred to as the first because of just how many men she killed. Additionally I have two cousins abandoned by their mother at a young age that live a rocky life. So writing this paper helped me understand how to help them stay on the right path and what type of support they may need now and in their futures. I think Aileen could have reached out for help. I feel that when the abuse began by her grandfather she should have gone for help but unfortunately she did not. This changed Aileen’s life forever. If at fourteen Aileen wouldn’t have begun prostituting she may not have learned to dissociate her body and still had emotions as an adult and therefore not turned violent. Writing this paper has really influenced me by solidifying the

In The Red Parts: An Autobiography of a Trial, Maggie Nelson, the author tells the story about her aunt who was murdered in 1969 and how her family suffers through the reopening of the case. Maggie’s aunt, Jane Mixer, was found dead, shot in the back of the head twice, strangled, and then was left unceremoniously, abandoned in a cemetery. Because of the way Jane’s murder was presented, she was thought to be part of a killing spree. During the initial investigation, the police arrested a suspect in 1970 and he was sentenced to life in prison. In 2005 however, Maggie’s family got a call from a detective explaining that he might have a new lead in Jane’s murder and that the man that they originally arrested for it, was innocent after all. He had “every reason to believe [that] this case [was] moving swiftly towards a successful conclusion” (Nelson 1).

Childhood is a reoccurring theme in Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake. Children often grow up and develop into unique individuals based upon their own morals and values however their later lives are largely influenced by their childhood and those who were around them. Atwood dives into the childhood of two characters Jimmy who is also known as Snowman and a young girl by the name of Oryx. The novel follows the characters back and forth between childhood and adulthood and it is made clear what has influenced the characters in the past to be who they are in their later lives. The evidence is shown in ways such as their occupations, behaviour and even ability to possess and maintain mature relationships.

As I first started to read ‘Oryx and Crake’, I was somewhat skeptical of whether or not I would enjoy reading it. The first chapter confused me with unusual words that I have never heard or seen before. Whenever I read something it is usually a book or magazine that I plan on reading or that is based on actual facts on a certain subject such as history or sports related. This book came as a surprise as I started to read it because it was not as hard to understand as I thought it would be and was actually quite enjoyable. The symbols in this book can mean many different things based on what the reader believes since religion plays a big part in it.

Atwood uses simple, but effective imagery to engage the senses of the reader, for example: ‘[…] that is a fish, blue and flat’ (l. 4). These images grow more elaborate and it becomes clear that she uses metaphors and simile to convey more intricate ideas. As the speaker confesses that there is more to the world than they let on, the use of enjambment, repetition and punctuation directs the focus on certain words and gives the poem certain acuteness and urgency as the pace increases: ‘Once you have learned these words | you will learn that there are more |words than you can ever learn.’ (l. 21-23).

There are many companies in the world today that put an idea of this perfect female body into the heads of women. These images lead to a faulty standard men hold of women and their bodies and that women strive to become. Margaret Atwood addresses the issue of the way men view the female body by writing her essay in the viewpoints of a male so the reader can better understand how the expectation men have of the female body is unrealistic. First, she uses an allusive comparison to show the male expectation of the female body and how it is objectified as if it were a doll that comes with accessories. Next, she uses an anecdote with defamiliarization to show how the way the father views a Barbie doll and the way it portrays the female body to young girls is hypocritical. Lastly, Margaret Atwood uses insidious diction to talk about how men not only view the female body as a product but how they also use the female body as a product which can be sold amongst businessmen. In The Female Body, Margaret Atwood uses many rhetorical devices to convey how the female body is viewed through the eyes of men.

Finally, the reader is introduced to the character around whom the story is centered, the accursed murderess, Mrs. Wright. She is depicted to be a person of great life and vitality in her younger years, yet her life as Mrs. Wright is portrayed as one of grim sameness, maintaining a humorless daily grind, devoid of life as one regards it in a normal social sense. Although it is clear to the reader that Mrs. Wright is indeed the culprit, she is portrayed sympathetically because of that very lack of normalcy in her daily routine. Where she was once a girl of fun and laughter, it is clear that over the years she has been forced into a reclusive shell by a marriage to a man who has been singularly oppressive. It is equally clear that she finally was brought to her personal breaking point, dealing with her situation in a manner that was at once final and yet inconclusive, depending on the outcome of the legal investigation. It is notable that regardless of the outcome, Mrs. Wright had finally realized a state of peace within herself, a state which had been denied her for the duration of her relationship with the deceased.

Throughout The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood utilizes various elements of fiction to develop and question the concept of power and control in the patriarchal society of Gilead. Offred, the main Handmaid, is the instrument of which Atwood delivers her message about corruption and power. Offred’s vague diction, unreliable characterization, and erratic tone illustrate the distress of this transitional society (Abcarian 1403-1404). In the beginning of Chapter 23, the role of memory in the novel expands, and the readers test the narrator’s creditability. Offred concludes that all of her memories are “reconstructions”, and that she will continue this practice even if she escapes Gilead. She continues to relate fluid memories to forgiveness and forgiveness to an unnaturally complacent and obedient population (Atwood 134-135). Identifying a powerful relationship between memories, forgiveness, and power, Offred suggests that the main source of Gilead’s totalitarian power is the regime’s ability to manipulate its citizens’ will to forgive past transgressions.

The book starts of with a very brief biography of the victim, Debbie Carter and

The experiences we have in childhood do much to shape our adult identity. In her novel Cat's Eye, Margaret Atwood chronicles the life of artist Elaine Risley, and through a series of flashbacks shows the reader how she became her adult self. The retrospective showing of Elaine's artwork provides a framework for the retrospective of her journey from child to adult. Because Atwood was creating a fictional character, she was free to incorporate some very dramatic events that impacted Elaine's thoughts and feelings. Most of us do not have as much drama in our lives I certainly did not and yet the people, circumstances and occurrences in our lives affect us profoundly. We create our identity by the friends we choose, the decisions we make, and the way we respond to things that happen around us. Some things happen to us, and we also make conscious choices.

Margaret Atwood creates a haunting and beautiful piece describing the experience a sad child goes through. She structures her poem by using five stanzas; two stanzas consisting of five lines, then one stanza with ten lines, and ending with two stanzas consisting of five lines. She uses simple yet powerful diction, tone, metaphors, similes, symbolism, and imagery to show the unknown speaker giving advice to a sad child. Her message/theme is sadness is a part of life and there are different ways to deal with it, but when death comes the thing that one is being sad about doesn’t matter.