Margaret Atwood's 'Cat's Eye': An Analysis

The Eye of the Sheep, written by Sophie Laguna is a strong example of how memorable texts can both disturb the reader as well as instil hope. The novel follows the story of the narrator Jimmy Flick, a young, unusual boy and his family. Laguna’s writing style and use of language throughout the text enables the reader to feel the pain and distress in Jimmy’s family without ever losing hope that things will work out. One of the ways in which she does this is through the use of Jimmy’s voice, as it allows the reader to feel the positive energy bubbling inside of Jimmy, while still witnessing the problems that Jimmy’s family have to deal with, such as his father’s drinking habits. Another way is the manner in which the characters are constructed. All the members of Jimmy’s family have multiple facets to them. They are all complex characters that have both light and darkness within them. Through these cleverly constructed characters, Laguna how even good people can do disturbing things. While reading the Eye of the Sheep, there have been multiple different perspectives that have enriched my own interpretation of this text, that again show different facets to the story.

Charlotte rejects her mother’s ideology from a young age, and has the perspective to see past the illusions of perfection her mother creates, and Miss. Hancock gives her the weapons to fight her mother. In seventh grade, Miss. Hancock teaches Charlotte about the metaphor, sparking the creativity within Charlotte her mother shunned. The metaphor becomes a symbol throughout the short story, but it also develops into something deeper. The metaphor becomes an allegory of Charlotte 's rebellion against her mother’s influence, and her future. Writing is an outlet, an opportunity for Charlotte to express and understand herself. The form of expression was a gift from Miss. Hancock, who arms her with the power of creativity. “‘My home,’ I said aloud, ‘is a box It is cool and quiet and empty and uninteresting. Nobody lives in the box,” Charlotte says in seventh grade. She has a complex understanding of herself, and is able to articulate her frustrations through metaphors. After graduating out of Miss. Hancock’s seventh grade class, the story picks up introducing the reader to Charlotte as a

In Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut investigates the negative impacts that can result from humanities pursuit of knowledge through literary structure, irony, and symbolism. Kurt Vonnegut, well known for his pessimistic attitude and writing concerning the flaws of human nature, focuses this energy into Cat’s Cradle. Using satire interweaved with poetry, Vonnegut is successful in challenging the merits of human progress.

At the mention of the name Alice, one tends to usually think of the children’s stories by Lewis Carroll. Namely, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are two classic works of children’s literature that for over a century have been read by children and adults alike. These two stories tell the tale of a young girl named Alice who finds herself in peculiar surroundings, where she encounters many different and unusual characters. Although Alice is at the centre of both stories, each tale is uniquely different in its purpose, characters and style.

On the surface, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home seems simply to be a memoir of her journey towards discovering her own identity, and in the process, uncovering her father’s. However, the novel is far more complex. The graphic novel is not linear in the least, and mimics memory as it moves backwards and forwards in time, or returns to specific situations repeatedly. This is layered with the numerous references to previous literary texts in an interesting manner; combined, it provides emotional and informative layers to the novel. Bechdel starts to especially question binaries and pushes the boundaries of what it means to be a female and male in a relatively patriarchal society with no middle ground around the rules; as the novel shows, this affects not only Bechdel’s own pursuit towards her identity but has a significant, and ultimately fatal, impact on her father, Bruce.

But I was a changed child. Months of pampering and the ridicule of my cousins had turned me inward. But now when the world filled me, I could no longer draw it out. I was sullen and dependent on my mother’s sole attention, tender-hearted, and whiney: the classic temperament of the artist but without anything to show for my bad character.

The autobiographical graphic novel “Fun Home,” by Alison Bechdel presents characters evolving to the reader in an intimate way. She reveals within her novel the high cost of claiming to be gay or lesbian within America. Instead of reading the author’s recollection of her experiences, her graphic novel connects the reader within the experience as the observer. This allows the reader to look at both the personality of the novelist and the developmental impacts that have shaped her. “Fun Home,” is a distinctively persuasive novel that is entangled within the lives of Alison’s family. While presenting to the reader the explanations of Bruce’s death, Alison endeavors to adjust to the reality of her father’s death by remembering family life at the “Fun House.”

Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes is a powerful and emotional memoir of his life from childhood through early adulthood. This book is a wonderfully inspired piece of work that emotionally attaches the reader through McCourt’s life experiences. Its effectiveness is primarily due to McCourt’s evolving ‘innocent-eye’ narrative technique. He allows the reader to experience his own life in a changeable form. Through this unique story telling technique, the reader is able to watch Frank grow and evolve. Between the ages of four, eleven and fourteen changes in his writing can be easily identified. It is evident that the written text, McCourt’s thoughts, and the resultant relationship with the reader evolve and

After Rachel has struck her favourite pupil, James, with a ruler, drawing blood, she confesses that she cannot lose face with an apology:I cannot say I’m sorry. Not in front of them all, twenty-six beings, all eyes. If I do say this, how shall I appear tomorrow? Cut down, diminished, undermined, very little left. If I do not say it, though, there’s enough gossip for a month or more, to friends and fathers and lovingly listening mothers — you know what Miss Cameron went and did?

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.

Love is a feeling that affects human’s actions. Lots of people are willing to sacrifice everything to find love. Romeo And Juliet, they committed suicide because they thought their loved ones were dead. And in the short story, THE BOAT, by Alistair Macleod, the narrator loved his parents. He tried to do both things his mother and father wanted him to do. This feeling caused troubles in his life. I felt relatable with the author, because I also had been trying to achieve what my grandfather and father wanted.

Susan Minot was born on December 7, 1956 in Manchester, Massachusetts (Susan Minot). The region she was born in provides the reader the context of her writings and can understand how she wants a reader to view her stories. Her educational background included Brown University where she received her B.A. degree and later attended Columbia University where she received her M.F.A. (Susan Minot). Most of her career has been around the writing process that has developed her own style of writing. Minot’s career has involved being an Associate editor at Grand Street-1982-86 and an adjunct professor at NYU-1987 and Columbia University-1989 (Susan Minot). Through her work she has provided the reader with an abundant amount of literary work based from her region and focusing on her feminine aspects in life. Some of her works include; “Monkeys”, “Folly”, “Evening”, “Lust and Other Stories”, and a screenplay called “Sleeping Beauty” (Susan Minot). With the understanding of who the writer is through her biography, the facts provide the reader on how to interpret her writing style that makes her work enjoyable to

The book that I have chosen from the 2017 RCPS Summer Reading List is “With Their Eyes: September 11th-The View from a High School at Ground Zero.” This book is non-fiction, meaning that everything that happened was completely real. The author of this book is Taresh Bartra. Imagine waking up on a beautiful day only to go to school and be completely terrified by a significant incident. Crazy, right? September 11th, also known as 9/11 was an attack on the twin towers inflicted by terrorist. The twin towers were filled will parents, sisters, brothers, and children. Within seconds, they were gone. “With Their Eyes” is a book based upon monologues written by people who experienced the attack. The great George W. Bush said “We will remember every

Throughout her many years as a poet, Margaret Atwood has dealt with a variety of subjects within the spectrum of relationship dynamics and the way men and women behave in romantic association. In much of her poetry, Atwood has addressed the topics of female subjugation in correlation with male domination, individual dynamics, and even female domination over males within the invisible boundaries of romantic relationships. With every poem written, Atwood's method for conveying the message of the poem has remained cryptic. She uses a variety of poetic devices - sometimes layered quite thickly - to communicate those themes dealing with human emotion. In the poem, Siren Song, Margaret Atwood

In the story “Happy Endings” the author Margaret Atwood gives 6 scenarios in alphabetical order from A to F of how a couples life could play out over the span of their lives. In these six scenarios Atwood uses satire to emphasize how interchangeable and simple each couples life is. In this story Atwood uses character, style, and point of view to chastise the desire for the everyday common life and the concern for only the “whats” in life and not “how or why”.