Margaret Atwood's Surfacing Essay

A person’s past will always be with them; it defines them and can influence the perception of them to those around him. Their past can impact their future and their morals. There are many characters to choose from to write about this topic but I prefer a certain one. This person’s past affects everyone around him and helps aid the book in the right direction.

An exceptional place it was, the place where my voyage began. A place of marvelous happenings, festivities, and majestic sights. A place that is valued for its vast diversity through distinct cultures and its people. A place where even perspicacious meteorologists are incapable of providing the daily forecast, accurately that is.

In the short story “Initiation” by Sylvia Plath, the protagonist Millicent, a girl at Lansing High School is being tried as a member of an elite sorority. The girls must go through a week of being an older sister’s servant to be then tried on Friday at Rat Court. Only the most popular girls are accepted into the sorority. These popular girls are also the ones who get the most, popular boyfriends. Everything seems like a dream to Millicent except for the fact that her best friend Tracy wasn’t even considered. Although she wants to belong in the sorority, Millicent finds out that things might not be as perfect as they seem. In “Initiation” by Sylvia Plath, the author uses the point of view third person omniscient to allow the reader to

However, she moves from a literal experience and memory to pensive reflection in order to create a contrast between the younger and older character. This is used by writing about movement from the past to the present and including its effect on the future. The varies of tense further highlights the changes over time as she focuses on the dualities of self and the universal emotions.

For centuries women have been working towards broadening opportunities within the work force. Many women have struggled to gain equality, and some have been successful. On June 13, 1873 in Manhattan Kansas, Alice Stebbins Wells was born, as was the start of her success story.

Human trafficking,the illegal practice of trading in human beings for the purpose of prostitution, forced labor, or other forms of exploitation, is a crime that affects the most vulnerable citizens of society. After drugs, it the largest criminal activity globally! The victims must be the primary concern for all law enforcement units. Human trafficking in the world can be diminished and possibly erased through teachings, government intervention, and awareness.

Social expectations have haunted people across the timeline, however, have changed as life has progressed. Today, women specifically may be labeled by their body size or the way they speak, being cast out of society and even being subjected to physical and/or emotional abuse. On the contrary, in the nineteenth century women faced harsh discrimination by white men that objectified them and forced them to submit to their husbands and tend to their every need. Today, women would never face to live in such an animalistic way, however many found themselves fulfilling the role without protest and enjoying the simplicity of such a life back in the 1800s. Edna Pontellier, however, refused to be one of these obedient women, deciding to instead

The Holocaust was the systematic and bureaucratic murder of six million Jews by the Nazi party and its collaborators. During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities targeted many groups of people because of their perceived "racial inferiority" including Gypsies, the disabled, and some of the Slavic peoples. Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioral grounds. Several authors have written about the Holocaust, but one author that touched many people the most was Elie Wiesel. Through the use of several style devices, Wiesel creates an impressionistic style which reflects the nature of his experiences in the Nazi

“Whatever we may do or attempt, despite the embrace and transports of love, the hunger of lips, we are always alone” (Chopin 581.7). In Kate Chopin’s story The Awakening, not only is this the quote that Edna Pontellier identifies with when Mrs. Ratignolle plays piano for her, but it is also the perfect description of the struggle in which Mrs. Pontellier faces. Though, The Awakening was considered sexually charged and risqué for its time, when one analyzes this quote and the original title of Kate Chopin’s story, A Solitary Soul, they come to the realization that there is more to this story than just sex (562). The Awakening is a story about Edna Pontellier’s struggle to find acceptance and fulfillment in a society confined by gender

The five most important scenes of The Scarlet Letter were first, Hester holding baby Pearl being shamed on the scaffold right in the beginning. Second, when Chillingworth found out that Dimmesdale was the man who committed adultery with Hester. Third, when Hester and Dimmesdale were in the forest talking about fleeing and living with only each other and Pearl. Fourth, in which Dimmesdale finally reveals his sin to the public as he is on death’s bed. Finally, the last most important scene of the novel, is the “happy ending” when everything gets wrapped up.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin introduces the reader to the life of Edna Pontellier, a woman with an independent nature searching for her true identity in a patriarchal society that expects women to be nothing more than devoted wives and nurturing mothers.

Today when one thinks of feminism many sneer and roll their eyes in displeasure, perhaps remembering the bra-burning, empowered and angry feminists of the mainly 1970’s feminist movement featuring Margaret Atwood and Germaine Greer. It is easy, apparently, to forget that while things are still far from perfect for women there was a time in fact not very long ago when women were denied the most basic human rights. It comes as no surprise that women took to alternative ways of vocalising what everyone desperately tried to quash. Literature and art became vessels for the struggles and opinions of those that society tried so incredibly hard to push back into the kitchen. One of the best ways for women to express their dissatisfaction with the deeply patriarchal and oppressive society that they had been raised within was through art, which severely lacked female historical representation until this point. The USA was a centre-place for this movement but there is no denying the huge feminist presence that emanated from New Zealand. Documented as one of the first female artists in New Zealand to paint from a female perspective, Jacqueline Fahey paints narrative insights into her life, echoing that of many women at the time. She utilized her paintings to not only narrate her daily life but to make radical insights and critiques about the lives of many women, suburban or fellow artists, of the time.

“Nine wicked tales” written by award-winning literary genius Margaret Atwood, reveals the disturbing, yet utterly mind absorbing facts of humanity. Stone Mattress drags not only the eyes across the page, but pulls every inch of the mind deep into her short stories. Each tale, as she refers to them as, ranges from spine-chilling horror to epic fantasy. This collection digs deep into each character's back story; consequently, allowing readers to fully develop and understand the characters in our own minds.

Margaret Atwood is a Canadian poet and novelist. She was born in 1939 in Ottawa, Canada and has written over forty fiction books in addition to poems and critical essays (2013-17, Margaret atwood biography). Her book of poetry, The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970) was inspired by a dream Atwood had of Susanna Moodie. Moodie was an English writer who immigrated to Canada in 1832 with her husband in order to secure a better life for her growing family. Atwood had read Moodie’s book Roughing It In The Bush prior to her dream that inspired her to write her own book of poetry about the immigrant woman. Moodie’s book is centered around six various stories that she wrote at different points in her life. Similarly, Atwood broke her book of poetry

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.