Search For Identity In Surfacing, By Margaret Atwood

1b. I have noticed that no region in Canada has a mean trait attached to them. They are are somewhat pleasant and congenial. He also does not speak of the northern people of Canada; he only speaks of those who reside in the southern parts of Canada. I have also noticed that his descriptions of Canadians are very divers.

Since the 19th Century, women in Canada have fought political, legal, and social battles to find their place in Canadian society. From starting out in small, local organizations, to legal battles in the Supreme Court, Canadian women have come a long way. Unfortunately, it took a long time for many people to adapt to the changing roles of women, which made women still feel unequal compared to men. It is really striking to think that at one point society questioned if women could even be considered persons, just a small sample of the many changes women had to face through the course of history. This paper will analyze these changes experienced by Canadian women in that time period and how it affected their everyday lives.

Margaret Atwood, Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature. McLelland and Stewart, Toronto, 1972. “Canadian Nationalism in Arts and Science.” The Royal Society of Canada, Ottawa: 1975.

Everyone in the world has their own identity but some are still searching for it. Many base their identity on race, religion, culture and language because it’s easier to belong to a certain group. However, there are some people who struggle with finding where they belong. For instance, James McBride in The Color of Water wonders who he is through most his childhood and some of his adult life. Mcbride tries to find himself by learning about his mother's background. After evaluating his mom’s past,culture and race his own issues with himself were made clearer because now he finally knows where he came from.

When change is thrust upon us, it can change people with it, but when it does, it’s important to remember where you’re from. The importance of this essay is it depicts a time in history when change occurred to a people who, willing or not, did not see the coming effect it would have. This will cover Al Pittman’s, The Day I Became A Canadian, and his point of view on how changing nationalities belittled his country. This will also examine how his writing, being rhetorical elements like sentence structure and diction, enhances his writing, bringing out more emotion in the reader.

Margaret Laurence describes the basis of her views on the world in her autobiographical essay “Where the World Began” to represent Canada. She states that her small prairie town constitutes the way she has formed her views. She uses the microcosm of her small town to show Canada's growth as a country through her childhood memories , the seasons of her small town, and where you are raised affects your perspective on the world. Just as Canada is a child of Uncle Sam and Lady Britannia, and is greatly influenced by both, Laurence finds her childhood is the basis from which she gained her views on the world,in the same way Canada's mistakes as a country formed the

Overall, James Bartleman successfully addresses the issues of marginalization and assimilation of First Nations people in Canada. Through Bartleman’s stylistic choices, As Long as the Rivers Flow narrates the fictional story of a Native raised in

What We All Long For describes the challenges of establishing identity in a place disconnected from your national and cultural origins. However, this novel is full of descriptions of streets and neighborhoods in Toronto. How do characters navigate these and how does their relationship to spaces shape or affect their sense of identity?

The author, Marjane Satrapi, shows the details and complexities of the conflict the protagonist faced during her journey of growing up and evolving. Over all in the story the protagonist does a good job pointing out that it is a struggle before finding one’s true

Throughout this course, we learn that women’s studies originated as a concerned at the time that “women and men noticed the absence, misrepresentation, and trivialization of women [in addition to] the ways women were systematically excluded from many positions of power and authority” (Shaw, Lee 1). It has always been known that in the past, men have had more privilege than women. Women have battled for centuries against certain patterns of inadequacy that all women experience. Every culture and customs have divergent female identities, however this does not hinder the fact that many of these cultures are based on patriarchal past where men hold more rights than women. Canadian women have sought to overcome these stereotypes and have managed to gain a position of near equality. This was

The main theme of this novel work is a powerful journey that lead unknown strangers on this dull island where each one of them life is at stake between survival and fate. The author’s overall message to society is far the intended audience to know how justice needs to be served. The way the author Christie use each element such as characterization, conflict, and style to enhance the theme with the characterization she pin out points from the begging of the novel to let the beginning of the novel to let the audience know that this vacation trip that each of the strangers think they getting is going to turn out to be something more than what they all expect. The conflict again are within each character their self’s and the author make sure that in this novel there’s pin points that the

1)Donald Savoie, "All Things Canadian Are Now Regional," Journal of Canadian Studies 35.1 (Summer 2000): 203-217.

Despite being a very diverse literature genre in terms of influence and inspiration, North American literature encompasses many works that share some very common thematic elements. Though there are several themes shared, one in particular can be found in most any work – the importance of identity. Particularly in some selected pieces yet to be named, identity is a very important element, not only because it is a necessity for a main character in any work of literature, but because these works express ideas about identity as being very individualistic – as opposed to being a mere result of cultural surroundings. Zora Neal Hurtson’s Their

Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach incorporates words and phrases from the Haisla language in an effort to reflect the protagonist’s culture while also satiating the cultural curiosity of a non-indigenous audience. The incorporation of Haisla is one of the mechanics of the Glorious Northern Gothic novel, as it provides a reformation of traditional Gothic conventions through an Indigenous lens. The Haisla language is presented through the protagonist’s narration and is usually introduced in an instructional tone or story. Italics mark most of the language in the text; however in some instances the words are not italicized or are only implied. It is through this process of marking that the use of Haisla language moves beyond a mode of integrating the protagonist’s culture into the story and provides a critique on Non-Indigenous Canadians’ appetite for Indigenous stories: what language the text contains and what language is omitted defines what parts of the culture Non-Indigenous Canadians have already consumed or are permitted to consume.

What is Canada? What is a Canadian? Canada, to employ Voltaire's analogy, is nothing but “a few acres of snow.”. Of course, the philosopher spoke of New France, when he made that analogy. More recently, a former Prime Minister, Joe Clark, said that the country was nothing but a “community of communities”. Both these images have helped us, in one way or another, try to interpret what could define this country. On the other hand, a Canadian could be a beer, a hockey-playing beaver or even a canoe floating in a summer day's sunset. A Canadian could also be a “sovereigntyphobe”, refusing to see the liquefaction, albeit political, of the second largest country in the world.