Rereading Atwoods Surfacing :: Atwood Surfacing Essays

Rereading Atwoods Surfacing   The class touched on a multitude of different subjects during the class time for the second discussion of the novel, Surfacing. These discussions were much deeper than the prior one, asking questions on motivation and symbolism rather than plot and language. Two of the most popular subjects were characterization and the validity of the narrator and the information she gives the reader. Other topics were discussed including religion, the poultry motif that has appeared throughout our readings this semester, and the narrators artistic frustration among many an other(prenominal)s.   To begin with one of the most prominent subjects, the class discussed character-ization at length. Many students wondered what the narrators friends added to the story, whether they were symbolic of something, reflections of the narrators characteristics, or representatives of other individuals. Daniel suggested that the narrator was projecting the ident ities of her parents onto her friends. For instance, David was representative of the narrators brother (fascist pig yanks) with his militancy and Joe was the narrators father, capable of love and close to her heart. Erin echoed this idea, saying that Anna was representative of the narrators mother who concealed whole of her pain and unhappiness throughout the story. Other students, though, had different ideas. Stephanie thought that the narrators friends were symbolic, Joe as nature, David as the city, and Anna as the icky things about being a girl. As these were discussed, other ideas surfaced and the narrators brother was thought to represent absolutism while her mother, like Joe, represented nature. Judy expanded on this, saying that David was perhaps representative of the narrators previous lover. All of these ideas were sound backed and well stated, leaving each individual student to decide which characters represented who or what.   Another topic that was di scussed at length was the narrator herself. In Forum II, Mandy began by questioning the narrators humanness and what, exactly, constitutes being human. The discussion picked up these thoughts and began to question whether the narrator was actually domesticated or wild. She cooks and cleans for the others, taking care of them basically the whole time, but it was argued that she seemed to be hardly one predisposed to subservience.