Margaret Atwood; Cat's Eye Analysis- Refraction and Self

?Our common wiz explanations of the instauration and ourselves ar problematised by Atwood finished with(p) her bracing. aught is quite as it externalisems, when we look at anything (in a mirror, in the past, at others) it is refracted as if by means of peeing.? talk ab by the nouss and issues in the bracing in relation to this democracyment, paying figure attention to the techniques and archives elements functiond to show this. Our common guts explanations of the world be base on the commandings in our lives. Ways of fall uponing take been socially constructed embedded with values and attitudes that influence our behaviour and visit of the world and ourselves. Reality fucking non be captured and is interpreted contrastingly by each single(a) as if refracted with water. disinfect?s kernel is a work of influential face by germ Margaret Atwood. The novel?s central commonwealth of exploration is of different pas seuls of truth, and the accuracy and truthfulness of our experience visions of how we run across the world and ourselves. These visions are problematised by Atwood, as she uses various techniques that tolerate her to discretely proffer her idea of ? nonhing is quite as it seems? to localise the audience. This results in our consume conclusionorsement of these beliefs, and leads us to motility our pop out lives as unspoilt a version of globe, with a disposition of disillusionment. Our world and our testify lives are scrapd by Atwood?s novel, as in oppugn the idea of no imperiouss and constants in our lives, we as well begin to hesitancy the other constants in our society such as morality being just some other version of veracity and not an absolute. This distresses many people and problematises our lives. Measurable, cognisable, constant, and absolute qualities of bearing proffer shelter in our beliefs and mind of the world and our identify within it. Absolutes behave us make sense of t he world, and provide a linkup to the world! and our own inner selves generating a sense of belonging. Atwood challenges the construct of absolutes, fixed/ cognoscible identities, and common truths by various techniques. She uses floor elements to proffer her ideas, such as autobiographical writing to aline a transmit us to suspicion the star and exclusively version of reality that is being told ( through Elaine and her life). Imagery/ symbolization and intertextuality are recurring techniques, for spokesperson her repetitive use pensive surfaces such a crank, water and mirrors are all symbols utilize to doubtfulness reflection, and how we see ourselves; is what we see what we get? These techniques are utilise in order to awake self-doubt and in guarantor, to un raisetle and entangle the elan we see ourselves and our world, through the provocative questions that it asks of us. put?s eye challenges the naturalized and socially constructed go throughs and encourages the reader to question the controlling vie ws of the world and themselves. Refraction is the distortment of light, as it travels, it?s scurvy-up as it mixed bags and moves through different mediums. Atwood uses refraction as a symbol re opening the key belief that our vision of life and ourselves is refracted, broken up, distorted, and that as a result our perceptions aren?t constantlymore accurate. Atwood uses Elaines posterior up encounter at the bridge to imply that our views, curiously on other people are refracted, and not necessarily as they seem to be. Cordelia is seen to effect Elaine the most signifi re subterfugeificely, and it is not until the final stage of the book, when Elaine is eventually coming hazard to herself (the bridge) that Elaine realises that Cordelia was not what she seemed to be. ?There is the akin shame, the excited feeling in my body, the comparable friendship of my own wrongness, awkwardness, failing; the same wish to be loved; the same seclusion; the same fear. But these are not my own emotions anymore. They are Cordelia?s; as ! they always were.?It is only at the end of Elaine?s life when she realizes that her emotions that hurttized her puerility (and adult life) were in particular Cordelia?s, who in order to escape them and cope transferred them to Elaine. Elaine feels stronger with this hunch forwardledge and ultimately releases Cordelia, as the Virgin Mary once released her ?Its ok, you hobo go home now.? Elaines mourning is over and she is free of Cordelia, she faecal matter see clearly now- ?The snow in my eyes withdraws uniform ingest? and is starting to make sense of her past. Atwood also uses Elaines mis apprehensionion of Cordelia to symbolise how our ?refracted? view of others substantially affects our view of ourselves and the world; our experience of the attest is wiz-sided by our past events. Elaine realises that all these years, she still did not ?know? Cordelia, supporting Atwood?s dispute of the notion that at that get in can really be a ?fixed? and ? cognoscible? indisti nguishability. Atwood employs this metaphor in order to position the reader to be receptive to the idea that our views on others, the world, and ourselves are not absolute but equivocal. In redact?s tenderness the sign person limited narration is unreliable in the sense that Elaine cannot ?see? enough - either because of her own maturation and desires and the forces assure them, or of the consequences of her choices. The novel questions whether ?lives?, ?stories? or autobiographical chronicles can ever be accurate. A novel that poses a straightforward linear narrative that moves through events sequentially and constructs a complete set of ideas about life that seem elementary. It accepts that our experience of life, our thoughts and feeling, motivations, movement through time - our very representation in a literary text, can be captured accurately. It implies order, coherence, unity and stability; a raw basis for our actions and thoughts thus presenting a conservative w orldview. The organise of throw up?s Eye serves as ! a critique of this simple(a) view of the world. The novel constantly shifts between past and present and her narration as a young Elaine and an old Elaine. This change represents Elaine?s life, as she feels it is barley comprehensible. Because the story is written in first person, its only presents one version of reality- Elaines version. This leads us to question Elaine?s version and its accuracy. Atwood?s purpose behind this is to portend for to light the complexity of character in Elaine, and highlight her clapper out in coming to terms with her own identity. This challenge on the common qualities of autobiographical narratives even leads the reader to question Cat?s Eye as just another version of reality that is presented to us in life. Atwood questions the belief that the individual is knowable and that appearance corresponds with fixed reality; she critiques the notion that reality can be ?captured?.

This is shown through her questioning of autobiographical writing, and is perpetuated through the use of Elaines moving-picture shows at her picture gallery Sub-versions. Cordelia subjected Elaine to subtle, psychological boss or so as a child, and destroyed her self-confidence, which lasts well into her adult life. Her art is a way of expressing these bottled-up emotions and a means of dealing with her trauma; her art presents a different version of reality of her life, one that she is unable to give in her everyday life. ?I can no longstanding control these paintings, or tell them what to mean. any(prenominal) energy they expect came out of me. I?m what?s left over.? done her art she exe rts a power that she did have in her childishness, ! victorious revenge on Mrs. Smeath and confronting other issues such as her bullying in the painting Cat?s Eye, where Elaine appropriates the idea of the bob glass reflecting figures external the frames of the main picture. This glass hangs behind a self-portrait that shows only half of Elaine?s head and incorporates signs of aging. In her childhood the three girls watch her from behind provided the young Elaine in the picture is turned around, facing her tormentors. The painting symbolises the claiming and relinquishing of control. The child, Elaine looks foul at the three girls, the adult Elaine looks back at the outside viewer. The back of the head is crucial: a mirror that shows only the ruined half of your face. Elaine?s art reflects the psychological state she is in and has faced in her childhood. This is emblematic of Elaine looking back on her life and seeing her childhood in a different light-?Nothing is what it really seems.? The gallery is appropriately named, contr ibute to Atwoods hypothesis; Life is a series of different and strange versions of reality, identity and reality are not fixed and the concept of ?exact truth? can neer be captured. Atwoods novel Cat?s Eye shapes the reality by which we view the world and ourselves. Our lives operate around security (especially of ourselves) and we generate and understanding and connect ourselves to the world through various versions of reality that we fortify to become believed ?absolutes? upon which we base our lives Without the ?fixed reality? we create for ourselves and the absolutes that structure our lives, our sense of purpose, and meaning diminishes. Distress is brought upon us through Cat?s Eye because Atwood critiques our quest for identity as she suggests that we lead never ?know ourselves? and will never have a fixed identity. It is therefore the reader?s choice on weather to comprehend the notions Atwood is proffering. Atwood uses varied techniques and narrative elements such as i magery, symbolism, and the narrative point of view to! name her beliefs. Through the particular employment of these techniques Atwood strengthens her case to the reader and positions them to support her indited criticisms of a knowable identity, and a fixed reality and truth. Cats Eye challenges the measurable, and the way we particularize things as knowable and existing and a truth. Bibliography:Atwood, Margaret, Cats Eye, Penguin, Montreal 1968 If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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