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Surfacing: A Summary - Papers Online

Surfacing: A Summary

Margaret Atwood’s novel Surfacing tells the story of a young Canadian woman’s search for her missing father and finding a new sense of herself along the way. The author uses imagery to portray the narrator’s feelings of enclosure that she struggles with upon returning to her childhood home and her subsequent release of those feelings at the end at the end of the novel.
In chapter 2 we learn that the narrator’s life spent in the bush with her family was largely isolated. Her parents took pains to keep the outside world far away. Describing the outside world as “flecked gray newsreels [she] never saw, bombs and concentration camps, the leaders roaring at the crowds” (14), the narrator ...

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torment and reform” (69). The relationships she forges later on will be greatly influenced by these images of youth.
The narrator’s first relationship with a man turns out to very detrimental to her well being. The man is married and unavailable yet she describes her feelings for him as “unique, the first, that’s where [she] learned.” (150). She goes on to say that she “worshipped him” and refers to him as a “non-child bride idolater” (150). The feelings of un-reciprocated adoration that she had towards her first love go to greatly influence later relationships. She approaches them as a war, with a winner and loser.
In her current relationship with Joe, the act of making love is thought of as a “rope noosed around [her] neck, leash, he will lead [her] back to the city and tie [her] to fences, doorknobs” (160). Instead of being a loving act between two people, the narrator has transformed sex to have a winner. This attitude affects her other relationships as well. ...

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Surfacing: A Summary. (2008, April 2). Retrieved January 13, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Surfacing-A-Summary/81465

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 4/2/2008 08:17:31 AM
Category: Book Reports
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 625
Pages: 3

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