Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood (Book Analysis) E-Book

Bright Summaries

• Herausgeber: BrightSummaries.com
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Serie: BrightSummaries.com
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Seitenzahl: 22

Beschreibung

Unlock the more straightforward side of Cat’s Eye with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!

This engaging summary presents an analysis of Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood, which follows the acclaimed painter Elaine Risley as she returns to her native Toronto for a retrospective of her work. Hanging over her visit is the shadow of her relationship with Cordelia, who viciously bullied her when they were both children, with lasting effects on Elaine and her ability to bond with other women. She finds herself reflecting on their shared past and on the troubles Cordelia has faced in the intervening years: indeed, while Elaine has seemingly flourished, Cordelia has been plagued my mental illness and often finds herself lonely and isolated. The novel is a vivid meditation on memory, the lasting effects of childhood trauma and the power of the past to shape the present.

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• A complete plot summary
• Character studies
• Key themes and symbols
• Questions for further reflection

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Leseprobe

MARGARET ATWOOD

CANADIAN NOVELIST

Born in Ottawa in 1939.Notable works:The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), dystopian novelAlias Grace (1996), historical novelHag-Seed (2016), a novel retelling Shakespeare’s The Tempest

Margaret Atwood is a Canadian novelist who was born in 1939 in Ottawa. She grew up one of three children and moved around a lot because of her father’s job as an entomologist. She did not attend school full time until she was 12, but spent much of her childhood voraciously reading. After graduating from the University of Toronto, majoring in English, she achieved an MA from Harvard University. She has one adult daughter and has been in a relationship with another novelist, Graeme Gibson, since the 1970s.

Atwood’s oeuvre spans genres and literary mediums: she is an accomplished writer of novels, short fiction, poetry and non-fiction. She is best known for her 1985 novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, which is classed as one of the best examples of dystopian fiction from the 20th century alongside the likes of Orwell’s 1984, although Atwood herself prefers the term ‘speculative fiction’ to describe the novel. Atwood has won a slew of literary prizes over her long career, including the 2000 Man Booker Prize for her novel The Blind Assassin.

CAT’S EYE

A REFLECTIVE NOVEL

Genre: modern fictionReference edition: Atwood, M. (1988) Cat’s Eye. London: Little, Brown.1stedition: 1988Themes: friendship, bullying, art, memory, sexual difference, religion

Cat’s Eye was published in 1988, three years after the publication of The Handmaid’s Tale, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and for the 1988 Governor General’s Award. It is perhaps the most autobiographical of all of Atwood’s fiction, as the protagonist shares many traits with Atwood herself, notably an entomologist father. The novel is set in roughly the same era as its publication date, and is told largely in flashback, interspersed with present-day chapters. For purposes of clarity, the below summary is told broadly in chronological order.

The novel tells the story of Elaine, a successful painter, who reflects on her life and in particular on her childhood friendships after she returns to Toronto, the city in which much of her childhood took place. As a young child she was badly bullied by three friends, and this bullying has affected her entire life, particularly in relation to her relationships with women. The experience has also affected her art, which is ultimately the reason for her return to her hometown: she is being celebrated in a Toronto-based retrospective show.

SUMMARY

CHILDHOOD