Cats Eye Margaret Atwood Characters

Elaine is a fifty year old painter who comes back to toronto where she had spent her childhood to attend a retrospective of her paintings.

Cats eye margaret atwood characters. The initial differences between the two girls are great with elaines. She then tests out christianity as she comes of age before eventually becoming a painter. The novel unfolds in mid 20th century canada from world war ii to the late 1980s and. One of atwoods more famous works of fiction cats eye is at once a meditation on the sorrows and comforts accompanying age as well as a coming of age story about a tumultuous and abusive bond between two young girls.

By margaret atwoodcats eye is a coming of age narrative that tells the story of elaine a girl who must decide both who she is and who she wants to be in the eyes of others. Till she was eight she and her parents had lived in woods due to her fathers job as an forest entomologist. Cats eye takes place primarily in post world war ii toronto a time of great economic and social change. Margaret eleanor atwood cc oont ch frsc born november 18 1939 is a canadian poet novelist literary critic essayist teacher environmental activist and inventor.

A certain tension between art and science runs throughout cats eye. At the heart of cats eye s harrowing story of childhood cruelty are the contrasting personalities of elaine and cordelia. Since 1961 she has published 18 books of poetry 18 novels 11 books of non fiction nine collections of short fiction eight childrens books and two graphic novels as well as a number of small press editions of both poetry. Characters cats eye by margaret atwood elaine risley.

Margaret atwoods cats eye is a sharp study of a very female torture as we approach the novels 30th anniversary its hard to think of many characters who have endured pain like atwoods elaine. Furthermore atwood has spoken on her difficulty in finding female role models in the literary world because so many female novelists have come to disastrous ends such as virginia woolf who committed suicide. Her strongest memories are of cordelia who was the leader of a trio of girls who were both very cruel and very kind to her in ways that tint elaines perceptions of relationships and her world not to mention her art into her middle years. Margaret atwood is an award winning canadian poet novelist and essayist known for books like the handmaids tale cats eye and oryx and crake among an array of other works.

Despite these similarities atwood has insisted that cats eye merely uses autobiography as a format and remains largely fictional. In fact atwoods novel can be seen as a series of experiments on the path to understanding the worldas the daughter of an entomologist protagonist elaine risley starts by following the pattern set by her family which is oriented towards atheism and science. The novel juxtaposes past and present against each other via twin narratives about the protagonists childhood and adulthood.