Margaret Atwood A Social Activist - 1225 Words

Margaret Atwood: a Social Activist Through Feminist Literature The 1980s signified the continuation of an era of social and political upheaval in the United States of America. At the forefront was a socially conservative agenda that aimed to rescind women’s rights only ratified less than a decade before, a marked display of the nation’s desire to uphold traditional values that defined the preceding generation (Franà §oise). Among the devastating political climate, however, was Margaret Atwood: a voice that refused to be silenced, a progressive storyteller who interwove her writings with feminist themes that pushed boundaries and defied the status quo. Her prolific writing career is full of poems, essays, short-stories, and novels that†¦show more content†¦My mother is a very lively person who would rather skate than scrub floor. (Oates) From the very beginning, Atwood was destined to question and confront ideas rooted in the past and fortunate enough to have parents who acknowledged their daughter’s inquisitive and imaginative mind. Aside from her family, gothic and supernatural literature influenced Atwood from an early age. Unconventionally witty and resourceful, the heroines depicted in Grimm’s Fairy Tales were fascinating and complex to young Margaret. Her writing and poetry took form with the assistance of Edgar Allan Poe, whom she cites as her first influence in high school (Oates). Canadian writers such as Leonard Cohen, P.K. Page, Anne Wilkinson - in addition to many others - helped to mold Atwood’s distinct, expressive style (â€Å"Waterstone’s†). It is evident, then, that she honed her writing skills through the abundance of quality reading material that was at her disposal. Margaret Atwood’s greatest influence on the literary world is undoubtedly her progressive views on feminism and misogyny. The Handmaid’s Tale, her most notable work, is an examination of a totalitarian society that lawfully dehumanizes women, whose sole purpose is to breed and reproduce (Napierkowski 114-115). Grounded in reality, this novel portrays complex female characters that endure the same suffering as many people did at the time: During my visits to several countries behind the IronShow MoreRelatedThe Life and Achievements of Margaret Eleanor Atwood Essay1687 Words   |  7 PagesMargaret Eleanor Atwood, one of the most acclaimed and idolized writers’ to date. Atwood was born in Ottawa, Ontario, on November 18th, 1939 in the Ottawa General Hospital. Two and a half months after the beginning of the Second World War (Atwood). She is a renowned novelist and poet; furthermore writer of short stories, critical studies, screenplays, radio scripts and books for children (Gale). Margaret Atwood is a living inspiration to many writers today. Atwood is a fiction, and non-fiction writerRead MoreBiography of Margaret Atwood Essay example1511 Words   |  7 Pagescharacter that people can relate to with the struggle or experiences. Margaret Atwood the â€Å"Canadian nationalist poetess is a prominebt figure concerned with the need for a new language to explore relations between subjects and societyâ€Å" (Omid , Pyeaam 1). Atwood wrote her first novel called, â€Å"The Edible Woman†; this first novel categorized her as feminist, based on the main character of a strong woman. In an interview with Emma Brockes, Atwood affirms, First of all, what is feminism? Second, which branchRead MoreCompatison of Spotty Handed Villainesses and Keynote Address at the Beijing World Conference on Women.879 Words   |  4 Pagesof rhetoric to support its main ideas.’ Discuss this statement, making detailed reference to at least two speeches. Great speeches are those which timelessly captivate audiences through their integrity and rhetoric treatment. This is relevant to Margaret Atwood’s speech in 1994, Spotty Handed Villainesses (hereafter referred to as Villainesses), and Aung San Suu Kyi’s speech in 1995, Keynote Address at the Beijing World Conference on Women (hereafter referred to as Keynote). The ability of a speechRead MoreMargaret Atwood s Happy Endings1447 Words   |  6 PagesHumanity’s inherent desire for results and rewards belittles the process of a journey, undervaluing/deprecating the character development that comes within, which notably can be portrayed in Margaret Atwood’s â€Å"Happy Endings†. In her metafictional short story, Atwood includes six different scenarios that are labeled A to F, which briefly describes the characters’ lives, ultimately ending with death. Moreover, the names of characters recur in each scenario, referencing one another throughout th e entireRead MoreThe Handmaid s Tale By Margaret Atwood1733 Words   |  7 Pageswritten by Margaret Atwood in 1985. Dystopian novels often feature societal norms taken to dangerous extremes. Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale contains each and every feature of a typical dystopian novel, though she prefers to refer to it as social science-fiction. Ideological and social conditions taken to extremes enforced by authoritarian regimes, social trends isolated or exaggerated, and stability being secured through impossible ideals are all features highlighted in this novel. Atwood wrote TheRead MoreThe Age Of Lead By Margaret Eleanor Atwood920 Words   |  4 PagesMargaret Eleanor Atwood a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist was born in Ottawa, Canada in 1939. She grew up in Northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master’s degree from R adcliffe College. WRITE ABOUT HER WORK AND CRITICAL REACTIONS TO HER WORK.( How was she received?) A short story â€Å"The Age of Lead† by Atwood explores woman’s relationship with her elusiveRead MoreTheme Of Satire In The Handmaids Tale1649 Words   |  7 PagesThe Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a dystopic satire in which present tendencies are carried out to their intensely unpleasant culmination. In the novel, the protagonist and narrator, Offred, originally lived an ordinary life in America until an oppressive, patriarchal theocracy governed by Christian fundamentalists—a group of extremists, applying a strict adherence to Christian doctrine to all facets of society—took over. Due to the increase in toxic pollution and radiation, there is widespreadRead MoreFrida Kahlo Feminist Theory Essay1267 Words   |  6 Pagesfeminist, journalist, and political activist. Instead of committing to a conventional, stereotypical path, she furthered her life into more complexities, self-taught learning, and the possibilities of feminism in the la te 1960s and early 1970s. When asked what it truly means to be a woman, she replied that â€Å"[the answer] for all women seems to lie in the ability to cultivate one’s skeptical self: [women] must trust their own and other women’s experiences over social myths† (Heilbrun). Finally, artistsRead MoreThe Year Of The Flood1677 Words   |  7 PagesIn Margaret Atwood’s novel The Year of the Flood, several saints are mentioned during Adam Ones speech for Pollination Day namely Saint Suryamani Bhagat of India, among so many others, because of her contributions to forest preservation (Atwood 276). Atwood may have chosen to incorporate Bhagat, an environmental activist, as a saint in her novel considering that The Gardeners had devoted this festival to the mysteries of plant reproduction, especially that of those wondrous trees, the angiospermsRead MoreThe Dystopian Novel By Margaret Atwood1991 Words   |  8 PagesThe dystopian novel written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, is a twisting futuristic forecast of what a religious intolerant society is leading itself into with a totalitarian government with traditional Old Testament values, who do not see women as anything more than vessels to continue the human population. This story spins from a government takeover to the oppression of women under the rule of the new theocratic government known as The Republic of Gilead, whose agenda was to reclaim the dying