Survival Crises In Margaret Atwood's Works

Margaret Atwood, the prolific versatile Canadian celebrity is not only a novelist and poet but a critic of international stature as well. A strong feminist and champion of the writing community, she is perceptive enough to recognize the important social issues of her time and is not afraid to be the first one to speak up. In her works, she defends the humanitarian values, supports woman's rights and freedom of speech, advocates Canadian autonomy and raises ecological awareness. In addition she is also a media star in the firmament of world literature and a powerful communicator of Canadian culture as well as human rights issues on a global scale. Considered a nationalist, herald and fighter, she and her works are widely accepted and highly praised, attracting numerous critics.In the beginning of this paper, a brief biography is provided as well as an introduction to her literary works. Through commenting on her generalization and critique of the feature of the Canadian literature—motif of survival, the paper then will be narrowed down to focus on the issue of survival crises presented in her works, mainly in her four well-known novels: The Edible Woman, Cat's Eye, The Robber Bride and The Blind Assassin.The main developing section of the paper consists of three parts. The first part deals with the crisis of females' survival by analyzing the problem existed in eating and narrator shifting in The Edible Woman and the growing process of a young girl in Cat's Eye. The former novel explores women's inner world, their relationship to men, the social system and food and eating, while the latter one explores the deprivation of woman's freedom and right of self-development. By doing this, Atwood discusses the suffering and rebellion of women in a male-dominated world.The second part copes with the issue of Canadians' survival crisis in the post-colonial period in The Robber Bride. And it also elaborates on the recent issue of post-colonialism which includes instable identity, racial prejudice and Orientalism.Then the third part explores the deterioration of the social environment in The Blind Assassin which copes with the problems in the consumer society, the blurring of illusion, fiction, reality and genres and the simulation and alienation in the postmodern world.To sum up, the paper is devoted mainly to the survival crises underlying Atwood's four novels, revealing her deep concern about the future of the Canadians. In the process of the development of the paper several theories are used, including feminism, post-colonialism and post-socialism. Furthermore, the survival crises are not limited to Canada. The issue is universal.