In Search Of Female Identity From Both Genders' Approach

Searching for self-identity is the ultimate task for people to accomplish during the development of human society, as a result, identity-seeking becomes a hot issue in modern literature. In a immigrant country, Canadian women writers have a natural affinity for the identity-seeking process of Canadian women, who have been marginalized in racial and gender. This dissertation intends to study Canadian women's literature focusing on the theme of the identity-seeking and the writing artistry. Through careful analyzing of The Edible Woman of Margaret's works, this paper eventually explores Canadian women's identity-seeking process of "lost-rebel-reconstruction" in the works of Margaret.Through her works, Margaret has made valuable explorations about the identity of modern Canadians, especially Canadian women. Her Canada-set novels share her other works' theme of personal identity in conflict with society from the second half of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century in Canada. Up to now, Atwood has published eleven novels, most of which are written from the perspective of women in the modern western world. She makes a vivid description of women's life from a woman's angle: their dilemmas and choices, their perplexities and breakthroughs, their explorations and survivals, their survival and searching for themselves. Atwood has created a great number of female characters, many of whom often take a traditional role and feel alienated in the male dominated culture. And those male characters who are the so-called standard men and good boys who can bring hope to the female. The protagonists are intelligent women, and well educated in most cases. They are increasingly gaining self-knowledge from their special female experiences and through their rich, active and insightful reflections on various social phenomena. Atwood successfully brings together ideas of gender roles and perceptions of self in the novel, which are of great significance for women's emancipation even today. With the methods of contrasting,analyzing and illustration, the female images in The Edible Women will be given detailed description, analysis and contrast of the process from their meek submission and oppression in patriarchal order, to suspicion and exploration of self-identity, and finally breaking the confined force and confirming her autonomy as an active individual. This paper discusses how the female gradually build up their self-consciousness in the patriarchal society and then get self-realization and finally choose their own lifestyle from the two genders approach. The female protagonists vividly created in the novel with their searching identity and independence has made Atwood a landscape in the world literature.Atwood's works expand deeply around the various contradictions of the opposition and the unified duality. In The Edible Woman, the author turns the line of sight towards gender relations. Through the description of civilization and nature, men and women from the opposing, she warns people: If you do not rely on nature, human civilization will lose the cornerstone of development, and then those modern people who completely free themselves from materials can't regain the primitive life. Empathy, Men and women form a common humanity in general. Losing one party, Mankind will not be human. Men and women are creating with each other, and determine their own in the creation of each other at the same time. So searching-for female's identity has become the semantic of the human beings, which is a good wish from the author.