Margaret Atwood Essays (2843 words) - Margaret Atwood,

Margaret Atwood Margaret Atwood is an acclaimed poet, novelist, and short story writer. With such a variety of works in different types of writing, it is difficult to grasp every aspect of Atwoods purpose of writing. A comparative analysis of Rape Fantasies reveals the Atwoods writing is varied in many ways yet soundly consistent especially when comparing a particular set of writing such as a group of her other short stories. Atwoods background plays a large part in her writing. Atwood was born in Ottawa, Canada in 1913. Her father was an entomologist, so she spent much of her childhood in the wilderness and other various urban places around Canada. Throughout her life, she lived in numerous Canadian residences as well as several towns in the United States. She has also lived in England, France, Italy and Germany. With this extensive background, Atwood displays a vast knowledge of the world around her, although large portions of her writing are based on Canadian settings. As a young girl, she starte d reading many books and even writing poems and comics. After deciding that she wanted to become a writer, Atwood attended the University of Toronto and earned her bachelors degree in 1961. Following this, she went on to receiver her masters degree from Harvard University. Since 1961, Atwood has produced a highly acclaimed body of work that includes fiction, poetry and literary criticism. Atwood published her first volume of poems, Double Persephone, in 1961 (Toronto), followed by many more throughout the next three decades, interspersed with novels, including The Edible Woman, Surfacing, Lady Oracle, Life Before Man, Bodily Harm, The Handmaids Tale and The Robber Bride. (Contemporary Literary Criticism, 48). Among Atwoods extensive list of writing, it is important to note the handful of short fiction that she has published. Her most recent collection of short fiction is titled Good Bones which was published in 1992. Some other significant short fiction works include Wilderness Tips, Bluebeards Egg, Murder in The Dark, and Dancing Girls. All together Margaret Atwoods major published pieces total over forty. For a majority of these works, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards. Canadas highest literary honor, the Governor Generals Award, was awarded to Atwood for her poetry collection The Circle Game in 1967. She received the award again in 1986 for her novel, The Handmaids Tale. Another significant work that has won Atwood a number of awards are Cats Eye, which is a novel that Atwood produced in 1988. Her large amount of awards proves to her readers that she is a good writer. By looking at a portion of these other works, short stories in particular, it is easy to compare a majority of her work and conclude that her writing of Rape Fantasies is typical of the work that she normally produces. In general, Atwoods literary reputation for subject matter, themes and style are recognizable with the other work that she produces. In her short stories, she follows a few basics, but usually has one significant underlying meaning. The subject matter of Atwoods works usually focuses on either relationships or power, perhaps sometimes both. The relationships in her short stories are either male to female or female-to-female. Atwoods writing has a strong focal point on human relationships. Atwood consistently uses relationships to develop her stories. In her novels, Margaret Atwood creates situations in which women burdened by the rules and inequalities of their societies, discover that they must reconstruct braver, self reliant personae in order to survive (Goldblatt 276). In one of Atwoods short stories, Uncles, the author presents the relationships that a young girl has with her uncles. The bond, although slightly unusual, is closer with her uncles rather than her aunts. The uncles are important to the girl because of the loss of her father. She needs the male bonding that she lacks from her father, so she gets this through her uncles. Atwood often portrays women as dependent on men. This is such the case in U ncles. Even after her uncles are gone, the protagonist meets a man at her workplace. Although at first, it seems like she might overcome him, he gets the best of her and begins to make her wonder if she