The Blurring of Reality in Surfacing by Atwood
Appearance Versus Reality and Other Dichotomies Revealed
Dec 4, 2008
The blurring of the thin line between appearance and reality reveals how Surfacing delves deep into the world where appearances can be deceiving.
Appearance Versus Reality
When readers first meet the narrator, her lover Joe, and her two married friends Anna and David, they all seem fairly normal, twenty-something city-folk. Originally from Canada, and now living in America, the four of them venture up to the narrator’s childhood cabin on a Quebec island to search for the narrator’s missing father.
However, as the novel progresses, the truth is revealed about the narrator and her friends. On the surface, Anna and David appear to be in a perfect marriage; however, once readers dive deeper into reality, they learn that David is a controlling sexist and Anna is a lost soul, trapped in a marriage of cheating and deceit.
The blurring between appearance and reality truly surfaces in the narrator. She appears to be a well-balanced woman with a good career and a stable relationship after a painful divorce that has left her a little bitter, as divorce does. Readers are told that the narrator gave her child to her ex-husband when they divorced.
The truth soon surfaces when the narrator dives into the lake (and into her past), and recalls the abortion that her already-married lover forced her to have. This painful experience has left her severely damaged, both mentally and emotionally. She believes she was actually married and gave birth to a child. She has convinced herself of this.
The blurring of appearance and reality is further enhanced with the fact that the narrator becomes completely unreliable as she enters a state of psychotic madness. Because the novel is written in first person point of view, readers only see things through her eyes. She is deceiving herself and deceiving the readers in the process.
The narrator’s mental state takes a complete turn for the worse when she abandons her friends and society to remain on the island alone with the animals. She attempts to become an animal, eating in the garden and waiting for her fur to grow. She even vividly imagines herself giving birth like an animal, licking her unborn baby.
Canadian Versus American
In addition to the blurring of appearance and reality, Atwood also blurs the line between another important dichotomy, namely that of Canada and America. This is used as a way to further enhance the suggestion that appearance can be deceiving.
David is constantly reminding readers how he feels about the “pig Yanks” and explaining that they should be driven out of Canada by beavers. The narrator makes it clear: the Americans are the enemy. However, this Canadian/American line is blurred when some of the American boaters turn out to be Canadians. Although they have a Mets sticker on their boat, they are actually from Ontario.
The narrator is unable to tell the difference anymore. This blurred vision symbolises the blurred state of mind the narrator finds herself in.
Atwood makes use of several other dichotomies throughout her novel, all to demonstrate how the truth is in the eye of the beholder. These include nature versus society, men versus women, truth versus lies and animals versus human.
On the surface, the novel appears to be about a well-put-together woman searching for her father; however, in reality, this novel dives deep into the psyche where appearance and reality are anything but the same.
Atwood reminds readers that, in reality, appearances only barely scratch the surface of the truth.
Works Consulted:
Atwood, Margaret. Surfacing. New York: Fawcett Popular Library, 1972.
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