Examining Margaret At wood's The Edible Woman through the Lens of Gender, Literature, and Feminism

Abstract

Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood published The Edible Woman in 1969. A large number of
eminent scholars have examined the paper from various perspectives. This thesis attempts to
examine Atwood's literary choices in The Edible Woman through the lenses of gender, cuisine,
and feminism. The book was published in 1969 at the same time when the second wave of
feminism was growing awareness among women. The heroine, Marian, a female, goes through
a transformation in her sense of self, and this change in perspective is linked to the novel's
fragmented structure. The three major portions of the work are distinguished by the alternating
first-person, third-person, and first-person narratives of Marian's experiences. The change in
narrative voice reveals that Marian suffers existential misery throughout the novel, prior to her
liberated self-actualization. Published in 1965, the book is considered by Atwood to be
"protofeminist" since it foreshadowed the rise of second wave feminist organizations. This
report is submitted by Atwood X. In this time period, the protagonist of the story represents the
more rational women of her day and the struggles and setbacks they faced. Many women of
the 1960s may be identified with the protagonist's internal conflict about writing, and the
novel's female characters serve as symbols of all women of that age.