Quest for Self Identity in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing

Abstract

The paper focuses on the nameless narrator’s interaction with nature. She returns to Quebec in search of her missing father. The emotional trauma she undergoes during and after her forced abortion leads to annihilation of her artistic leanings. She is anonymous because she is synonymous with the fragile and powerless women at large who are subjected to male exploitation and commodification. After living at the heart of nature for a while, she realizes that nature is not biased, and as she has discovered the ischolar_mains of her identity in the wilderness, she reintegrates with the society and even she prepares herself to bear a child. In her quest for identity, she comes to terms with the dualities and incongruities in the patriarchal society she lives in through the struggle to reclaim her identity and ischolar_mains, Thus the protagonist’s psychological journey to discover her ischolar_mains and identity enables her to gain access into the world of pristine nature.