A stern man who disappears, forcing the narrator to search for him on his island. The narrator’s father is an atheist and a fan of the eighteenth-century rationalists. Self-reliant and rugged, he built the cabin on his own and had used the island as respite from city life. He dies accidentally on a trip researching local Indian wall paintings. The Narrator’s Brother The garden has been rearranged since she was last there and the crop is paltry. Anna comes out looking for the toilet. She asks if the narrator is okay and she says sure, surprised by the question. Anna says she is sorry they did not find her father, her eyes big as if it is “her grief, her catastrophe” (33).

One of Atwood’s earliest and lesser-known novels, Surfacing is a dense, complex, and often uncomfortable look at contemporary (1970s) feminism; the workings of the mind and memory; the relationship between Canada and the U.S.; nature vs. civilization; fairy tale, myth, and the hero(ine)’s journey; and much more. With powerful imagery and often obscure symbolism, the unnamed female narrator takes us into the recesses of her mind, providing us with a narrative we assume to be true and then, later, complicating it and ultimately revealing it to be mostly false. Feminism, a theme in many of Atwood's novels, is explored through the perspective of the female narrative, exposing the ways women are marginalized in their professional and private lives. [6] Allusions to other works [ edit ]Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. The Barometer Here are some of my favourite bits - spoilers because they mark essential revelations (I would call them plot points, but let's face it, plot is a little too generous a concept). These mark the most Atwoodian use of language: poetic and suggestive, more than descriptive or concrete. They rely on the reader having read carefully to that point; and then they deliver with a gut-punch of comprehension that belies the abstract, disembodied words and images themselves. Read these at the risk of potentially dulling their impact if you're going to read or re-read this novel:

You could decide she's losing her mind, there's plenty of things that would support that idea. But the way I see it, our girl is in the process of "surfacing" - which to me is someone coming out of the depths, to breathe air. She's rejecting the world she came from, rejecting marriage, kids, religion, French Canadians, Americans (SO anti-American... this I gotta say I didn't quite understand), career, and sex (described several times as death). She morphs into her true self, where titles, statuses, even forms are not necessary to define her identity. Two Canadian campers whom the narrator initially mistakes for American tourists. They are avid fishers, and they befriend David. They are also responsible for killing and hanging a heron, and for their senseless violence the narrator believes them to be Americans. ClaudeAs a baby, he once came close to drowning, something that looms large in the protagonist's mind. As an older child, he demonstrated cruelty to animals. We do not know where he is or what he does now, but he has made it a point to be far from the island. Claude

The narrator believes her parents would not have approved of her life after she left home. Frequently, she recalls scenes from her marriage and divorce, and she slowly begins to admit to herself that much of what she wants to imagine about her recent years is false. There was no wedding; the scene she has in her memory is actually of the time her already married lover sent her to have an abortion. What her current lover, Joe, admires as her calmness she considers her numbness, an inability to feel. The narrator is glad the others are with her because if she were alone the vacancy and the loneliness would overtake her. David starts to talk about the dead animals this country was built on and Anna chastises him for lecturing and tells him they aren’t his students. She strokes his face lovingly and the narrator wonders what their secret is. They have been married nine years and the narrator remembers how when she got married her husband changed and started expecting things from her.

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They stop at a motel with a bar and the narrator says she is going out on her own. The others are a little relieved, and stay to drink beer. The narrator is glad that they have a car so she could get here, and she likes and trusts them, but she knows they do not understand why she is here. They disowned their parents a long time ago, and they do not get why she is looking for her father. The central protagonist is a woman in her late twenties. She is unnamed and the narrator of the story. She is searching for her missing father, who had been residing on an island in a lake in northern Quebec. She travels there with a lover and another wed couple. It is on this island that she herself grew up. Returning there, leads her to reexamine her life.