6. The Edible Woman(1969)- for APPSC TGPSC TREIRB JL/DL

 

6. The Edible Woman(1969)

for APPSC TGPSC TREIRB JL/DL

=================================

Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939---) 

Margaret E. Atwood, born in Ottawa, Canada, in 1939, spent her childhood and early adolescence divided between the cities of Toronto, Ottawa, and Sault Ste. Marie, as well as the remote wilderness of Northern Ontario and Quebec. She is the daughter of an entomologist and spent her childhood in forests. Her family lived in a log cabin without electricity, running water, television, or radio—an isolated setting that fostered her imagination. There, she entertained herself by reading the works of the Brothers Grimm and Edgar Allan Poe, laying the foundation for her future literary career.

Not until she was eleven, when her family moved to Toronto, did she attend school full-time. In Geraldine Bedell’s Nothing but the Truth: Writing Between the Lines, Atwood recalled that city life seemed bizarre compared to her unconventional upbringing, stating that all social groups appeared "equally bizarre, all artifacts and habits peculiar and strange." This outsider perspective, combined with her early passion for literature, steered her toward writing. By the time she graduated from high school, her yearbook declared her ambition to write "the great Canadian novel."

Atwood began writing seriously in high school, but it was during her undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto’s Victoria College that her literary interests fully crystallized. Under the mentorship of renowned critic Northrop Frye, she developed a deep fascination with Canadian literature—an interest that would shape her career and influence generations of writers. By 1961, she had earned her B.A. in Honours English and won the E.J. Pratt Medal for her self-published poetry collection, Double Persephone. That same year, her first official collection of poetry was published, marking the beginning of an extraordinary literary journey.

Few writers have matched Atwood’s success. Over the decades, she has gained international acclaim as a poet, novelist, short story writer, critic, and children’s author. Her works, translated into over 20 languages, have earned her numerous accolades, including two Governor General’s Awards—for The Circle Game (1966) and The Handmaid’s Tale (1986)—and two booker prizes for Blind Assasin (2001), and The Testaments (2019).

After completing her M.A. at Radcliffe College in 1962, Atwood pursued doctoral studies at Harvard but left in 1963 to work in Toronto for a market research company. Reflecting on this period in a 1995 speech at Hay-on-Wye, Wales, she humorously described her struggles: "After two years at the dreaded Harvard University, two broken engagements, a year of living in a tiny rooming-house room and working at a market research company... and after the massive rejection of my first novel, and of several other poetry collections... I ended up in British Columbia, teaching grammar to Engineering students at eight-thirty in the morning in a Quonset hut."

In 1961, at the age of nineteen, Margaret Atwood wrote a collection of poems that she self-published. The collection was called Double Persephone and it won her the prestigious E. J. Pratt Medal. In 1966, another Atwood poetry collection, The Circle Game, won her the Canadian Governor General's Award. This was how she launched her career as a writer. At the time of  publication of her first novel, Atwood was considered a poet.

Despite early setbacks, Atwood persisted. Her first novel, The Edible Woman (1969), was nearly lost by a publisher who later agreed to print it—without having read it—after she gained recognition for her poetry. Its release coincided with the feminist movement, propelling her into the literary spotlight. Over the next decades, she published landmark works such as Lady Oracle (1976), Cat’s Eye (1988), and The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), which was adapted into a film in 1990.

Balancing writing with academia, Atwood taught at universities across North America while producing over 30 books, including poetry, novels, and short stories. Today, she remains a towering figure in literature, residing in Toronto with her husband, novelist Graeme Gibson. Her legacy endures not only through her own works but also through her role in championing Canadian literature on the global stage.

 

Margaret (Eleanor) Atwood (1939-  )- poet critic, novelist, teacher, environmental activist, inventor of LongPen device (robotic writing technology- remote controlled pen invented by her in 2004 which allows a person to write remotely in ink anywhere in the world via tablet, PC). Atwood is a founder of the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Writers' Trust of Canada. she has published eighteen books of poetry, eighteen novels, eleven books of non-fiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction.

Novels:

1.       The Edible Women (1969)- first novel, about a women and their relationships to men, to society, and to food and eating. Anorexia is the medical term for eating disorders. Story begins with a first-person narrator in the voice of the female protagonist, Marian McAlpin. For the first several chapters Marian describes her relationships to her roommate, Ainsley; her boyfriend, Peter Wollander; and her pregnant friend, Clara Bates. Marian meets Duncan, an unconventional young man. Millie, Lucy, and Emmy are three single women who are known collectively as the Office Virgins.

2.       Surfacing 1972- second novel, unnamed protagonist returned to Canada to find her missing father

3.       Lady Oracle 1976- Parody of Gothic romances and failry Tales

4.       Life Before Man 1979- three main characters: Nate and Elizabeth are an unhappily married couple. Lesje, a paleontologist- fascinated by dinosaurs, is the lover of Nate.

5.       Bodily Harm 1981- Rennie Wilford, a travel reporter, is the protagonist. After surviving breast cancer, she travels to the fictional Caribbean island St. Antoine to carry out research for an article.

6.       The Handmaid’s Tale 1985- Dystopian feminist novel set in 2195AD at Republic of Gilead (previously USA). Won Governer General Award first Arthur C. Clarke Award. The title echoes to Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Story in first person narrative by the protoganist OffRed (pun on the word ‘offered’). "Offred" is as in "offered as a sacrifice"; or "Of Fred" her possession by the Commander named Fred; or  the red dress assigned for them. In Gilead, there are various classes: Eyes- Gilead’s secret police; Aunts- indoctrinate the Handmaids; Marthas- Houseeeping; Handmaids- reproducting women. Offred is a thirty year old, separated from husband, Luke, and daughter, became handmaid, fails to become pregnant in 3^rd attempt. If she fails again, she has to cleanup wastages, tried to escape with the help of Nick, Commander’s driver, but the reader is not sure whether she is rescued, arrested or doomed to death. Famous line: The commander said to Offred, “You can’t make omlette without breaking eggs.”

7.       Cat's Eye 1988 – about bullying among young girls, Elaine Risely, a fictional painter, recalls her childhood tormenters.

8.       The Robber Bride 1993- Set in Toronto, Ontario, the novel is about three women and their history with old friend and nemesis, Zenia (Zenia is the Robber Bride).

9.       Alias Grace 1996- historical fiction novel, based on two murders in 1843. Dr. Simon Jordan, a psychiatrist, and Dr. DuPont, "Neuro-Hypnotist" trying to find the facts of the murder from Grace Marks, a former housemaid.

10.    The Blind Assassin (2000)- winner of the 2000 Booker Prize, historical metafiction, set in the fictional Port Ticonderoga, Ontario,Toronto. Narrated from present day about the events of 1930s and 1940s. The book includes a novel within a novel, the eponymous Blind Assassin, a roman à clef attributed to Laura but published by Iris.

11.    Oryx and Crake (2003)- Speculative fiction involves supernatural elements and a scientific dystopia, A world destroyed by mad genious, surviving only one,  focuses on a character called "Snowman (original name is Jimmy)", (refers to mythical ape-like creature, Yeti, of the Himalaya.) living in a post-apocalyptic world near a small group of primitive and innocent human-like creatures whom he calls Crakers. Crake (brilliant geneticist and mad scientist) whose original name is Glenn, is Jimmy's childhood friend. They played video game called Extinctathon which is monitored by someone called MaddAddam. The game tests players’ knowledge of extinct species. Crake invented a Viagra-like super-pill called BlyssPluss, which causes sterilization to address overpopulation.  Oryx (name is from the oryx, an African antelope) is a mysterious woman, recognized by Jimmy and Crake as the waif-like girl from a child pornography site.

12.    The Penelopiad (2005)- (remembers Homer’s Odyssey). The novel recaps Penelope's life in hindsight from 21st-century Hades; she recalls her family life in Sparta, her marriage to Odysseus. first set of books in the Canongate Myth Series where contemporary authors rewrite ancient myths.

13.    The Year of the Flood 2009- focuses on God's Gardeners, a small community of survivors of the biological catastrophe depicted in Atwood's earlier novel Oryx and Crake.

Note:Maddaddan or Oryx and Crake Trilogy: Oryx and Crake(2003), The Year of Flood(2009), and Maddaddan (2013)

14.    Scribbler Moon (written in 2014 as part of the Future Library project; will remain unpublished until 2114)

15.    The Heart Goes Last (2015)- Dystopian novel set in near future- Charmaine and Stan (who are living in a car, surviving on tips) sees an advertisement for Consilience, a ‘social experiment’ offering stable jobs and a home of their own, and sign up immediately. They have to giveup their freedom every second month swapping their home for a prison cell.

16.    Hag-Seed (2016)- modern retelling of William Shakespeare's The Tempest. It follows the life of Felix, a former director at Makeshiweg Theatre, now an exiled man who speaks to his daughter's ghost. He uses his new teaching job in a prison literacy program, for taking revenge.

17.    MaddAddam (2017) – third part of dystopian trilogy. The narrative starts with Ren and Toby (protagonists in The Year of the Flood) rescuing another survivor (Amanda Payne) from two criminals, who had been previously emotionally hardened by a colosseum-style game called Painball.

18.    The Testaments (2019)- A sequel novel to The Handmaid’s Tale, joint winner of the 2019 Booker Prize)

 

Poetic collections:

1.   Double Persephone (1961),

2.   The Circle Game(1964)

3.   Expeditions (1965)

4.   Speeches for Doctor Frankenstein (1966)

5.   The Animals in That Country (1968)

6.   The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970)

7.   Procedures for Underground (1970)

8.   Power Politics (1971)

9.   You Are Happy (1974)

10.    Selected Poems (1976)

11.    Two-Headed Poems (1978)

12.    True Stories (1981)

13.    Snake Poems (1983)

14.    Interlunar (1984)

15.    Selected Poems 1966–1984 (Canada)

16.    Selected Poems II: 1976–1986 (US)

17.    Morning in the Burned House (1995)

18.    Eating Fire: Selected Poems, 1965–1995 (UK,1998)

19.    "You Begin." (1978)

20.    The Door (2007)

21.    Dearly (2020)

22.    Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems: 1961-2023 (2024)

 

Short fiction Collections:

1.     Dancing Girls (1977)

2.     Murder in the Dark (1983)

3.     Bluebeard's Egg (1983)

4.     Wilderness Tips (1991)

5.     Good Bones (1992)

6.     Good Bones and Simple Murders (1994)

7.     The Labrador Fiasco (1996)

8.     The Tent (2006)

9.     Moral Disorder (2006)

10.  Stone Mattress (2014)

11.  Old Babes in the Wood (2023)

 

Non Fiction:

1.   Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature (1972)

2.   Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Canadian Literature(1995)- based on a lecture series given at Oxford University.

3.   Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing (2002)- six lectures she gave at University of Cambridge

4.   Writing with Intent: Essays, Reviews, Personal Prose—1983–2005 (2006)

5.   Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth(2008)- about the nature of debt

 

The Edible Woman

Background:

Margaret Atwood's first novel, The Edible Woman, wriiten in 1965 but published in 1969, is about women and their relationships to men, to society, and to food and eating. It established her as a heavyweight writer. It is through food and eating that Atwood discusses a young woman's rebellion against a modern, male-dominated world.  It tells the story of a woman who begins to identify with food so much that she loses the ability to eat.

This novel's publication coincided with the rise of the women's movement in North America. In a foreword written in 1979 for the Virago edition of the novel, Atwood described it as a protofeminist rather than feminist work, because it was written in 1965 and thus anticipated second wave feminism. Many of the themes deal with issues of control and identity.

Also, anorexia, although known in the medical profession, was not a popular topic of conversation in the lay community. Eating disorders were diagnosed in a doctor's office but were not being widely discussed in women's magazines. Having been published in this era prior to full-blown discussions of women's rights and women's health issues, The Edible Woman received many reviews that mainly emphasized the book's literary techniques.

 

Point of view - Three part structure

Part	Number of chapters	Point of view
1st	12 chapters	First person by Marian
2nd	18 chapters	Third person
3rd	1 chapter	First person by Marian

The novel consists of 31 chapters, but without naming the chapters. The narrative point of view shifts from first to third person, accentuating Marian's slow detachment from reality. At the conclusion, first person narration returns, consistent with the character's willingness to take control of her life again.

 

Opening line:

I know I was all right on Friday when I got up. (Marian McAlpin)

 

Closing line:

“Thank you,” he said, licking his lips. “It was delicious.” (Duncan)

 

Short Summary:

Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman presents a biting social satire through the story of Marian McAlpin, a market researcher in 1960s Toronto whose seemingly stable life unravels as she confronts restrictive gender roles. The novel opens in Marian's shared apartment. The "lady down below," rented the apartment to Marian and Ainsely, but she is critical of their lifestyle—due to her fear of their "improper" behavior influencing her daughter. Her roommate Ainsley shocks her by declaring plans to become pregnant without marriage, targeting womanizing bachelor Len Shrank. This unconventional approach to motherhood contrasts sharply with Marian's own conventional engagement to Peter, a dull but reliable lawyer.

At the beginning of the novel, Marian is assigned to conduct a door-to-door survey by her boss, Mrs. Bogue, asking men about their beer consumption. Marian encounters Duncan, an eccentric English literature student whose unconventional perspectives intrigue her. This meeting becomes significant later when Marian's growing disillusionment manifests. A visit to her college friend Clara's suburban home - where Clara is perpetually pregnant with her third child, and domestically trapped - further heightens Marian's anxiety about her impending marriage. Clara’ husband, Joe works at the local university.

The crisis point comes during a disastrous dinner at a restaurant with Peter and Len. When Peter graphically describes a rabbit hunt, Marian experiences a visceral dissociation, suddenly seeing a tear drop onto the table before fleeing in distress. That same night, Peter proposes during an awkward car chase through Toronto streets, and Marian accepts despite her growing unease.

Back in their apartment, Marian's psychological rebellion takes physical form through food aversions. After Len confesses his childhood fear of eggs, Marian finds herself unable to eat them. The aversion spreads to vegetables, then meat, then nearly all food. Marian’s food aversions worsen, symbolizing her fear of being metaphorically consumed by Peter and the roles of wife and mother.  When Clara dismisses this as normal "bridal nerves," Marian's isolation deepens.

The tension culminates at the engagement party in Marian and Peter's apartment. Pressured by Peter to wear a scandalous red dress and heavy makeup, Marian feels increasingly objectified. When Duncan appears at the party, she escapes with him to a roadside motel, but their sexual encounter proves as unsatisfying as her conventional relationship with Peter.

The novel's pivotal scene returns to the apartment, where Marian bakes a woman-shaped cake - a literal embodiment of her fears of consumption. When she offers this grotesque dessert to Peter, his horrified reaction confirms her realization that their marriage would erase her identity. After Peter leaves, Marian consumes the cake herself, reclaiming her autonomy.

In the ambiguous conclusion, Duncan returns to casually finish the leftover cake the next day, while Ainsley - now pregnant - shockingly agrees to marry Fish and going to Niagara Falls for their honeymoon. Though Marian's appetite returns, signaling a tentative step toward autonomy, the ending remains deliberately open.

Chronological list of key scenes and settings:

ACT 1:

1.Marian’s Apartment

·       Introduction to Marian’s life with roommate Ainsley.

·       Ainsley declares her plan to get pregnant without marriage

·       Peter’s phone call about his friend Trigger’s engagement leads to awkward bathtub sex.

2.Market Research Office

·       Marian conducts consumer surveys for a beer campaign

·       First meeting with Duncan, whose unconventional answers for a survey of beer intrigue her

3.Clara’s Suburban Home

·       Marian visits her old college friend, now a 3^rd time pregnant housewife- Clara Bates

·       Contrast highlights Marian’s anxiety about domesticity

4.Restaurant Dinner

·       Peter recounts a graphic rabbit hunt to Len

·       Marian dissociates, cries, and flees

·       Ainsley arrives as virginal schoolgirl to seduce Len

·       Peter chases Marian in his car and proposes

ACT 2:

5.Laundromat

·       Marian runs into Duncan again; they kiss awkwardly.

6.Marian’s Apartment

·       Len confesses his fear of eggs to Marian

·       Marian’s food aversions begin

o   (eggs → vegetables → meat)

·       Clara dismisses it as "bridal nerves"

7.Department Store

·       Peter pressures Marian to buy a revealing red dress for their party

8.Engagement Party (Marian & Peter’s Apartment)

·       Marian wears the red dress and heavy makeup (applied by Ainsley)

·       Feels objectified; escapes with Duncan

9.Roadside Motel

·       Unsatisfying sexual encounter with Duncan

·       Marian still cannot eat breakfast the next morning

ACT 3:

10. Marian’s Apartment (Cake Rebellion)

·       Bakes a woman-shaped cake and offers it to Peter

·       Peter is horrified and leaves

·       Marian eats the cake herself, reclaiming autonomy

11. Final Apartment Scene

·       Duncan returns, eats the leftover cake indifferently

·       Ainsley announces she’ll marry Fish.

·       Marian’s appetite returns, but her future remains open

 

Chapter wise- Summary

Part One (1-12 chapters)

The Edible Woman begins with a first-person narrator in the voice of the female protagonist, Marian McAlpin, works for Seymour Surveys. For the first several chapters Marian describes her relationships to her roommate, Ainsley; her boyfriend, Peter; and her pregnant friend, Clara. Marian also describes her job, which requires her to take the technical language of survey questions and translate it into a language that the layperson will understand. When asked to substitute for one of the company's surveyors, Marian reluctantly goes from house to house asking people their opinions about a Moose beer ad that will soon be broadcast on the radio. It is during this survey that Marian meets Duncan, an aimless graduate student of English Literature (Ph.D) who throws Marian off guard with his lies and almost immediate admittance of his dishonesty.

After watching Clara interact with her children, Marian's roommate, Ainsley, announces that she wants to get pregnant. When Marian asks if this means that Ainsley wants to get married, Ainsley says no. She wants to raise the child by herself. She also wants to choose a man who will not make a fuss about getting married. Ainsley then proceeds to make inquiries about a friend of Marian's whose name was mentioned while they were dining at Clara's house. The old friend is Len Shank, and he has the reputation of a being a womanizer.

Peter is introduced in a phone conversation with Marian, in which he tells her about the engagement of his last remaining bachelor friend, Trigger. A day later, in an attempt to wear off his depression, Peter and Marian have sex in the bathtub, a setting that Marian describes as Peter's attempt at being spontaneous. Marian is disturbed with the incident, and for a variety of other reasons from that point until the end of the story her discomfort intensifies.

In a restaurant Marian introduces Peter to Len. Marian is surprised when Ainsley appears at their table. At this point Marian realizes that Ainsley has targeted Len as the proposed father of her child. Ainsley arrives dressed as an innocent virginal schoolgirl, intending to seduce Len. Through the rest of the evening, Marian is caught up in emotions that she does not understand. Marian finds herself disassociating from her body as Peter recounts a gory rabbit hunt to Len.

When they all go to Len's apartment, Marian hides under a bed. Eventually she is confronted by Peter, and she tells him she didn't know what she was doing. She runs away from Peter and is chased down by Peter in his car. Peter proposes marriage by telling her that it is time for him to settle down. Marian accepts and relinquishes to Peter all responsibility for making decisions.

Marian thinks, ”Peter is an ideal choice. He’s attractive and he’s bound to be successful”. Peter is portrayed as “ordinariness raised to perfection” whereas, Peter thinks Marian is suitable as a wife. She is undemanding and non-aggressive unlike other women. “A girl who won’t take over his life”.

Shortly after her engagement, Marian bumps into Duncan at a laundromat. It is the first time they have seen one another since the survey. They share an akward conversation, then kiss, stare at one another, and depart.

Part One ends with Marian commenting on her engagement, concluding that although her actions have recently been inconsistent with her true personality, life is run on adjustments. She then sees one of her childhood dolls and remembers how she used to leave food with this doll overnight but was always disappointed in the morning when the food had not been eaten. With this image, Atwood leads into the next section, which deals with Marian's eating problems. (anorexia due to Metaphorical Cannibalism)

Part Two (13-30 chapters)

Part Two begins with a third-person narrator. Instead of being inside Marian's head, the narrator now looks at Marian from a distance. There are other shifts as well. Clara has given birth to her third child and is once again in "possession of her own frail body." Peter has begun to stare at Marian as if he were trying to read her as he would read a manual of how to work a camera. Also in this section, Marian and Duncan's relationship intensifies. The more fascinated she becomes with Duncan, the less suited she is for coping with her life with Peter.

It is at this point of the story that Marian has her first troubled encounter with food. Len confesses his childhood fear of eggs to Marian. Marian is then unable to eat her usual breakfast of a soft boiled egg. Subsequently she is unable to eat many of the things she used to enjoy like vegetables and cake. Her friend, Clara, assures her that the eating problem is simply a symptom of bridal nerves and that she will soon get over it.

At dinner with Peter, she looks down at her plate, and instead of seeing a steak, she sees the live animal (cow) from which it was taken and After this, she is unable to eat meat – anything with "bone or tendon or fiber". She finds herself empathizing with a steak that Peter is eating. Along with Marian's increasing inability to eat food, she also imagines that her body is beginning to disappear. The first images come to her in a dream in which her feet and hands are disappearing.  

Marian meets with Duncan again, finding his "lack of interest [in her] comforting." She also tries to convince herself that her relationship with Duncan has nothing to do with Peter although she fears that if the men were ever to meet one another, they might end up destroying one another.

In contradiction to his lack of interest, Duncan tells Marian that he needs something real in his life. He's hoping it is Marian. He then adds that to find out if she is real, he wants her to peel herself out of all the woolen layers that she is wearing and go to bed with him. Marian agrees, but they do not know where to go, except to a hotel where Marian would be looked at as a prostitute. They do not go to the hotel this time, but this scene is a foreshadowing, or preview, of a later scene in which Marian is wearing a sequined red dress and has her face made up. She realizes, in this later scene, that she does look like a prostitute and even encourages that impression by flirting with the hotel clerk.

The last section of Part Two tells of Peter's party and its aftermath. Marian's eating patterns have eliminated all natural foods. She is down to "eating" only vitamin pills. Peter remains unaware of her problems and suggests that for the party she should buy a new dress, something less "mousy" than her normal wardrobe. He also hints that she should do something with her hair. Although Marian feels uncomfortable in the new red dress and new hairdo, she succumbs to Peter's wishes. Ainsley met Fish at the party, both afreed to marry.

Before the party, Marian takes a bath, during which she sees three separate versions of herself reflected in the hot and cold water taps and the faucet. Later, in her bedroom, she again sees three images. This time it is two of her dolls on either side of a mirror, with her own reflection in the middle. When she stares at the three images, she feels that the dolls are pulling her apart.

After Marian puts on her new red dress, Ainsley makes up Marian's face, attaching false eyelashes to her lids, and teaching Marian how to create an alluring but false smile. Later, at the party, Marian explores her new image in a mirror and wonders what is beneath the surface, holding her together. Everything that she sees of herself is false.

Despite her assumption that she is coping at the beginning of the party, in the end Marian runs away. When Duncan arrives, he refused to enter Peter's apartment once he sees how Marian is dressed. When Duncan leaves the party, Marian follows. They go to a motel (a roadside hotel) and have unsatisfying sex and then breakfast the next morning. Later Duncan takes her for a long walk and literally and symbolically points out her way back home.

The next day, Marian bakes a cake-woman, clothing her as if the cake-woman were wearing a red dress. She makes woman-shaped pink cake as a test for Peter. She describes the cake-woman as "an elegant antique china figurine … its face doll-like and vacant." She taunts him by saying "This is what you really want", offering the cake woman as a substitute to him feeding upon her. Peter fails the test, refused to eat. Marian regains her hunger and starts devouring (=eat quickly) the cake-woman. When Ainsley's remarks that Marian is rejecting her femininity by eating the cake-woman, Marian responds: "Nonsense, it is only a cake."

 

Part Three (31^st chapter)

Marian cleans up the apartment and plans to move on. In the last few sentences, she tells Duncan that she has called off the wedding and is eating again, and he welcomes her back to reality. Duncan tells her that she is “back to so-called reality”—a “consumer” once again. She offers him the rest of the cake, which he accepts and enjoys. Duncan eats the entire thing licking his lips, and says "Thank you, It was delicious.”

 

The Edible Woman -Chapter wise summary:

Chapters 1-3

Marian’s roommate, Ainsley, tells Marian about a party she went to the night before as she recovers from a hangover. Marian prepares a hangover cure for Ainsley, giving her tomato juice and an Alka-Seltzer. Ainsley tells Marian about the boring men she met at the party, who were mostly dentists. Ainsley is tired of talking about teeth—she works as a tester for defective toothbrushes, although she views this as a temporary job and wishes to work at an art gallery. Although Marian and Ainsley are roommates, Marian explicitly states that they “don’t have much in common.”: Ainsley drinks excessively, is more sexually promiscuous and is described as having louder, more assertive behavior. Ainsley is described as a "quick-change artist".

Landlady asks Marian about smoke that was coming out of Marian’s apartment. Marian wonders if the landlady notices the bottles of alcohol she and Ainsley bring up to the apartment. The landlady had been very concerned about creating a good environment for her daughter. Marian’s office is composed of all women. She writes consumer surveys for product test trials at a company called Seymour Surveys. One of the dieticians at the company asks her to come taste-test various pudding flavors. Marian suggests putting raisins in the pudding, but the dietician rejects her suggestions because they’re too controversial, and people often do not like them. Marian wonders what the future of her career is at Seymour Surveys; it seems like her position will lead to nowhere and there is no room for her to grow or get a promotion.

The company’s accountant, Mrs. Grot, comes over and tells Marian that Marian must sign up for the pension plan. Marian tries to refuse, but Mrs. Whit tells her it is required. Marian then goes out for coffee with three of her coworkers: Emmy, a typist; Lucy, who works in public relations; and Millie, the assistant to the boss, Mrs. Brogue. The girls are all virgins, although for different reasons. Millie wants to wait until marriage to lose her virginity, Lucy is afraid of social shaming, and Emmy, the “office hypochondriac,” is afraid of contracting diseases.

Mrs. Brogue tells Marian to remove a woman who is pregnant. Mrs. Brogue then asks Marian to work on a survey overtime for which Marian agrees. She listens to the jingle and commercial—it is an advertisement for beer—before reviewing the series of questions at the end of the recorded portion.

Marian receives a call from her boyfriend, Peter, notifying her that he can’t come to dinner that evening because his last bachelor friend, Trigger, is getting married. Marian worries that Peter will turn on her and begin seeing her as a “siren” (the wife) like the woman who had “carried off” Trigger.

After finishing her phone call with Peter, Marian works on writing a response letter to a woman who had found a fly in her Raisin Bran and sent in a complaint. She gets a call from her friend, Clara, who invites her to dinner. Marian agrees, but invites Ainsley with her so that she doesn’t have to listen to Clara all by herself.

 

Chapters 4-6

Marian and Ainsley arrive at Clara’s for dinner. Clara has two children: a baby and a young son named Arthur. She is also pregnant, which is especially noticeable because Clara is so thin. Marian describes her as looking like a "strange vegetable growth, a bulbous tuber." Clara mentions that Len Slank, one of their college friends (who is unethical), is in town. As the three women talk, Arthur runs around them and causes continuous disruptions.

Marian, Ainsley, Clara, and Clara’s husband, Joe, all sit down for dinner together. Ainsley learns about Len from Joe. After dinner, Marian narrates how Clara was always fragile, thin, and a girl of “translucent perfume-advertisement femininity.” Clara got pregnant in the middle of college with her husband, Joe, and put aside her education.

When Ainsley and Marian leave Clara’s house, Ainsley says that she feels bad for Joe as he is always needing to take care of her, pointing out that Clara should do something productive and finish her degree.

Marian calls Len Slank and sets up a time to meet up with him. Ainsley reveals to Marian that she intends to get pregnant and wants to raise the child alone, showing example of Clara and Joe. Marian is shocked, but Ainsley claims that "The thing that ruins families these days is the husbands."  Marian wakes up next morning and recalls a dream she had in which her body was turning to jelly and becoming transparent. She sets out to find men to participate in the survey involving “average, beer-drinking men.”  that Mrs. Brogue assigned to her. Marian visits several houses. At the first house, a couple scold her for promoting beer-drinking. In one of them, a drunk man attempts to seduce her. She is able to conduct four surveys successfully.

Marian meets a 26 years old young man who is dangerously thin named Duncan who stops her from sitting in the chairs, saying that they belong to “Trevor’s” and “Fish’s”. (He refers to his roommates as “bores.”) The young man leads Marian into the bedroom, where she proceeds to ask him the survey questions. He compares the survey to the tests that therapists do. He gives elaborate answers that involve references to literature (such as Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, and Boccaccio’s Decameron), fairy tales, and dark imagery that puts Marian on edge. Before the survey, he told her that he drinks “seven to ten beers a week”, when she asks him rate the beer, he says that he never drinks it. He also says that he has chosen -number six—because it was his lucky number.

He asks whether enjoyed the interview, she felt irritated and decided to leave. A beard man, Fish, enters and asks Duncan whether if he wants a beer. Marian learns that Duncan does drink beer, even though he said he doesn’t, and he explains that he simply wanted the survey to go on longer. Duncan introduces Marian to Fish as “Goldilocks”.

When Marian leaves, despite taking meticulous notes, she discovers that they are indecipherable.

 

Chapters 7-8

Marian heads to Peter’s apartment which is located far away. Because Since Peter hadn’t specified whether they were going out or making dinner, she stops by a grocery store and picks up some ingredients. Marian enters Peter’s apartment and Peter is in the shower. She observes that the bedroom is the only room perfectly completed. The Apartment has quality Danish furniture. The collection of weapons: “two rifles, a pistol, and several wicked-looking knives”, is hanging on the bedroom walls. His apartment is the sign of wealth, since it is in a luxury complex for wealthy individuals. She says he doesn’t have “extravagant amounts” of money yet, but Marian makes it clear that he is “rising… like a balloon”. Peter is not yet wealthy, as he is only in the first years of his career as a lawyer. 

 Peter invites her to sit in the bathtub together and involves in sexual activity (it is not explicitly mentioned). Marian recalls her first meeting with Peter where Clara described him as a “good-looking guy.” Marian explains how Peter is attractive and always smells like soap. She recalls Peter’s desire for a girl who wouldn’t interfere with his life. Marian realizes how uncomfortable she is with the way Peter views her. He doesn't understand her, nor does he want to. She thinks that “He (Peter) was treating me as a stage prop; silent but solid, a two-dimensional outline. He wasn’t ignoring me, as perhaps I had felt– he was depending on me!”

Marian and Peter ate the dinner and head over to meet Len at a bar. Ainsley appears and interrupts the gathering. Len and Ainsley begin to chat. Marian is worried about Ainsley’s presence. Marian finds herself disassociating from her body as Peter recounts a gory rabbit hunt to Len: "After a while I noticed that a large drop of something wet had materialized on the table. I poked it with my finger and smudged it around a little before I realized with horror that it was a tear." Peter’s voice seems different to Marian and she further dissociates from the social scene. Marian tries to console herself but begins crying without knowing the reason.

Marian senses that Ainsley is attempting to seduce Len. Ainsley says that she wants to engage with Len in a romantic manner. The group agrees to leave the bar. Once they step outside, Marian abandons the group and begins to run away.

 

Chapters 9-12

Marian runs away from the group until Peter catches and takes her back to his car. Len, Ainsley, Peter, and Marian go to Len’s apartment, where Len pours drinks for everyone and they all begin to socialize once more. Marian sits in silence, feeling distant from the group, and decides to crawl under the bed to escape the noise.

Len and Peter soon notice that Marian is under the bed, and Peter lifts up the bed, forcing Marian to get out. Marian announces that she wishes to walk home alone. Len and Ainsley stay in the apartment alone together. Peter follows Marian in his car, convincing her to get in so he can drive her home. She refuses and they begin to fight, but eventually agrees and gets in the car with him. They continue to argue until Peter accelerates the car and almost crashes it in a fit of anger. He accuses her of ruining the night and she calls him an “overgrown adolescent.” However, once they are parked outside of Marian’s apartment, she suddenly feels attracted to him and they embrace.

Peter asks Marian how she would feel if they were married. Marian wakes up the next morning, confused and scattered, as if the insides of her brains have been “scooped out like a cantaloupe.” She tells Ainsley that she and Peter are engaged—which Ainsley doesn’t approve of. Ainsley explains that Len is the only suitable man in the city, and he is a good candidate and genetically strong. Marian debates whether she should tell Len about Ainsley’s plan, and whether Ainsley’s plan is immoral.

Peter arrives at Marian’s apartment. He jokes about how drunk he was the night before, but then appears to contradict that statement by telling Marian how he really does believe it’s time for him to get married, just like Trigger. Peter states that it will be good for his career, and that Marian is “very sensible,” which will make her a good wife. He says he is happy about the decision and Marian agrees, although she feels uncertain. Peter asks Marian when she would like to get married and she wants him to decide, adding that she wants him to make all the “big decisions”. When asked to choose a date for the wedding, Marian slips into unexpected passivity: ”I’d rather have you decide that. I’d rather leave the big decisions up to you.' I was astonished at myself. I’d never said anything remotely like that to him before. The funny thing was that I really meant it."

After Peter leaves, Marian finds that she feels restless and decides to go to the laundromat to do laundry. When she arrives at the laundromat, she discovers that she’s forgotten the soap. However, to her surprise, Duncan—the young man she attempted to interview for the door-to-door survey on beer—is at the laundromat and offers her his soap. Duncan and Marian begin talking. Duncan speaks in a confessional style at length, at first explaining to Marian that he likes watching the washing machines because it lets him escape from his apartment, which he finds dark and depressing. His roommates, Fish and Trigger, keep to their rooms and write, and when they speak, they repeat themselves and appear to always be working on the same papers for long stretches of time. Fish, Trigger, and Duncan are all graduate students in English, which Marian finds intriguing. Duncan, however, tells Marian that he doesn’t like being a graduate student and that it all grows incredibly pointless and esoteric.

Duncan, himself, confesses that he is only able to write one sentence at a time on a “good day.” Marian suggests he work somewhere else, which Duncan scoffs at, telling her that he is unqualified to work anywhere else and can’t afford to leave his apartment. When Marian asks Duncan where he is from, he is elusive and refuses to tell her. Duncan continues to tell her about his frustrations with his studies, explaining further how he feels “bogged down” by it and tried to set fire to the apartment to feel something.

Marian begins to feel sympathy for Duncan. Duncan compares her to Florence Nightingale (a nurse in Crimean war), and Marian wishes to save him just like Nightingale saved soldiers in Crimean war. Marian and Duncan leave the laundromat together. Without saying a word, they begin to kiss outside of the laundromat. Marian appears to dissociate once more from her body, stating that she can’t remember any feeling at all. Marian fails to remember anything about her journey back to her apartment.

In the final chapter of Part One, Marian lists off a series of tasks she must do. It is unclear how much time has passed since the end of the last chapter, although it appears that it has only been a few days. The tasks she lists are menial, including cleaning her room, writing a letter to her family, and revising the beer questionnaire for work. She briefly considers her engagement, stating that it may have been “inconsistent with her true personality” but brushing off this thought by saying that she’s thought about it and decided it was a good decision. Her sentences throughout this chapter, which is delivered entirely as a first-person internal monologue from Marian, are short and simple. She said that she was “more involved” with Peter than she “wanted to admit”. She states that Peter is “attractive,” “successful,” and “neat” and an “ideal choice” and also says that she struggles to remember Duncan, even forgetting his name. The chapter ends with Marian stating that she has a “lot to do.”

 

Chapters 13-15

Chapter 13 marks the beginning of Part II, in which the narrative voice shifts from first-person to third-person, referring to Marian by her name rather than revealing her internal monologue through her own voice using “I.”

Marian sits at work and doodles, half-heartedly working on a survey about razor blades. Since getting engaged to Peter, she won’t have to work anymore once they’re married.

Marian goes out to lunch with the other girls from the office, Emmy, Millie, and Lucy, and tells them that she is engaged. They congratulate her. Marian finds that even though she was starving at the office, once she gets to the restaurant, she feels no hunger at all. Joe Bates calls Marian to tell that Clara has had her baby.

Mrs. Bogue tells Marian, Emmy, Millie, and Lucy about the “Underwear Man,” a man who is calling women across the country and pretending to be conducting a survey about underwear, asking lewd questions and making the women uncomfortable. Marian leaves work and wonders who the Underwear Man could be. At first, she jokingly wonders if the Underwear Man could be Peter, but soon she believes that the Underwear Man could be Peter’s true self, the “core of his personality” that she feels she hasn’t discovered yet.

Marian arrives home as Ainsley is getting ready for a date with Len. Ainsley tells Marian that her plan to seduce Len and make him the father of and invites Len over to their apartment after getting dinner with him. Ainsley wants Marian to leave the apartment to give Ainsley and Len some privacy. Marian decides to go to a movie.

At the movie, Marian sees the man from the laundromat, whose name she appears to have forgotten. He is eating pumpkin seeds. Marian hears a voice whisper in her ear, “pumpkin seeds,” and believes that she is hallucinating. When she arrives back home, her landlady questions her about the “man” that Ainsley led upstairs. Marian makes up an excuse for Ainsley in order to calm the landlady down. When Marian enters the apartment, she sees that Ainsley has taken Len into Marian’s bedroom, where they are most likely having sex, leaving Marian to sleep in Ainsley’s bed.

The next day, Marian goes to the hospital to visit Clara, skipping lunch. Marian and Clara discuss the birth, and Marian grows uncomfortable as she considers the possibility of having a child with Peter. Clara begins to give Marian advice about marriage, and how she discovered more about her husband, Joe.  She pities Clara for “blundering” into a mess of a marriage, unlike her and Peter. Marian tries to lie to Clara and tell her that she thinks Joe is a wonderful husband, but Clara laughs and says that Marian is lying. Marian feels uncomfortable and leaves.

As Marian walks through the hospital, she considers what clothing she has that is easy to iron. Although it’s initially unclear why she needs to find clothing to iron, it is revealed in a flashback that the man from the laundromat, Duncan, called Marian while she was at work and apologized for scaring her during the movie. He asked her for her help, explaining that he needs new clothing to iron because he has ironed all of the clothing he has in his own house. Marian agrees to bring some items over, even though it means she will have to postpone dinner with Peter. Returning to present reality, Marian realizes she was so deeply engrossed in her thoughts that she has missed the exit. She returns to the elevator and leaves the hospital.

Bottom of Form

 

Chapters 15-18

Though Marian doesn’t remember the exact address, somehow, she goes to Duncan’s apartment. Duncan greets her and begins to iron the clothing she brought him. Marian recalls a conversation she had with Ainsley that morning. Ainsley then tells Marian about her night. Len had gotten extremely drunk, and he barely remembered what happened when they woke up the next morning, implying that they had sex. Ainsley appears to find the story amusing, which Marian finds unsettling.

Marian brings her attention back to Duncan as he continues to iron. Duncan points out a mirror and he tells her that he smashed it because he didn’t want to see himself in it. He then reveals that he was lying about his reasons for breaking the mirror. Duncan asks Marian if he can iron the blouse that she’s wearing, offering her his own grey nightgown to wear. Marian agrees and gives him the blouse. At one point, Duncan looks up at her and tells her that she looks like him while wearing the grey nightgown. He pulls her closer to him and takes her into his arms. She feels unsure of his intentions, but kisses his nose and tells him that she is engaged. Duncan appears not to care, and tells her that her engagement is “her problem.” She responds, saying that she shouldn’t be at his apartment, but doesn’t get up.

Duncan thanks Marian for telling him about her engagement and tells Marian that she’s a substitute for the laundromat for him. Marian wonders, what Duncan is a substitute for, and he says that he’s a universal substitute. He turns off the light, but the door outside slams and Duncan realizes one of his roommates is home. Duncan quickly pretends that he and Marian were playing chess, although his roommate doesn’t believe Duncan’s cover-up. After his roommate leaves, Duncan takes Marian’s hand and holds it. When they hold hands, she describes his fingers as “dry and rather cold”—a sensation that is unpleasant.

The narrative jumps forward; Marian and Peter are at dinner. They discuss their own future plans for educating the children she and Peter will have together. They have both ordered steak (meat), although as Marian eats, she feels her appetite waning and begins to grow disgusted by the food. As Marian watches Peter slice the steak, she begins to imagine the butcher and the cow the steak came from. She is disgusted and unable to stop seeing blood and death within the meat in front of her. Marian is unable to finish eating her steak.

The narrative jumps forward several weeks. Marian has not been able to eat normally since the steak dinner. She finds it impossible to eat any sort of meat other than fish. Len calls Marian and asks to come over. Marian fears that he wants to talk about Ainsley’s pregnancy. Len arrives at the apartment and expresses his concern about the pregnancy. He feels guilty, even though he can’t even remember the night. Marian tells Len that Ainsley had planned for Len to get her pregnant. Ainsley arrives at the apartment. Len tells Ainsley how upset he is and how he feels that she used him, adding that he can’t psychologically separate himself from his new role as a father; Ainsley responds with little care. She compares Len to a “white grub… repulsive[ly] blindly writhing”.  The next morning, when Marian tries to have an egg for breakfast, she is unable to eat it, haunted by the fact that it used to be alive.

Note: Duncan’s apartment is in “semi-darkness” with only one lamp turned on, unlike Peter’s apartment, with its expensive furniture and shiny surfaces. Similarly, the two men’s physical appearances are contrasted as Marian describes in more detail Duncan’s appearance. He slouches, and has a “shrunken child’s-face,” whereas Peter is repeatedly described as a “perfect man”

 

Chapters 19-20

Marian attends a Christmas office party at her job and eats only a jelly sandwich, but being around the large quantity of sweets and desserts makes her feel gluttonous. She observes the women at the party and notices their bodies. She becomes haunted by the rolls of fat, the veins, the signs of age, the bumps, bodily fluids and femininity. she observes the bodies of the women and is able to see their “inside and outside.” she compares them to food, fruits, and vegetables that are “overripe” or beginning to “shrivel.” Marian begins to see women as consumable. She is interrupted by Mrs. Bogue, who announces Marian’s engagement to the women at the party. Everyone congratulates Marian. As she walks home through a snowstorm, she recalls how she struggled to find Peter a gift for Christmas, realizing how little she knows or understands Peter.

Marian walks into the park, where she unexpectedly meets Duncan.  They sit together and embrace on a bench. He tells her that he was expecting her. Marian decides she needs to leave and gets up, abandoning Duncan on the bench.

Marian wanders through the supermarket, trying to find vegetarian options that she hopes she will be able to eat. She considers how difficult eating has become for her. At Christmas dinner, she had been unable to eat any of the meat, eating only mashed potatoes and mince pie.

Marian considers how she has been seeing more of Peter, although only when other people are around, such as at cocktail parties and dinners with his coworkers and friends. She feels alienated by the people he introduces her to, and so has made plans for Clara and Joe to meet Peter over dinner; this is the meal she was buying ingredients for. She has decided to make a salad and a casserole, hoping that she will be able to eat meat if it is disguised in the casserole or push the meat aside.

When Marian arrives at home and begins preparing dinner, she realizes that the carrot she is grating was alive once too, and imagines it screaming as it was dug up. This realization strips her of the ability to eat vegetables in the same way that she is no longer able to eat meat, eggs, or dairy; she begins to cry with despair. At dinner, Clara and Joe bring their children along. The children are covered in their own excrement and make the room smell, a fact that Clara does little to fix and which angers Peter. Peter and Joe do not get along (have a conflict), and Marian observes them judging each other. Marian tells herself that she shouldn’t expect Peter to get along with all of her friends, especially ones from her past.

Ainsley returns from a visit to the prenatal clinic, which had caused her to miss the dinner. Marian finds her crying in her room. Ainsley explains that a psychologist had come to the clinic and lectured the women about the importance of a father in a child’s life. Ainsley is extremely distressed, feeling that she’s made a mistake by deciding to raise her child on her own and mistakenly believing that a mother is all a child needs. Ainsley vows to find a father for her child.

 

Chapters 21-23

Marian and Duncan go to a museum. They walk through the Ancient Egyptian section and look at mummies. Marian thinks about their relationship, considering how Duncan is “using” her, but accepting that she’s okay with being used, since she, too, is using him.

They approach a mummy and Duncan explains that his roommates, Trevor and Fish, are protective, almost like parents. Marian finds this comparison puzzling. As Duncan points out that the mummy is his favorite, Duncan kisses Marian. A museum guard interrupts them, telling them that there is no kissing allowed in the Mummy Room.

Duncan and Marian leave the museum and go get coffee. Duncan tells her that he wants to have sex with her to get over his own aversion to sex. She feels uncomfortable. When she asks him why, he tells her that it is only because he knows she won’t react poorly or get “hysterical.” Duncan then sees his roommate, Trevor. Trevor invites Duncan and Marian back to their apartment for dinner, but Marian insists she can’t go, citing all of her dietary restrictions. (since, by this point, she is unable to eat meat, eggs, dairy, and certain vegetables).

Despite trying to avoid the dinner with Fish, Trevor, and Duncan, Marian finds herself at their apartment for dinner nonetheless. As Trevor prepares an elaborate meal, Marian starts to talk to Fish, who is sitting in the living room under a pile of books and papers. He explains a long theory about Alice in Wonderland, which he’s currently writing a term paper on. Duncan interrupts him, mocking how esoteric the theory is, and all four of them sit down to have dinner.

Marian finds herself unable to eat the meat that Trevor has prepared. She secretly throws chunks of it to Duncan in order to make it seem like she’s eating and not hurt Trevor’s feelings. After the dinner, She and Duncan go outside and sit on a bench together, where Duncan says once more that he wants to have sex with Marian. However, she says that even if they were to have sex, they couldn’t do it at her apartment, nor could they do it at his, and she isn’t willing to pose as a prostitute to go to a hotel that would let unmarried couples in. Duncan agrees and leaves.

Sometime later, Marian and Peter relax in their apartment. As Marian lies next to Peter, she thinks about the past few days, when she discovered that she could no longer eat rice pudding—something she had been relying on to get enough sustenance as the number of foods she’s been able to eat has dwindled. Marian wonders why she is the one having problems eating; after all, she views herself as completely “normal”.

Marian decides to ask others if she is “normal.” Clara tells Marian that Marian is “abnormally normal,” which Marian agrees with. Marian tries to tell Clara about her problems eating. Clara says that it is a pre-wedding nerves and asks Marian if she has any questions about sex that Clara could answer. Marian dismisses Clara, unsatisfied with her reaction. She leaves, feeling slightly frustrated and annoyed with Clara.

The narrative returns to the present, where Marian asks Peter if he thinks she is normal, to which he says that she is “"I'd say from my limited experience that you're marvelously normal, darling." Peter asks her to bring him a drink. She goes into the kitchen, where a cake that Peter had bought her for Valentine’s Day is on the table. The cake is decorated with a pink heart and frosting, a traditional symbol of love. Marian cuts herself a slice and tries to eat it: “She put a forkful into her mouth and chewed it slowly; it felt spongy and cellular against her tongue, like the bursting of a thousand lungs”. She decides to bring Peter a slice, to test if he finds it inedible, too. She brings him the slice of cake. He eats voraciously, telling her he’s worked up an appetite, and confirming that there is nothing wrong with the cake itself.

 

Chapters 24-26

Marian prepares for a large party that Peter is throwing. She goes to a hairdresser, and compares it to being in the hospital and getting surgery. The hairdresser is described as a surgeon literally pulling “stitches” out of Marian. She narrates how she is prodded, wheeled from room to room, and examined. She also gets her makeup done and picks up a red sequined dress that the saleswoman convinced her to buy, even though Marian feels it isn’t her style at all.

When Marian arrives back at her apartment, she finds Ainsley and Len arguing. Len proclaims that he has no desire to act as a father and accusing her of taking advantage of him the night. She pleads with him, begging him to take on the responsibility, but he refuses and leaves the apartment, screaming at both Ainsley and Marian and calling them a series of derogatory, misogynistic terms. Ainsley appears calm after the fight and retreats to her room, appearing “settled” with the situation.

Marian decides to start getting ready for the party. She takes a bath, where she notices her reflection and marvels at how the image before her appears so distant and dissociated. When she gets out, she puts on a girdle (a tight-fitting undergarment that makes waist and stomach look smaller and firmer) —another item of clothing that the saleswoman had convinced her to buy.

Marian begins to feel nervous about the party and, out of desperation, calls Duncan and invites him to the party. He tells her he might come, along with Trevor and Fish. Marian also calls Clara, Joe, and her coworkers (the “office virgins”). Ainsley comes into the room and does Marian’s nails and makeup. When Ainsley finishes, Marian looks in the mirror and barely recognizes herself. Instead of seeing Marian, she sees a “person she had never seen before.”

As Ainsley and Marian leave for the party, they run into their landlady. She tells them that she has noticed their drinking and that she knows Len stayed overnight. The landlady tells Marian and Ainsley that she has had enough of them setting a “bad example” for her child. Ainsley accuses the landlady of being a hypocrite and tells her that she is also having a baby that she wants to protect, and that she would never want her own baby around the “bad example” that the landlady sets.

Peter arrives at the apartment to pick Marian up so they can get things ready for the party. Marian tells him that she’s invited more guests, to which Peter responds positively. They go back to Peter's apartment. Peter jokes that he never knew Marian had so many friends he’s never met. Before asking her to arrange things on plates, he says, “women are so much better at arranging things".

After she’s done, she goes into the bedroom and looks at herself in the mirror. She is uncomfortable with how dressed up and but reminds herself that Peter complimented her liberally, telling her how attractive. Peter comes into the room and tells her once more how she looks stunning, remarking how the red dress flatters her. He asks to take a couple photos of her. His camera functions as a symbol of the male gaze and symbol of his desire to trap her. Marian is uncomfortable and at first aggressively refuses. She then agrees to let him take her photograph, although while he takes the photographs, she feels stiff and deeply unsettled. After Peter is finished, she wonders why she was so unsettled, telling herself that they were only photographs, and that she shouldn’t have reacted so negatively.

 

Chapters 27-28

The party begins. The “office virgins”—Lucy, Emmy, and Millie—arrive first. Soon after, Peter’s friends arrive, as well as Clara and Joe. Marian did not invite Len so that he and Ainsley wouldn’t run into each other, Clara and Joe brought Len along anyway, unaware of the discord between Ainsley and Len. Joe and Marian have a conversation in which Joe expresses concern for Clara, explaining how “difficult” it is for educated women to become wives and mothers. He states that it makes them “hollow” and that they lose all sense of independent identity after becoming involved with a man.

Ainsley arrives at the party. She assures Marian that she and Len can avoid arguing at the party, which Marian is wary of, since Len is already drunk and appears distressed. Marian abandons Ainsley and wanders around the party. When she glances into the bedroom, she sees Lucy attempting to flirt with Peter. Marian shrugs this off, remarking how “pathetic” it is for Lucy to try and pursue a married man.

Trevor, Fish, and Duncan arrive. When Marian opens the door, Duncan ridicules her for her dress and makeup saying, “"You didn't tell me it was a masquerade," he said at last. "Who the hell are you supposed to be?". Duncan says that he doesn’t want to go into the party and abruptly leaves, and telling Marian that he is going to the laundromat.

When Marian returns to the party, she finds Len screaming at Ainsley in front of everyone. He calls her a “rotten bitch” after Ainsley announces that they’re having a baby. Len pours his beer onto Ainsley, which causes Peter to exclaim with glee as he delights over the opportunity to photograph the spectacle.

Marian wanders through the party, assuring herself that she is “coping”. As she watches Peter take photographs of the party, she imagines him forty years into the future, picturing him as a regular, harmless family man who is “comfortable” and “normal”. She describes Peter as a “home-movie man,” alluding to his potential as a domestic, benevolent partner—will be the true future Peter. She continues to walk through the party and opens a door, where she sees a forty-five year-old version of Peter standing besides a barbecue (a metal frame for roasting food on over an open fire outdoors). Marian enters the hallucinatory scene and walks through the lawn that she imagines Peter standing in. As she walks across the imagined lawn, Peter’s figure switches to holding a cleaver (a tool with a heavy, broad blade, used by butchers for chopping meat).

Marian exits the hallucination and enters back into the party. She opens another door and sees Peter with his camera. He tries to take her picture, but she screams and covers her face. Peter laughs at her, telling her that she can’t handle her alcohol, and leaves her alone to return to the party. Marian decides to escape the party; she feels that she needs to see Duncan. Marian describes Duncan as a “white formless thing”. She leaves the party and begins to run to the laundromat.

Marian finds Duncan in the laundromat. She tells him she wants to have sex with him, and they decide to find a hotel. After wandering for a while, they come across a motel. However, the front desk staff assumes that Marian is a “escort” (prostitute), and doesn’t let them book a room. Finally, they find a dirty, cheap, shabby hotel that has a free room. Duncan demands that Marian stirp off her makeup before they have sex.

After half an hour, Duncan and Marian have still not been able to get anywhere. Duncan tells Marian that trying again is useless and that he is overwhelmed by the amount of “flesh” in front of him. Marian feels paralyzed with terror and lies next to him, immobile. Duncan tells her to lie down and assures her that he just needs to take his time; he begins to kiss her, at which point the chapter ends.

 

Chapters 29-31

Marian and Duncan go to a diner after their night at the motel. It is implied that, in the end, they were able to have sex, although Marian feels unsatisfied. She declines any food, unable to eat at all. After eating a plate of eggs and ham (an act that disgusts Marian), Duncan tries to leave, telling Marian that he wishes to retreat back into his “shell.” She begs him to stay, which he initially refuses, but eventually, Duncan agrees to stay for a little longer with Marian. They walk, and he leads her to a ravine. They sit together and talk; Marian tells Duncan that she doesn’t know what to do about Peter. Duncan acts dismissive, telling her that he has no advice for her. She asks him how the sex was for him the previous night and he tells her it was just “as good as usual.” Marian realizes that she wasn’t his first sexual partner, which devastates her. She feels naive for thinking that she was his first and imposing some sense of meaning and emotional intimacy onto the night. Marian asks Duncan to come talk to Peter with her. He refuses, telling her it wouldn’t be “good for [him]" i.e., Duncan.

Marian goes home. Peter calls her, furious that she left the party. He tells her she ruined the party for him, recounting how he searched for her so that she could be in a group photo. Marian invites him over for tea and he agrees to come. She decides to conduct a test to see what in her life is “real.” Marian goes to the grocery store and purchases ingredients for a cake. She makes the cake into the shape of a woman, decorating it with a dress and a face. When Peter arrives, she presents him with the cake and tells him that he has been trying to “destroy” and “assimilate” her, and that the cake is a substitute for her that he can continue to destroy. However, Peter doesn’t agree to eat the cake, and leaves the apartment unceremoniously.

Marian begins to eat the cake by herself. She hears Ainsley coming into the apartment, and Fish is with her; it is implied that they have spent the night together. Ainsley, seeing that Marian is eating the cake, exclaims that Marian is rejecting her femininity. Marian disregards her and says that what Ainsley has said is nonsense.

The final chapter (Chapter-31) marks the beginning of “Part III,” where the narrative returns to the first-person, with Marian narrating once more. She receives a call from Duncan, who asks her what happened with Peter. She tells him that she realized Peter was trying to destroy her, and that she is now looking for another job, implying that she left him and is moving. Duncan tells her that he was actually wondering what happened between Ainsley and Fish. In a state of distress, he tells her that Fish has “abandoned his responsibilities,” and explains that Fish’s responsibility is taking care of him (Duncan). Without Fish, Duncan says he feels lost.

Duncan asks Marian to be more sympathetic towards him, she invites him over to her apartment. Duncan comes to the apartment and Marian tells him that Fish and Ainsley have gotten married, and that they’ve left to go on a honeymoon. Duncan appears dejected and says that he will have to move out of his apartment. Duncan asks Marian if she is eating again. With pride, she tells him that she is, and that she had a steak for lunch. When he asks her why she looks so much happier, she tells him that it’s because she realized Peter was trying to destroy her. Duncan says that she is “ridiculous” and that Peter wasn’t trying to destroy her. He says that she (Marian) was actually trying to destroy Peter. Duncan then explains how all of them are destroying each other.

Marian offers Duncan some of the leftover cake. She brings him the remainder of the cake, which is the woman’s head. Duncan devours the cake voraciously and tells her it was delicious.

Characters

Marian McAlpin

Marian McAlpin is the main character; and the first-person narrator during Part One and Part Three of the novel. Works in Seymour Surveys. Toward the end of the book, Marian says, "I'm coping, I'm coping." These words sum up Marian's character. Marian copes with her roommate Ainsley's radical ideas about getting pregnant without first getting married. Marian copes with Peter's moods, adjusting her emotions around his. Marian copes with Duncan's manipulation of her sentiments. She copes with his lies and his self-absorption. She copes with a boring job, a snoopy landlady, a sloppy apartment. She even copes with her slowly diminishing appetite and inability to eat. Marian engaged to Peter, but continues her relation with Duncan. As wedding date approaches, she loses appetitie, then she stops eating. She also loses contact with herself.

But once again, Marian copes. She bakes a cake. When Peter rejects the cake, she offers it to Duncan who eats it "without exclamations of pleasure, even without noticeable expression."

Ainsley Tewce

Ainsley is Marian's roommate. Ainsley represents the progressive, alternative woman. She is aggressive, determined and radical feminist. She shuns the role that society tries to impose on her. She is also manipulative, and by the end of the story, several contradictions in her personality are exposed.

She also claims that she is anti-marriage. When she announces that she wants to get pregnant, she responds to Marian's questions by saying, "No, I'm not going to get married…. The thing that ruins families these days is the husbands."

She acts as a foil to Marian, the complete opposite of Marian's conservative behavior: Ainsley is loud, talks openly about sex, drinks liberally, and is focused on asserting her identity as a woman who doesn't conform to prescribed gender roles.

However, halfway through the story, Marian makes a statement that signals her and Ainsley's reversing roles: "Our positions have shifted in some way I haven't yet assessed." After that point, Ainsley's character becomes contradictive to her initial stance as the new, independent woman.

By the end of the story, Ainsley is convinced that it is psychologically unhealthy to raise a child alone, and she takes Fish, Duncan’s room mate, as her husband.

Clara Bates

Clara is another friend, from college, a somewhat neglected and very pregnant friend of Marian McAlpin, the protagonist. Marian has difficulties talking to Clara. Marian states that "more and more, Clara's life seemed cut off from her, set apart, something she could only gaze at through a window." Clara is pregnant with her third child at the beginning of the story. She dropped out of college in 2^nd year with her first pregnancy and has been having children ever since. She describes her children as "barnacles encrusting a ship and limpets clinging to a rock." Clara is a symbol of traditional motherhood as well as an extreme example of someone who has made a very literal self-sacrifice by giving up her studies to have her children. Clara is also used as a contrast to Ainsley's more radical approach to motherhood.

Joe Bates

Joe is Clara's husband. He is a philosophy instructor, and the parent most responsible for keeping his children fed and diapered. He cleans house and cooks, and tends to think of "all unmarried girls as easily victimized and needing protection." Joe is very protective of Clara to the point of believing that she (and all women) "shouldn't be allowed to go to university at all; then they wouldn't always be feeling later that they've missed out on the life of the mind." Marian describes Joe as a "shaggy man with a slight stoop." Joe stands in contrast to Len Shank who "is horrible with women, sort of a seducer of young girls." When Joe is asked what he thinks of Len Shank, Joe says, "He's not ethical."

Mrs. Bogue

Mrs. Bogue is Marian's department head at Seymour Surveys. She symbolizes the professional woman. Marian looks at Mrs. Bogue as a possible future self. Marian sees Mrs. Bogue as attempting to preserve a sense of humanity in a mechanized world, as when Mrs. Bogue shouts to the male executives: "We're working with humans, not with machines."

Duncan

Duncan is the moody, manipulative English graduate student with whom Marian has an affair. He appears to be incapable of loving anyone, as he is so totally wrapped up in his own needs. However, it is through Duncan that Marian is able to grope her way through a challenging journey of lost identity and eventually grasp a better image of herself. Marian describes Duncan as being "cadaverously thin" and his eyes are "obstinately melancholy, as though he was assuming the expression on purpose." When he smokes a cigarette, she says that he is like "a starved Buddha burning incense to itself."

Duncan is the antithesis of Peter, Marian's fiancé. Duncan is not very attractive and appears to have little sense of direction in regard to his future. Duncan pulls Marian into his life through pity, but just as Marian starts to lean toward him, he pushes her away by exposing his own manipulative techniques. Despite the layer of lies in which Duncan hides, he convinces Marian that he needs something real in his life. Marian has trouble resisting him. Duncan represents adventure. He is spontaneous and unconventional. He hopes that Marian is real and proposes that she go to bed with him so he can find out for sure. "God knows you're unreal enough now, all I can think of is those layers and layers of woolly clothes you wear." Duncan encourages Marian to get rid of all the outer layers and expose herself to him. Later at Peter's party, when Duncan sees Marian in her red dress and makeup, he says, "You didn't tell me it was a masquerade. Who the hell are you supposed to be?" It is through Duncan that Marian finds her path back to herself. In the last passages of the book, Duncan tries to sum up the journey but then decides that all that really matters is that Marian is "back to so-called reality." Duncan is unemotional and no desire for serious relationships, when he makes love with Marian and while eating cake at the last scene.

Office Virgins

Millie, Lucy, and Emmy are three single women who are known collectively as the Office Virgins. They work with Marian at Seymour Surveys. They are, as Marian states, "all artificial blondes" and all "virgins." Their thoughts about virginity/sexuality are representative of the standard societal views of the early 1960s. Millie believes that it is easier to wait until you are married. Lucy wonders what people would say, and Emmy, "the office hypochondriac," believes it would make her sick. Lucy is singled out toward the end of the novel at Peter's party where Marian finds Lucy flirting with Peter. Then Marian catches Peter "grinning boyishly" back at Lucy. Lucy symbolizes the artificial woman that Marian feels she has become for Peter's sake.

Leonard Shank (Len Slank)

Len is an old college friend of Marian and Clara from college. He is described as a womanizer of very young women. His goal leans toward "corrupting, as he called it, greenish girls." Ainsley's goal is to trick him into getting her pregnant. Len stands in opposition to the fatherly role of Joe Bates. Marian describes Len as: "He was a self-consciously-lecherous skirt-chaser; but it wasn't true as Joe had said, that he had no ethical sense. In his own warped way he was a kind of inverted moralist … he was constantly accused by women of being a misogynist and by men of being a misanthropist, and perhaps he was both."

Fischer Smythe (Fish)

Fish is a graduate student and roommate of Duncan.

By the end of The Edible Woman, Fish steps into Ainsley's life as a substitute father figure for her unborn child.

Trevor

Trevor is Duncan's second roommate, also a graduate student. Duncan says that Trevor "subconsciously thinks he's my mother."

Trigger

Trigger is the last of Peter's friends to get married. As his name implies, Trigger's marriage triggers Peter to make a marriage proposal as well.

Peter Wollander

Peter is Marian's boyfriend, and later, fiancé. He has a profound lack of understanding of Marian's emotions and her true self. Marian considers Peter a good catch: "He was ordinariness raised to perfection." He is a lawyer whose status is "rising … like a balloon." His living quarters give a hint about his personality. He lives in an apartment building that is still under construction for which he receives a discount on his rent in exchange for allowing his residence to be used as a model apartment. The one room that is most completely furnished in his apartment is his bedroom, in which hangs a collection of weapons: "two rifles, a pistol, and several wicked-looking knives."

Peter thinks of most women as "designing siren[s]" who carry men off. After one of his friends gets married, Peter attacks his bride, "accusing her of being predatory and malicious and of sucking poor Trigger into the domestic void." Shortly after Peter loses his last bachelor friend to marriage, he proposes marriage to Marian, relenting with the sentiment that "it'll be a lot better in the long run for my [law] practice." Peter views Marian as a "sensible girl" and confesses that sensibility is "the first thing to look for when it comes to choosing a wife."

Peter is confident, but Marian believes that most of this confidence comes straight out of the popular fiction and men's magazines that he reads. For instance, he and Marian have sex in his bathtub. Marian is not comfortable in this scene, thinking that Peter's choice of setting may have come to him from a murder mystery that he's recently read.

Throughout the story, Peter tries to change Marian to match his image of the perfect woman. Marian asks Peter if he loves her. "Of course I love you … I'm going to marry you, aren't I? And I love you especially in that red dress." Then as Peter tries to take a photograph of her, he tells her to "stick out your chest, and don't look so worried darling, look natural." In the end, Peter fails Marian's test.

‘Woman Down Below’ and ‘Child’

This is Marian's landlady and her daughter who lives on the first floor of the rooming house. The woman down below enforces rules, checks on visitors, and in other ways tries to control Marian's and Ainsley's actions, always for the sake of protecting the innocence of this child. For "whatever happened the child's innocence must not be corrupted." The Woman Down Below symbolizes a kind of strict mother figure, or generalized, conservative voice of society, who does not approve of male visitors, drinking alcohol, or leaving a ring of soap scum around the bathtub.

Mrs Withers

Company’s dietician.

Mrs Grot

Company’s accountant.

 

Themes

Loss of identity

Marian's refusal to eat can be viewed as her resistance to being coerced into a more feminine role. She sees that the body's assimilation of raw materials (food) is analogous to the social body's assimilation and processing of women into socially acceptable feminine subjects. By not eating, Marian refuses to take in the raw materials used to re-construct her into a role of domesticity. When Marian, feels that she is losing her identity her physical body reacts by refusing to eat. This inability to eat is an act of solidarity with other prey, such as the rabbits in Len’s story, because Marian feels that she is prey as well. Fish, Duncan's roommate, expounds on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as having a "sexual-identity crisis", then goes on to describe the structure of both Alice and The Edible Woman: "One sexual role after another is presented but she seems unable to accept any of them." Marian is shaped first by her parents' plans for her future, then by Peter's. Once married, Marian fears Peter's strong personality will obliterate her own fragile identity. Marian's story is controlled by someone other than Marian herself. The narrative moves between the first and third person as Marian loses her grip on reality.

Alienation

In the transitions from first person to third person, Atwood demonstrates Marian's growing alienation from her body. At the company Christmas party, Marian looks around at the other women, thinking "You were green and then you ripened: became mature. Dresses for the mature figure. In other words, fat." Marian refuses to become likewise, which would transform her into a woman and as such be constrained by a sexist culture. Marian is, therefore, alienated from nature as she places herself outside the process of maturation.

Search for Self

Marian at the very beginning of the story, in terms of her concept of self, is a bit confused. When Marian is asked to sign a pension plan document, she feels depressed and feels locked into a future self from which she cannot escape. Without consciously knowing what she is doing, Marian searches for clues to her identity by observing the women around her.  Marian was unable to identify her neither with Ainsely nor with Clara. When she leaves Clara in the hospital after the birth of Clara's third baby, Marian feels as if she has "escaped, as if from a culvert or cave. She was glad she wasn't Clara."

Gender Stereotypes

Atwood explores gender stereotypes through characters who strictly adhere to them (such as Peter or Lucy) and those who defy their constraints (such as Ainsley or Duncan). Every female character in The Edible Woman embodies a certain set of values that either conform to or defy stereotypical female gender roles. Each woman's relationship to gendered expectations also serves as a source of conflict. On the exterior, Marian is a vision of standard, unobtrusive femininity: Clara, Marian's friend, represents another vision of typical femininity: the housewife. Clara abandoned her education to serve as a complement to her husband, raising their children and staying within the domestic role. Ainsley is a complicated portrayal of both someone who defies gender roles—she is loud, talks about sex, and wants to seize her independence—but at the end, conforms to them by hastily marrying Fish in order to create a nuclear family.

Marriage

Marriage is a contentious and complex topic within the novel. At first, Peter is averse to marriage, lamenting the loss of his friends to women. However, he then proposes to Marian, partially out of his feelings of obligation to do what is "standard" and expected, so that he has a wife to take to his work parties and appear respectable. Marian, although accepting of Peter's offer, immediately begins to feel a subconscious revolt against it, and perpetually questions her relationship with Peter and how it became so serious. Clara and Joe’s marriage also comes under intense scrutiny; several characters, including Peter, Ainsley, and Marian see it as miserable. Clara and Joe offer a vision of what Marian and Peter could become, and serve as a warning. Ainsley is another portrayal of a certain attitude towards marriage. At first, she is extremely critical of the marriage. Married life is considered as an ideal life for a woman. Ainsley is against marriage and decides to have a baby. At the end, she marries Duncan's roommate Fish. Marian criticizes her, “I’ve never been silly about marriage the way Ainsley is. She’s against it on Principle, and life isn’t by Principles but by adjustments.”

Pregnancy As a Compulsion

At first pregnancy is exhibited as an act of disloyalty to the company because earlier there were no rights for working women. The woman had to quit her job if she gets pregnant. “Mrs.Bogue frowned slightly: she regards pregnancy as an act of disloyalty to the company.” Secondly, pregnancy is exhibited as a source of satisfying one’s ”deepest femininity”. According to Ainsley, ”Every woman should have at least one baby.” Though Ainsley is against marriage, she does not deny motherhood. To fulfil her Dream she somehow manages to seduce Len and gets pregnant. But soon she realised that it would be difficult for her to bring up her child alone in the patriarchal society. she changes her mind, and to provide the child a father she gets married accordingly. Marian has to agree with Ainsley that “Power of woman declines as the number of children grows.”

Work

Marian's job is a totally mundane pursuit. She feels unfulfilled and restricted within it, unable to voice her opinions and forced into executing menial tasks that have little to do with what her actual job is supposed to be, such as tasting rice pudding when she should be writing surveys or editing them. The job symbolizes one of the many forces that strips Marian's agency and renders her life unsatisfying. Although Marian is educated, she is unable to pursue a job that satisfies her or is intellectually stimulating. Marian's position emphasizes the lack of options that women faced at the time that Atwood wrote The Edible Woman.

Sex

Although sex is often discussed through coded language within the novel, it is used to characterize many of the personages within it. This includes the "office virgins" that Marian works with, as well as Ainsley, who is sexually active and open about her liberal attitude toward sex. At the end, Duncan wants to have sex with Marian, and the experience ends up being an unfulfilling, terrifying experience that Marian takes little pleasure in. The novel portrays several modes of women's relationships towards sex, from fear to pleasure, with Marian's conflicted relationship to her body at its center.

Consumption

Marian realizes that Peter would like to "consume" her both physically and mentally, and she loses her ability to consume anything that used to be alive after witnessing Peter eat at dinner. At first she is unable to eat meat, before slowly becoming disgusted by eggs, dairy, and certain vegetables. At the end, Marian tests Peter by presenting him with a cake in the form of a woman, a symbol for him to potentially devour so she can see if he really wants to destroy her. He refuses; instead, it is Duncan who eats the cake, which makes the ending ambiguous, since it is unclear whether Marian "wants" to be devoured by Duncan and enter a relationship with him.

Alienation/Dissociation

Over the course of the novel, Marian feels physically disconnected from her body. This alienation is a powerful symbol of Marian's own loss of self at the hands of the structures around her. She feels powerless within her job and her relationship, and thus, loses control over her own body in whe she is out for drinks with Peter, Len, and Ainsley, where Marian crawls underneath the bed. As Marian grows more and more alienated from her friends and Peter, she also grows more separate from her own body, totally losing herself.

Workplace environment for women:

Earlier women were not provided equal job opportunities when compared to men. They had a limited scope for working. They had to work under/below men, this represents suppression. There were differences in their wage rate. Women were discriminated against in the work environment. Regardless of their capabilities to work, their knowledge and willingness to flourish they were never encouraged. Stepping up was next to impossible. Women were subject to various rules. The very first problem that Marian has to face was at her work place, Seymour Surveys Company. The company has three-tier system, she couldn’t work at the upper floor as only men works there neither she could work at the lower floor as only wives and old ladies works there. She finds herself trapped at the middle point of the office structure.

“I couldn’t become one of the men upstairs; I couldn’t become a machine person or one of the questionnaire-making ladies, as that would be a step down. I might conceivably turn into Mrs. Bogue or her assistant, but as far as I could see that would take a long time, and I wasn’t sure I would like it anyway.”

women’s worth limited to their appearance

The company where Marian works at expects their women staff to wear high heels. Moreover, at the time of Peter and Marian’s Marriage, Peter asks Marian to dress differently than the usual and suggests her to do something with her hair, so that she looks beautiful. Despite of being uncomfortable with bringing a change in her personality, she dress herself in a red gown and puts on makeup for the party just for Peter’s interest. This showed Marian’s suppression on her feelings and desires. She tries to adjust herself in the role of an ideal woman.

Top of Form

Setting:

Setting is used to identify differences between the characters; for example, Duncan is encountered in a mundane laundromat, gloomy theatre or sleazy hotel. In comparison, Peter inhabits genteel bars and a sparkling new apartment. However, these changing environments are also used to explore different angles of existence, contrasting a freer, wilder glimpse of life, with a civilised, gilded cage. This highlights the difficulties presented to women in the era, where freedom was synonymous with uncertainty but marriage presented problems of its own.

 

Style

Point of View

Atwood begins the story with a first-person narrator, Marian McAlpin, telling the story from her own perspective. However, after Marian's engagement to Peter, Atwood changes the narrator, and for the entire second part of the book, the story is told from a third-person point of view. In the last two chapters of the book, Marian comes back to herself with the statement, "Now that I was thinking of myself in the first person singular again, I found my own situation much more interesting." Correspondingly, Atwood switches back to a first-person narration.

Figurative Language

Food and eating are the prominent metaphors, or images, in The Edible Woman. Beginning with the title of the book and journeying through the final chapters, someone or something is either being described in terms of food, or is being eaten. Besides the obvious and plentiful breakfasts, lunches, and dinners that prevail throughout the book, Marian uses food to describe herself and her environment. For instance, her office is "layered like an ice-cream sandwich" with her department being the "gooey layer in the middle." And in one of Marian's dreams she says that her feet were dissolving like "melting jelly."

Cannibalism:

The most dominating element throughout the novel is cannibalism. Marian conceives that she is being consumed by her boyfriend as she consumes food. When sex becomes the medium of consumption, she feels caught in a sex role trap and wants to break out of or else she would lose her identity and self- respect. Through this, Atwood depicts how Women are always treated as objects for someone’s pleasure.

 

Bottom of Form

 

The Edible Woman Symbols, Allegory and Motifs

The Woman-Cake

The cake that Marian bakes at the end to determine whether Peter is destroying and consuming her symbolizes a woman who is totally passive and allows herself to be taken advantage of and devoured by a man. The pink cake, baked in the shape of a woman, is a physical representation of Marian, herself; however, when she offers it to Peter—an action that revokes passivity, since she, herself, offers the body to him rather than simply letting it be taken advantage of—he is repelled by the explicit nature of his own desire to consume female bodies, and leaves Marian, embarrassed.

Food and clothing

Food and clothing are major symbols used by the author to explore themes and grant the reader insight on each of the characters' personalities, moods and motivations. Food appears throughout the novel as a representation of life. Peter eats steak at dinner, which repels Marian as she watches him execute the same action she subconsciously feels he is doing to her—eating her, devouring her, erasing her personhood. Slowly, Marian loses the ability to eat food herself. Food appears over and over again, with Marian growing more and more disgusted by it in a variety of settings, like the office Christmas party, where food comes to symbolize women's aging and their loss of value to society when they lose their standard beauty.

Laundromat

The laundromat is where Duncan goes to escape his graduate studies. It is methodical and predictable; when he compares Marian to the laundromat, and says that she fulfills the same need for him, he implies that she is also predictable and monotonous. The laundromat is a symbol of what Duncan seeks in Marian: that is, routine and comfort—not her actual self, but someone who is an escape.

Ainsley's pregnancy

Ainsley's pregnancy reveals the inescapable nature of female gender roles, as well as providing a cynical look at women's own desires to escape these roles. Although Ainsley first proclaims that she wishes to become pregnant and raise a child independently, she then completely revokes this desire and begins to furiously seek out a father for her child (first Len, then Fish). Ainsley begins the novel as a staunch advocate for women's independence, but ends as another one of the women who finds peace in marriage and standard female social roles.

Duncan and Peter's apartments

Duncan and Peter's apartments symbolize their respective values and the role they play in Marian's life. Peter's is orderly but sterile, and Marian feels disconnected from it. Duncan's, on the other hand, is dark and disorderly, bringing about a feeling of illicit chaos and emphasizing how Marian's relationship with Duncan is unclean, breaking the expectation of her engagement to Peter.

The Pension Plan

Mrs. Brogue, Marian's supervisor, signs Marian up for a pension plan that Marian can't refuse, even though she doesn't want the plan. Marian is annoyed by this, but is unable to get rid of the plan. The imposition of the plan, and the way that the plan is forced upon Marian without any feedback from her or thought for what she woud want, is a symbol for the larger lack of agency Marian has in her life beneath the institutions she is a part of.

 

The Edible Woman Metaphors and Similes

Feet "beginning to dissolve like melting jelly"

Marian wakes up from a dream during which she sees her feet beginning to dissolve. This simile foreshadows the dissociation Marian will begin to feel within her own body, as well as the "dissolving" of her self and her identity while she's engaged to Peter.

Room "dim as twilight"

When Marian first enters Duncan's apartment, she notices how dark it is. The dark setting alludes to the shadowy, indeterminate role that Duncan will play in Marian's life, and hints at the indecency and secret nature of their relationship. It also contrasts with Peter's apartment, which is well-lit and well-decorated.

"Those arts-crafts types"

When Peter calls Len one of those "arts-crafts" types, he trivializes Len for Len's involvement in the arts (Len works in television). He compares Len's occupation to something that a child does, like arts and crafts, revealing his own judgemental nature and narrow view of the world.

"Treating me as a stage-prop"

Marian states that Peter is treating her as a "stage-prop" at dinner, emphasizing how he uses her as an inanimate object without treating her like a real person with thoughts, feelings, and desires. This theme will continue over the rest of the novel as Peter routinely displays uninterest and lack of understanding towards Marian, treating her instead as a stereotype.

A "private burrow”

When Marian crawls underneath the bed while drinking with Peter, Len, and Ainsley, she says that she has dug herself a "private burrow." She has distanced herself from the group, intentionally creating her own solitude and alienation as she feels a deep disconnect from the others.

"As he would a new camera"

When Peter and Marian are at dinner, she likens his gaze to the one he has when he is eyeing an object—a camera—he wants to buy. One of Peter's hobbies is photography; this simile emphasizes that Peter views Marian as an object and a hobby, something superficial and inhuman.

The carcass

As Marian breaks her inability to eat food and eats the cake she bakes for Peter, she states that she is eating a carcass. This metaphor makes the action violent, and also characterizes her action as "unfeminine," thus emphasizing how, free of Peter, Marian is finally able to break away from constrictive femininity.

Bottom of Form

 

The Edible Woman Irony

Ainsley's marriage (Situational Irony)

At the beginning of the novel, Ainsley professes her plan to get pregnant and raise a child without a father, something she wants to do because she believes in the supreme importance of a woman's role in a child's life. She emphasizes that a male influence is unnecessary; the whole plan is an extension of Ainsley's liberal, feminist-oriented ideologies that she expresses with vigor and that contrast with Marian's own conservative relationship towards gender roles. However, at the end of the novel, it is Ainsley—not Marian—who ends up married, a total reversal of the values Ainsley held earlier (disdaining marriage) and ironic, given that Marian was the one who was engaged and set up to get married.

"My manly arms" (Verbal Irony)

When Duncan and Marian attempt to have sex, Duncan jokes that he's "supposed" to "crush Marian in his manly arms," an ironic statement that overstates his own physical form—which we know to be extremely thin, as Marian continuously describes it—and overstates the act of sex itself, making fun of stereotypical male strength and gendered expectations.

Peter not eating the cake (Situational Irony)

Marian expects Peter to eat the cake, because like he "destroy[s]" and "assimilate[s]" her, she thinks he will destroy and assimilate the cake that she has baked for him as a substitute for her own self and body. However, Peter doesn't do what she expects, and instead becomes embarrassed and leaves her. Although Peter has previously pushed Marian into standard, stereotypical womanhood, once given the opportunity to make this kind of silent violence more explicit, he runs away.

The cake's symbolism (Dramatic Irony)

After Marian bakes Peter the cake and presents it to him, he doesn't eat it, not doing what Marian expected he would do. After he leaves, she states that her "symbol has failed," a metatextual remark that hints towards the use of "symbols" as useless. Marian wants to use a symbol, just as an author uses a symbol—a reality that exposes the ironic nature of literary technique.

Bottom of Form

 

The Edible Woman Imagery

Meat (Visual, Tactile Imagery)

Meat is described in visceral terms as Marian begins to feel more and more disgusted by it. She imagines the muscles and fibers tearing, and in turn, begins to imagine the cows that the meat came from and their brutal deaths at the hands of butchers. Meat becomes a source of extreme empathy as Marian envisions death every time she consumes it. The repeated descriptions of meat, and of the blood and tissue tearing, disgust the reader as much as they disgust Marian.

Apartments (Visual Imagery)

The visual interiors of Peter and Duncan's apartments are used to emphasize their roles within Marian's life and their personalities. Duncan's is dark, cluttered, and makes Marian both intrigued and uncomfortable. It is obscure—she doesn't understand Duncan, just like she can't make sense of the mess in his apartment. Peter's apartment, on the other hand, is meticulously planned and designed. It is filled with expensive furniture, which emphasizes Peter's burgeoning career and the status he hopes to occupy.

Snow (Visual, Tactile Imagery)

Snow features prominently in the scenes that occur at night in the novel. In the beginning, Peter picks Marian up while she's running away in the snow. In the end, Duncan and Marian walk through the snow in a park. The snow creates an aura of discomfort in both of Marian's interactions with the men; over the course of both scenes, she remarks how cold she is growing. It also serves as a unifying sensory element between the two scenes and sets them up to contrast with each other. The presence of snow also establishes the novel's setting, which is somewhere in Canada, perhaps an allusion to Atwood's own nationality.

The red dress (Visual Imagery)

The red dress that Marian dons for Peter's final party is a representation of stereotypical, extreme female sexuality. It is erotic and lewd, its red color a clear reference to lust. When Marian wears the dress, she feels extremely uncomfortable and unlike herself; however, it is this version of Marian that Peter praises, which shows how little he cares for Marian's true self. Duncan is the only one who acknowledges how the dress doesn't suit Marian, and how it looks like a costume.

 

Criticism:

In the essay, "Reconstructing Margaret Atwood's Protagonists," Patricia Goldblatt states that "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."

Darlene Kelly in her essay "Either Way, I Stand Condemned" says that "Marian is a pawn, not of fate … but of other people. In the hands of her fiancé, of her roommate, of her colleagues, of her friends, and of her acquaintances, she is completely passive and suggestible."

As Patricia F. Goldblatt sees it in "Reconstructing Margaret Atwood's Protagonists," Marian is an "exiled little girl" who clings to the notion that her life "will be improved by the arrival of a kind stranger, most likely a handsome suitor."

Goldblatt believes that "women trust methods that have helped them cope in the past in order to alter the future…. The womanly art of baking provides Marian with a way to free herself."

David L. Harkness, in his essay "Alice in Toronto: The Carrollian Intertext in The Edible Woman," refers Marian as a type of 'Alice' and Duncan as a type of 'Mock Turtle.'" Fish, Duncan’s Roommate, uses a Freudian interpretation of Alice In Wonderland, stating that: “Of course everybody knows Alice is a sexual-identity-crisis book … this is the little girl … trying to find her role … as a Woman. One sexual role after another is presented to her but she seems unable to accept any of them … she rejects maternity … nor does she respond positively to the dominating-female role … you can't say that by the end of the book she has reached anything that can be definitely called maturity.”

According to Joyce Hart, Reading Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman is similar to eating a tofu sandwich. Both the book and the sandwich begin and end in the same way. Marian has a dull, egocentric boyfriend and a dull, going-nowhere job. She meets an eccentric, self-absorbed second young man and has an affair. First boyfriend proposes marriage. Nice refined young woman accepts the proposal, then rejects it. In the end, nice, refined, middle-class young woman has no clue what to do with her life.

Emma Parker states in her essay "You Are What You Eat: The Politics of Eating in the Novels of Margaret Atwood" that in Atwood's writing, "food imagery saturates [her] novels and becomes the dominant metaphor the heroines use to describe people, landscape, and emotion."

In the essay "No Bread Will Feed My Hungry Soul: Anorexic Heroines in Female Fiction," Dr. Giuliana Giobbi states that "anorexic girls are actually uncertain, asocial, fundamentally shy persons who lack any power of initiative." Dr.Giobbi continues that anorexia is an attempt "to escape from the hardships of adult life."

 

Allusions and references to other works:

Allusions to Atwood's personal life

From 1963 to 1964, Atwood worked for Canadian Facts, a Toronto-based survey research firm, fact-checking and editing survey questionnaires. Canadian Facts had a similar work environment to the fictional Seymour Surveys where Marian worked. In Margaret Atwood: A Critical Companion, Cooke argues that the characters of Peter, Lucy, and Mrs. Sims were drawn from people in Atwood's life – Peter being a fictionalized version of Atwood's boyfriend (also an amateur photographer) and later fiancé. It is also likely that the name of her roommate and friend Ainsley was inspired by Annesley Hall at Victoria University in the University of Toronto, to which Atwood belonged. The all-female residence building, which was built in 1903, was the first university residence building for women in Canada

 

CLICK HERE FOR

JL DL notes for APPSC/TGPSC/TREIRB

CLICK HERE FOR 

TS SET ENGLISH- PREVIOUS PAPERS

CLICK HERE FOR

UGC NET PREVIOUS QUESTION PAPERS