Margaret Atwood Influences

Margaret Atwood Margaret Atwood's writing has been influenced by her early life experiences. In addition to this, the people she met throughout her life have largely influenced the topics and themes of her writing. Her love of reading contributed to her passion and skill as a both a poet and an novelist. Feminism and gender roles have been reoccurring themes in Atwood’s works (“Atwood, Margaret (1939 -)” 1). Atwood's tales of female protagonists have drawn to the forefront the issues of gender roles and inequality in modern society. Atwood's writing was positively influenced by the time spent with her family in the Canadian wilderness of Ontario and Quebec. This childhood experience gave her a setting for some of the novels she would go on

She adopted his tendency towards mythological metaphors into her own writing, as is seen in the poems of Double Persephone (1961), her first volume of poems (“Atwood, Margaret (1939 -)” 1). Atwood gained success as an author early in her career. In 1966, five years after Double Persephone was published, she published her second set of poems, The Circle Game (“Atwood, Margaret (1939 -)” 2). This volume of poems was much more successful, and it won the Governor-General's Award, a very prestigious award for literary works (“Margaret Atwood,” Novels for Students). Atwood's themes of gender roles and inequality between the sexes were prevalent in many of her novels. In her novel, The Edible Woman (1969), the protagonist is about to enter an unhappy marriage and become nothing more than her fiancé's wife (Hutcheon). She rebels against this loss of identity, but to no avail (Hutcheon). Atwood displays through this novel the unjust way that women can become possessions and lose their independence through marriage. In addition to this, Atwood explores the abuse of power over women in her most popular novel, The Handmaid's Tale (1985) (“Margaret Atwood,” Feminist Writers). The Handmaid's Tale was widely recognized, and it won the Governor-General's Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the Commonwealth Literature Prize (“Margaret Atwood,” CLC). Atwood has been recognized on a

Many critics have praised her ability to draw to the surface some of the more serious issues women must face in modern society. While critics have varying opinions on the meanings of the subliminal messages in Atwood's Alias Grace (1996) and Oryx and Crake (2003), they are in unanimous agreement that these novels illustrate the different struggles that women must face, both internally and externally (“Margaret Atwood,” CLC). Most of the critics agree that these novels have central themes and messages about the inequality of women being seen as objects instead of human beings (“Margaret Atwood,” CLC). This is especially evident in Atwood's Oryx and Crake, which tells of sexual trafficking (“Margaret Atwood,” Feminist Writers). Some critics describe her works as feministic, which Atwood has tried to avoid as it is often use to identify a book written by a female author and starring a female protagonist. (“Margaret Atwood,” Novels for Students). Atwood is still active in the writing community today. She has continued publishing novels and volumes of poetry throughout the early 2000s (“Margaret Atwood,” Feminist Writers). In addition to receiving countless awards for her works, Atwood has also earned honorary degrees from several universities (“Margaret Atwood,” CLC). She has been very active within various organizations, including PEN International, the Writers Union of