Cat's Eye Group at eNotes

Absolutely. I can tell you from personal experience that childhood...

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 15:41:27 PST

Absolutely. I can tell you from personal experience that childhood traumas stay with a person forever. There is no such thing as "closure" for events that damage the psyche; it is just that some people have better success at locking memories away than others do.

Though we only see children get into trouble with others and walk away,...

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 04:58:53 PST

Though we only see children get into trouble with others and walk away, there frigile minds remain scared. With time we all see them as healed individuals, able to still operate, but what we don't see is the psychological pain that was pushed back because of there inability to repair themselves at this level. The supression of all this is what then molds there minds. This alters their lives forever and so even as thy interact with difrenet...

I didn't read the article in Time, so I am not sure where the critic...

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:49:56 PST

I didn't read the article in Time, so I am not sure where the critic grounds his observations. Handmaid's Tale, which jamie refers to, confronts a patriarchal order fused with power of religion that reduces women to "vessels"--or at least those with the "power" to reproduce, and in this way re-imagines class distinctions. But as to whether childhood issues "scar" (or imprint us in a positive way?) us for...

I do agree, but I wonder if this is more true for women than for men. ...

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:44:51 PST

I do agree, but I wonder if this is more true for women than for men. I recently read Deborah Tannen's terrific non-fiction book, "You're Wearing That?": Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation" in which adult females discuss how mothers continue to impact their lives as adults.In Atwood's fiction, mothers and daughters are certainly intertwined. Do you think she is advocating a return to matriarchal rule (or the...

Childhood traumas

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 12:09:36 PST

Stefan Kanfer, in Time, commented on Atwood's understanding that the humiliations of childhood have deeper effects than anything that happens in adulthood. Do you agree that the events of our childhood can scar us for life?

This is the only painting Elaine does of Cordelia. In the foreground,...

Wed, 1 Aug 2007 19:29:04 PST

This is the only painting Elaine does of Cordelia. In the foreground, you have Cordelia's whole face, even though it's called Half a Face. In the background, you have another painting of Cordelia's face, but it's covered, so you can't see all of her face. The face in the background is compared to the moose heads and bear heads you find hanging on the walls of hunters, their trophies. The painting in the foreground is only "half a...

In Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye, What do the moose and bear's heads...

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 01:42:25 PST

In Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye, What do the moose and bear's heads symbolize in the painting: "Half a Face"?

At the age of eight, Elaine moves to Toronto where she is...

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 04:48:55 PST

At the age of eight, Elaine moves to Toronto where she is mercilessly picked on by other girls, effectively ruining her self-esteem. As a result, she begins to develop obsessive-compulsive behaviors, like biting her nails and picking skin off her feet (not exactly endearing her to her tormentors). Later, she develops some thicker skin and marries Jon, after becoming pregnant. I don't know if Risley is "traumatized" in...

In Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye, What are Elaine's traumatic experiences?...

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 04:30:36 PST

In Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye, What are Elaine's traumatic experiences? Was she traumatized by her first husband? How?

The retrospective of Elaine's works in the art gallery is organized...

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:11:38 PST

The retrospective of Elaine's works in the art gallery is organized chronologically. Her last five paintings are larger than the earlier ones, reflecting the most important and influential events of her life. They are of her parents, her brother, the three people who showed her kindness during her childhood, a self-portrait of her as an adult and a child, and her near-death experience as a child. The titles of her paintings are...

In Margaret Attwood's, Cat's Eye, how do Elaine's painting reflet...

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 03:04:42 PST

In Margaret Attwood's, Cat's Eye, how do Elaine's painting reflet her childhood trauma? What do they symbolize?

All I can find on the book points to Elaine's mother being referred to...

Fri, 6 Jul 2007 16:51:33 PST

All I can find on the book points to Elaine's mother being referred to by her last name only, Mrs. Risley. All of the parents are called Mr. or Mrs. in the book. I think it's because Elaine doesn't feel her parents helped her when she was being tormented by Cordelia and the other girls, and Mrs. Smeath is considered a mean, bad mother. Perhaps not giving them a first name shows how distant and lonely Elaine felt as a child and...

In the book "Cat's Eye" what was Elaine's mother's name?

Fri, 6 Jul 2007 15:22:57 PST

In the book "Cat's Eye" what was Elaine's mother's name?