Margaret Atwood Questions and Answers
Margaret Atwood
What are the major themes of the poem "Morning in the Burned House" by Margaret Atwood?
Themes of regret and loss permeate the poem "Morning in the Burned House." In fact, the title cleverly capitalizes on the homophone, and readers can understand the lamentations of "mourning" in the...
Margaret Atwood
In the short story "My Life as a Bat," what tone does author Margaret Atwood's syntax and diction create?
Bats are frequently misunderstood creatures, and Margaret Atwood celebrates the lives of bats in her short story "My Life as a Bat." More importantly, she juxtaposes bat behavior with human...
Margaret Atwood
In "Siren Song", who is the speaker of the poem? To whom is she speaking?
The speaker of the poem is one of the mythical sirens, immortalized by Homer in The Odyssey. The sirens are bird/women who sing a beautiful song that lures men to their death. In Homer's version,...
Margaret Atwood
What are the characteristics of bats as they are portrayed in the short story "My Life as a Bat"?
Throughout the story, by positing the narrator as a reincarnated bat, Margaret Atwood calls attention to the differences between bat and human behavior. The narrator, while straightforward in...
Margaret Atwood
What are some poetic devices used in Margaret Atwood's poem "The City Planners"?
Margaret Atwood’s poem “The City Planners” uses a variety of poetic devices to achieve poetic effectiveness. The first two lines, for instance, open with a very heavily emphasized verb in which...
Margaret Atwood
What was the contribution of Margaret Atwood in the field of literature?
Margaret Atwood is perhaps the leading figure in contemporary Canadian literature and the one with the most significant reputation outside as well as within Canada. She has written important works...
Margaret Atwood
What is the subject of the speech "Attitude" by Margaret Atwood?
The sentiments and topics of Margaret Atwood's speech "Attitude," given more than thirty years ago, are still applicable today. Seemingly light and humorous in tone, "Attitude" starts with...
Margaret Atwood
An analysis of the poems of Margaret Atwood.
This is rather a broad question to answer as you haven't really identified any poems specifically to respond to or if there are certain issues that you would like us to focus on. I have included...
Margaret Atwood
What is the tone of Margaret Atwood's poem "At the Tourist Center In Boston"?
The tone of a poem is emotion or overall impression it conveys. Margaret Atwood's poem, "At the Tourist Centre in Boston" conveys a tone of cynicism and disgust at a tourist display about Canada....
Margaret Atwood
Can you help me make an analysis on the poem "The Poor Women Learns To Write" by Margaret Atwood? Thank You. The poem...
In her novels and poems, Margaret Atwood often addressed themes concerning the lives of Native Americans in her home country of Canada. "The Poor Woman Learns to Write" would seem to be another...
Margaret Atwood
I need help paraphrasing and understanding "Gathering" by Margaret Atwood. (1) The people you know are growing...
When we paraphrase poetry, we take a section of text and translate it into our own words, often trading figurative language for literal language. Typically, paraphrases are nearer the length of the...
Margaret Atwood
In "Getrude Talks Back," how does the author Margaret Atwood use literary techniques to create humor while conveying...
Atwood uses indirect characterization of Gertrude to portray her as a funny, modern, discerning, and determined woman. Indirect characterization occurs when the author allows readers to come to...
Margaret Atwood
What happened to Lucy at the end of "Death by Landscape?"
It is not clear what happened to Lucy. She was separated from the other cabin mates along with Lois, who went back to camp to get the other cabin mates to help her find her friend. They ended up...
Margaret Atwood
How does Margaret Atwood convey the concept of belonging in her poem "The Immigrants"? (I need help with some...
Margaret Atwood's poem "The Immigrants" describes the ways immigrants to a new homeland attempt to "belong" to that new place, but the poem seems to indicate that immigration can lead the...
Margaret Atwood
How would you psychoanalyze Margaret Atwood's poem "It is Dangerous to Read Newspapers"?
Margaret Atwood's "It is Dangerous to Read Newspapers" is an examination of the contrast between the speaker's everyday life and the atrocities reported in newspapers each day. Early in the poem,...
Margaret Atwood
How might one offer a psychoanalytical reading of poems in the collection titled The Journals of Susanna Moodie,...
Psychoanalytic criticism, which derives from the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud, has traditionally emphasized the conflict between three elements of the human mind. These elements are the...
Margaret Atwood
What is the poet's view of language and metaphor in the poem "You Begin" by Margaret Atwood?
In Margaret Atwood's poem "You Begin," she explores the concepts of language and metaphor through the lens of teaching/learning them. The speaker of the poem seems to be talking to a young child as...
Margaret Atwood
What is the mood of the poem "You Begin" by Margaret Atwood?
Mood is difficult to define for any given work given mood in a subjective topic. Any text appeals to the emotions of any reader on different levels. Mood, from the Hunter College Glossary of...
Margaret Atwood
Compare and contrast the lives of two women in two works of literature, especially the ways in which both works give...
Let's compare Atwood's story "Happy Endings" with Alice Munro's story "Boys and Girls." What the female protagonists in both stories have in common is the sense that their lives have been...
Margaret Atwood
How can one compare the essays "My Body is My Own Business" and "The Female Body"? "My Body is My Own Business" is by...
While both of these essays touch on feminist issues, they certainly have their distinct differences that make for some interesting comparison possibilities! "My Body is My Own Business" is a very...
Margaret Atwood
Describe the tone of the poem "Siren Song."
Margaret Atwood`s poem, “Siren Song” is a retelling of the siren episode from Homer’s “Odyssey” from the point of view of the sirens. The key to understanding the poem is to realize that there is a...
Margaret Atwood
Describe Penelope's relationship with her father and her relationship with her mother from the novella The Penelopiad...
Penelope's relationship with both her mother and father in The Penelopiad is very complex, and it's a topic that even in the afterlife she still cannot make sense of. After her death, Penelope is...
Margaret Atwood
The speaker lures the reader into the poem "Siren Song" with the promise of revealing a secret? What do you think...
The speaker tells us what the secret is herself: I will tell the secret to you,to you, only to you.Come closer. This songis a cry for help: Help me!Only you, only you can,you are uniqueat last....
Margaret Atwood
What year is Margaret Atwood's short story "True Trash" set in?
"True Trash" takes place in two different time periods, neither of which is explicitly identified. However, based on the described fashions (long-skirted dresses in the earlier time period, beards...
Margaret Atwood
Which question is answered through flashback in "Death by Landscape"?
"Death by Landscape," by Margaret Atwood, is a story that takes place in the past and in the present. Lois, the main character, is sitting in her apartment in the present day looking at her...
Margaret Atwood
Please provide a psychological reading of Margaret Atwood's "Journals of Susanna Moodie."
Margaret Atwood's poetry collection "The Journals of Susanna Moodie," can be read as an expression of one woman's transformative experience as she journey's through Jungian archetypes and "meets"...
Margaret Atwood
I need help writing a 400-500 word essay on "Siren Song". Discuss it's subject and theme. Keep in mind the odeas of...
Margaret Atwood's poem "Siren Song" is a modern take on an ancient Greek myth. An alluring female (appearing at least partially human) sings an irresistable song that leads men to their deaths. The...
Margaret Atwood
What are some of the symbols in the short story "The Sin Eater" by Margaret Atwood?
Flowers appear at frequent intervals in the story and are important symbols. Joseph grows calla lilies in his basement. He also gets very angry as a child when another child picks the one stunted...
Margaret Atwood
Please summarize Margaret Atwood's The Journals of Susanna Moodie.
Margaret Atwood's The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970), is a poem cycle based on Susanna Strickland Moodie's (1852), a non-fiction work about Moodie’s experience as immigrant and pioneer in the...
Margaret Atwood
How does literary criticism in Margaret Atwood's "Happy Endings" parallel the social rebellion present in story?
The Atwood "story" does several things at once. It is a guide of sorts, a kind of lesson to aspiring writers about how plot works, and about how stories end. Her point, given at the end of the...
Margaret Atwood
What is the central idea of Atwood's "Variations on the Word Love"?
Atwood’s poem establishes a contrast between how she and her lover relate to the word love versus how others do. The poem begins by discussing some common usages. Atwood refers to the...
Margaret Atwood
In "Siren Song" by Margaret Atwood, what is the dramatic situation of the poem?
Margaret Atwood's "Siren Song" is addressed directly to the reader, and with the first stanza, the speaker creates the dramatic situation: This is the one song everyone would like to learn: the...
Margaret Atwood
Regarding “A Holiday” by Margaret Atwood, could someone help me with the analysis of this poem? A Holiday My child...
A poetry analysis is a far more extensive task than can be done on eNotes, but I can help get you started in the right direction. Poetry analysis includes identifying poetic elements like...
Margaret Atwood
Are there examples of metaphor, imagery &/or connotation in the poem "That Country"?
Yes there are examples of all three elements in this poem. To review, a metaphor is comparing two unlike things wherein one thing is said to be the other. Examples of metaphor in this poem...
Margaret Atwood
How might one analyze Margaret Atwood's poem "The City Planners"?
Margaret Atwood’s poem “The City Planners” presents an unappealing picture of a city that seems so rigidly planned that it is monotonous and boring. The neighborhoods the poem describes seem too...
Margaret Atwood
Please provide an analysis of Maragaret Atwood's The Journals of Susanna Moodie.
In The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970), Margaret Atwood attempts to engage with the experience of the Canadian landscape as a defining characteristic of the Canadian imagination. She does this...
Margaret Atwood
How can you develop a style of writing? I'm supposed to learn how to imitate Margaret Atwood's style of writing....
Attempting to develop a style of writing evocative of a specific author without reading that author's works is an exercise in futility. The identifiable attributes of a particular author, such as...
Margaret Atwood
A comparative study of the poems of Margaret Atwood.
This is a very broad question, and you might want to think about what specific poems you want us to compare. Atwood is certainly a prolific writer, and as a result has published successful books of...
Margaret Atwood
Explain the Margaret Atwood’s attitude towards the planners in "The City Planners."
While many would consider it obvious to state that the attitude in a poem illustrates the attitude of the poet, it is most appropriate to assign the attitude presented in the poem to the narrator....
Margaret Atwood
A psychoanalytical study of the poems of Margaret Atwood.
A quick survey of some of Atwood's poetry reveals that they are rich and fecund texts and particularly suitable to a psychoanalytical approach. This is because so many of Atwood's poems develop the...
Margaret Atwood
In The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, during the Heart of Flint section, Odysseus and Penelope are reunited after the...
Stories lie at the heart of Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad. Penelope's first foundational memory is a story: the story of her father trying, but failing, to drown her. The story (but was it...
Margaret Atwood
Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood is a contemporary novel based on Shakespeare's The Tempest. Do you have anything on it,...
Margaret Atwood has not only reimagined The Tempest in a contemporary setting, she has created a frame with a Tempest-like plot in which staging a production of the play itself occurs. This...
Margaret Atwood
How does Margaret Atwood make a large statement in "You Fit Into Me" (as a feminist poem) within the confines of a...
Although the poem is certainly open to interpretation, what Atwood is doing is drawing contrasting images between what is expected and what is reality. This occurs both through the language of the...
Margaret Atwood
In Margaret Atwood's poem "This is a Photograph of Me," which element or technique is most prominent?
Margaret Atwood's poem "This is a Picture of Me" is a poem which can weigh very heavily upon a reader. Her choice of words bring about a sense of melancholy and sadness. The opening of the poem...
Margaret Atwood
Explore how Margaret Atwood's "The City Planners" critically presents the image of nature.
Margaret Atwood's writings tend to speak to science fiction, nature, or feminism (as a whole, but not limited to). Her works which include images of nature tend to elevate the importance of nature...
Margaret Atwood
What are 3 examples which can answer the question of "How will this novel change Canada?" in Margaret Atwood's novel...
Some Margaret Attwood quotations from 'The Year Of The Flood' and effects on society might be : “What am I living for and what am I dying for are the same question.” ― Margaret Atwood, The Year of...
Margaret Atwood
What are the poetic elements in "You Fit Into Me"?
Atwood uses several poetic devices in her concise poem “You Fit Into Me” to portray the two sides of a relationship. Although it is only four lines long, the poem is an example of extended...
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood once stated that war and rape are "two activities not widely engaged in by a women". In a...
I don't believe that gender is the sole reason for determining whether they would be a better leader than someone else. It depends on the individual and their believes and morals as to what kind of...
Margaret Atwood
Does poet Magaret Atwood have a collection of poems published in 2000 or later, and what is the title and publication...
Margret Atwood is most noted for her novels and the many awards, including a Booker Award, that they have won. Yet Atwood began her writing career as a poet in the 1960s with her first poetry...
Margaret Atwood
If there was to be a third book by Margaret Atwood, what would be its theme? Oryx and Crake the first, and The Year...
This is a very interesting hypothetical question to consider. Clearly both Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood cover similar themes regarding the dystopian end of the world thanks to man's...
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