MARGARET ATWOOD

THE EDIBLE WOMAN

Some of Atwood’s women protagonists are conscious of their own power and proclaim that they are no longer victims as in the case of Marian in The Edible Woman. Atwood’s The Edible Woman (1969) serves as a feminist guide in the context of male domination in respect of sexual status, role and temperament. In The Edible Woman, the protagonist Marian Mac Alpin finds herself unable to reach the individual freedom in a consumer society that threatens to over power her. Through her association with several male and female acquaintances, she realizes different male strategies of exploitation. She finds marriage is a kind of sexist cannibalism. She refuses to be the ‘edible woman’ trapped in domesticity. She endeavors to uplift humanism, humanity, human identity. Marian, the protagonist of The Edible Woman avers confidently that women are no longer mere dolls or mere vegetable existence to appetite man’s needs. Marian throughout the novel brings to light the existing notion of consumerism of the fair-sex and strongly opposes it in a confident, assertive, decisive, determined tone that women are no longer edible. Marian, the protagonist of The Edible Woman asserts confidently that women are no longer mere dolls or mere vegetable existence to appetite man’s needs. Marian throughout the novel brings to light the existing notion of consumerism of the fair-sex and strongly opposes it in a confident, assertive, decisive, determined tone that women are no longer edible. She becomes a consumer rather than a consumable object and she affirms that she is not food to be eaten by others. Marian is a major figure carrying the burden of Atwood’s thesis. Her rejection of food is a rejection of male dominated culture. The preparation of the cake and eating it is a form of reconciliation. She herself is a mixture of consumer and consumed.

WOMEN WRITERS by J.Sobhana devi