Now the memory is surfacing. She is haunted by a guilty complex.
SUMMARY OF THE NOVEL
The protagonist of the novel was not named. After nine
years she comes back to Northem Quebec from Toronto, where
she spent her childhood. Now she works as a commercial artist.
Once she visited her ailing mother in hospital. She cut offfrom
the family all these years deliberately. She was in iove with a
married man. He exploited her innocence. He made her pregnant.
He refused to marry her saying that she was already married and
had children. He suggested her to go for abortion and she did.
After that incident she could not face her parents.
She was unable to cope with that painful reality. So she
devised an acceptable reality herself. She imagined that she was
married and had a child. When she divorced him she had lost her
child to him. She sent a post card to her parents with this story.
Her father was a botanist. He disappeared mysteriouysly.
Her father's friend Paul informed her. She has decided to search
for him herself. She comes to the island with her lover Joe, David
and Anna her husband and wife friends. After a long search she
discovers that he is dead. He got drowned. The mysterious
question is whether he got drowned by accident or by the evil
design ofAmerica's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Her father's death brings back the memories of the aborted
foetus. The memory was lying dormant in her sub-conscious mind.
8
Though she was forced to abort the child she considers herself
to be a murderer. Now she has the courage to defy the institution
of marriage. It involves the exploitation of woman and she is a
fact
puppet in the hands of men. She cannot reconcile with the
that a wife becomes the possession of her husband after marriage
and he is free to treat her as he wishes.
During the search of her father, she is shocked to see the
ruin caused by the American tourists to the island and the lake.
To enjoy nature, they have destroyed it. She recalls the ideal
Canadian past and the Quebec to her mind. She knew Quebec
so intimately. She hates the Americans 'kill'nature. They are
anti-life and anti-nature. Since her childhood she believes in non-
violence. She protests against the indifference to the suffering of
other living beings. Now she considers herself anti-life, anti-nature
as she had aborted the foetus. Therefore she wants to compensate
for her anti-nature activity.
Afte realising the truth she surfaces now. She comes face
to face with the truth about her situation. She was not married to
the person who had impregnated her. Therefore there was no
question of divorce and though her pregnancy was terminated
against herwishes she was indirectly responsible for it. The only
way of compensating for this anti-nature act is getting pregnant,
gives forth a child and brings it up as a natural human being. She
uses Joe to get pregnant and refuses to marry him. She exploits
him inorder to avenge the previous lover. The rolls are reversed
now. The quest of the protagonist is complete.
9
 SYMBOLISM IN SURFACING

The symbols work to support the theme in 'Surfacing'

There are four main symbols. Two symbols are conventional and
the other true private.

The fish is a symbol represents the idea of unity or

wholeness. Fish appear frequently in the novel. The protagonist
and her friends go for fishing several times. One of the Indian
fish is a
paintings she refers to is resembling a fish. For her, the
Fish
symbol of wholeness the unity between mind and body.
have heads that extend directly into the shoulders. So it is more
difficult to see their heads and their bodies as separate. The fish is
whole. She dislikes killing fish.

The heron is both a conventionaB and private symbol in

the novel. Folklore indicates that birds may be signs of what is
about to occur. The herons in this novel take a predictive role.
She sees herons overhead on two occasions before her
flying
dive into the water. She discovers the mutilated body ofa heron.
It symbolizes suffering. Italso comes to symbolize man's
seneseless
exploitation of nature.

Water and air work together to provide powerful

into
symbols. They support and highlight her psychologicl quest
Air is associated with consciousness or reason. Water is
herself.
associated with the unconscious or feeling. When she dives into

21
the water at the end of section I she says that finally being in the
than being in the water. When she dives into
airis more painful
the lake in chapter 17 she sees the body of her
father.
This body
appears to her as the body
of the child she aborted. She leaves
the conscious world for the unconscious world. When she retums
to the air, surfacing, she returns to the conscious world. This
novel is about both diving and surfacing. It means entering the
unconscious and returning to consciousness.
IMAGERY IN SURFACING
Surfacing' has a number of images. They gain
importance as the story proceeds. They are not taken from history,
religion or folk lore. They take their meaning from the protagonist's
personal associations with them. The images, Similies and
metaphors that the protagonist chooses to describe other peoplealbum she feels that pictures can freeze people. She also feels
reveal the character of both the narrator and of others. Joe is David and Joe's film 'Random Samples'also imprisons people.
constantly compared to animals. She wishes that he grows more
fur. Davidis becoming bald and seems to chatter non-stop. David
and Anna are described by her as being like robots or machines.
These images reveal as much about the protagonist as the person
she describes. The images describing the characters can be divided
into iwo groups as the natural and the unnatural or technological.
To compare Joe to animal or her mother to a bird reflects their
positive aspects. To compare David and Anna to machines reflects
their negative aspects.
dismemberment
The Images of fragmentation or
memory of the
recur frequently in this novel. The protagonist's
the idea of her
store keeper who was missing a hand reinforces
separation of her head from her body.
The images of death and decay also present in the nove.
the
Rotting logs in the water, decomposing leavesinthe forest,
cabin and the surrounding dock sheds and garden are all
in a state
of decay. These images can be linked to the rediscovery of her
child's 'death' and her father's 'death'. They also highlightthe
emotional 'death' that has taken place within the protagonist.
There are images of imprisonment in this novel. She
recalls in her memory her brother trapping frogs and crayfish and
putting them in bottles and cans. While seeing hermother's photo
All these images can be linked to the problemofherimprisoned
self. She must leam how to release herself from the imprisonnment
of her guilt over her abortion.
The images of mirrors and cameras reinforcetheidea
of the stealing the identity or soul. Anna's identity or soulislacked
in the gold compact because she cannotexpress herselffor fear
that David will reject her. Her father died whilehe wastrying to
photograph Indian paintings. His body is not discovered for
Sometime because it is weighted down by the camera around his
neck.
 SURFACING AS A NOVEL OF QUEST
(OR)
THE THEME OF THE NOVEL SURFACING

There are several thenmes in Surfacing. The two of the

most central themes are the protagonist's search for herself or her
true identity, and her search for some means becoming closer to
other people. The search for self is a psychological quest. The
protagonist's attempt to lessen the alienation betweenherselfand
others is a social quest. These searches are patterned afterthe
ancient heroic quest, which Joseph Campbell, author of Hero
withthousand faces' describes as "a separation from he world,
apenetration to some sourceof power, and a life-enhancing return".
In the ancient tale the hero would make a difficult journey into
some dark and unknown region where unknown forces live. There
he could go through many rituals and tests of his strength and gain
some knowledge or some experience. When he returns to the
world of reality, he keeps some parts of the insight he has gained.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL QUEST

The protagonist is a "divided person". Her division is
two fold. She experiences a division between her mind and her
body (reason and emotion) and between the present and the past.
Many images of fragmentation and division are found in the book.
She looks through her mother's
photo album to discover when
the separation took place. It
gives her no clues. Her quest for
herselffollows a pattern. She feels that she has the power to

31
 to remain in
recognise things and people for what they are. There is no need of her
She sees the vision understarnds herself better.
of her parents. With their heip and n for her return to the
guidance she gets into the cabin-in the past- and she begins planning
the
rituals and tests of strength. They will lead her to more
and become a whole being. revelations city.
THE SOCIAL QUEST
The first of these rituals is that she are alienated people. They
wants to become The protagonist and her friends
themselves. T hey
pregnant again. His first mamiage with her "fake husband"
made are unable to
communicate successfully between
her to um downJoe's proposal for mariage. Love has no meaning live isolated and withdrawn lives. To overcome these problems
for her. It is an 'unprecise' word. "The Eskimos had fifty-two by her Surfacing relates a social quest.
names for snow because it was
be as many for love."
important to them, there ought to in a number of
The alienation of the protagonist is shown
sets up between herself and others
ways. The barriers that she
In the days that follow she undergoes complete purgationcan be seen in the use of pronouns. She remains nameless, by
by fire by buming everything. She put the ring her "fake husband" always referring hersel as T' and her father, mother, brother and
had given into fire thinking "it the "fake husband" as "they". Her world is divided between her-
may not melt. It will atleast be
purified. After the vision of her mother and father, she begins self and others, "T" and "they". Though Anna is her best friend,
to see life more
ciearly and begin to return to normal world. She she does not know or understand much of her. Anna tries to
realises that she loves and trusts Joe. She visualises a future for make deeper contact with her but she avoids any closeness. She
also alienated from her family. She is out of touch with her
both of them. She has completed her
quest now. She is a unified isbrother. She had stopped visiting her family several years ago.
human being with reason and emotion working in he
She recalls her mother while taking long walks alone. In
many
ways her father was anti social. He withdrew from
By returning to the cabin where she spent much of her society. His
childhocd, she makes her first step towards the discovery of her family lived in different cities and as a remote island. Cut off from

past. Her memories, childhood scrap books and photographs
provide some clues, After her dive into the lake she accepts the
truth about her past. She begins to see her past without the
distortions and deceptions she had created around it. She
people for such a long period of time, her family had difficulty in
making contact with others.
Like her mother, Joe is an another alienated
He
prefers silence to speech. He and the protagonist person.
rarely talk. She
 acceptable reality
an acceptable
realityy
is never sure what he is thinking or feeling. Their relationshipalso devised
that painful reality.
with that
Soshe married
So she
and hada
child.
suffers due to lack of commitment. When he breaks his usualcope cope that she w a s
becomes suen caks usualofor
if
herself. She
She imagined
imagined sn hild
her
Herfather's
him. Her1atne
child to him.
silence proposes,
and proposes, she becomes suspicious. She becomes divorced him she
had lost
foetus. She is
When she aborted
more and more withdrawn from her friends. She grows memories of the
Suspiciouseath
of language and the way it can distort. Finally she choosesa
back the
death brings back mei Now she has
the courage to defy
complex.
haunted by a guilty
involves the
exploitation ofwoman
voluntary seclusion from society and gets rid of anything hurnan. institution of marriage.
It
cannot reconcile
the fmen.
in the hands of
men. She cannot
She reco
and she is a puppet
She moves to a non-verbal level and explores other means a wife becomes
the possession ofher husband
with the fact that wishes. Marmagein
of communication. She feels "the names of things fading but their free to treat her as he
forms and uses remaining'". To her english words begin to sound no
after mariage and
a
he is
woman's position. Infactit
it.
o r s e n s it.
worsens
In fact it w
a
way improves
way improves
"imported and foreign".n In the end she realises that she is no o
coloniser and woman the colonised.
longer an animal and has become human again. Human beings She views man as the
man the role of sexual
are social by nature. So she realises that she must rejoin society. The age supposed of sexual freedom assign
and sexual object.
Her return to society is also the return to language since it is needed aggressor and woman that of passive victim
of autonomy, of an
for communication and the development of relationship between Marriage stifles for women all possibilities
independent existence. She dreads marriage. She is
full of
people. When Joe proposes
contempt for the male lust. She hates men.
marriage to her she feels that he was threatening her with something
FEMINISM IN SURFACING (or) ToAnna, marriage is like "skiing" while to the protagonist itislike
TREATMENT OF SEX (or) jumping off a clif". The minds of both David and Annaare
GENDER WARFARE (or) suspicious about each other. David easily captures Anna'snaked
MAN-WOMAN RELATIONSHIP images by presing a button. It is a torture to her but ajoy to him.
David takes Anna as his personal property for
can film her as
consumption. He
The protagonist was in love with a married man.
long as he wants. To him Anna is a pornographic
nobject. Anna appears with make up all the time and using her
exploited her innocence. He made her pregnant. reuseu body as "the weapon" to keep David. David is "jealous and
i e

marry by saying that she was already married and had children. possessive" of Anna. The marriage between
He suggested to go for abortion and she did. She was unable to not an admirable Anna and Davidis
relationship. gives the narrtor
It
alesson
toO
scrutinize her own carefully. According to David
healthy" "sex
"sex keeps one
one

She grew up in a
to ask
system in which "it was worse for a
questions than for a boy". Atwood believes this gin
women everywhere. They are is true of
ought to be superior". They taught and made to feel "men
remain reconciled to their
inferiority for the rest of their lives. In the own
women seek fulfillment as wives and mothers. protagonist's world
to seek a Ít is futile for
greater destiny than to accept women
book contains
illustrations which show their passivity. Her scrap
up cans and cleanser, "ladies, all kinds; holding
and pill box hats andknitting, smiling, modelling
love. It is so veils". She is topless, high heels
scared of "the
"imprecise". For men it is magic word"
synonymous with lust.
The
confront,"to protagonist is the New
Woman, a
struggle and survive rebel prepared to
Awoman must have faith in with dignity" in a man's
achieve her own world.
something.
She has shown She returns power. Then alone she
"sane, whole and can
the way for a
She is no woman's
longer" a mouse" or victorious".
struggle to face
"

complete her. The two sexes a bird". She needs a herseli.

required is a balanced, are man to
complementary and what is
existence between the harmonious relationship
two. and a healthy
co-