Cat's Eye (novel)

infobox Book |
name = Cat's Eye
title_orig =
translator =


author = Margaret Atwood
cover_artist = T. M. Craan, design; Jamie Bennet, illustration (first edition, hardback)
country = Canada
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = McClelland and Stewart
release_date = September 1988
media_type = Hardback, Paperback, E-book
pages = 420 (first edition, hardback)
isbn = ISBN 0-7710-0817-1 (first edition, hardback)
preceded_by = The Handmaid's Tale
followed_by = Wilderness Tips

"Cat's Eye" is a 1988 novel by Margaret Atwood. In it, painter Elaine Risley vividly reflects on her childhood and teenage years. Her strongest memories are of Cordelia, who was the leader of a trio of girls who were both very cruel and very kind to young Elaine, in ways that tint Elaine's perceptions of relationships and her world—not to mention her art—into the character's middle years. The novel unfolds in Canada of the mid-20th century, from World War II to the late 1980s, and includes a look at many of the cultural elements of that time period, including feminism and various modern art movements. This book was a finalist for the 1988 Governor General's Award.

Explanation of the title

Elaine and her brother play marbles as children; Elaine keeps a prized cat's eye marble in her red purse. The cat's eye later appears as a common motif in Elaine's paintings, linked with those she perceived to be an ally, although she does not remember why it is associated with those feelings. Elaine rediscovers the red purse years later, and as she looks through it, she regains all the memories she had lost: "her life entire". [Atwood, Margaret. "Cat's Eye" : 420]

Plot summary

After being called back to her childhood home of Toronto for a retrospective show of her art, Elaine reminisces about her childhood. At the age of eight she becomes friends with Carol and Grace, and, through their eyes, realises her atypical background of traveling with her entomologist father has left her ill-equipped for conventional femininity. When Cordelia joins the group, Elaine is bullied by her "best friends". The bullying escalates that winter, when the girls abandon Elaine in the ravine; half-frozen, she sees a vision of the Virgin Mary who guides her to safety. Afterwards, realising she had allowed herself to be a victim, Elaine makes new friends.

Themes

Construction of identity - "Cat's Eye" is written mostly as flashbacks, as Elaine reflects on the forgotten events of her childhood that shaped her personality and struggles to integrate lost aspects of her self. [Howells, Coral Ann. "The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood (Cambridge Companions to Literature)" : 182] In Elaine's self portrait, a pier glass reflects three little girls who are not in the painting (evocative of Jan Van Eyck's reflection of himself in "The Arnolfini Portrait"): demonstrating their simultaneous absence from Elaine's past and their presence in who she has become.

Allusions and references to other works

Allusions to Atwood's life

Atwood began "Cat's Eye" in 1964, but put away the novel until the late 1980s. By that time, her daughter was a teenager, and Atwood would have had the opportunity to observe the social dynamics of a group of young girls. [Cooke, Nathalie. "Margaret Atwood: A Critical Companion" : 17-18]

The book is sometimes seen as containing autobiographical elements. For example, like Risley, Atwood is the daughter of an entomologist. However, Atwood has rarely, if ever, commented on the similarities directly.

See also Southern Ontario Gothic.

External links

* [http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=0385491026&view=rg Cat's Eye listing at randomhouse.com]
* [http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides/cats_eye.asp Reading Group Guide]

References

Brian Busby. "Character Parts: Who's Really Who in Canlit". Toronto: Knopf, 2003. p. 37, 162, 218-19. ISBN 0-676-97579-8.