Reconstructing feminine identity: A critical study of Margaret at wood’s the edible woman

This paper seeks to explore the feministic issues in Margaret Atwood’s novel The Edible Woman. In this novel Atwood deconstructs the traditional gender discourses that intend to limit women’s choice, agency, and subjectivity. The novel is a representative fiction focusing upon the pangs of the women trapped in the web of patriarchy. It traces the traumatic journey of the protagonist, Marian, in search of self-definition. In the male dominated society women are viewed as consumable commodities. They are expected to fit in the roles ascribed by the male hegemony. Atwood’s novel highlights the myriad predicaments of the women in the patriarchal culture. It also emphasizes the necessity of resistance and self-actualization in the face of patriarchal onslaughts. In the essay, “Reconstructing Margaret Atwood’s Protagonists”, Patricia Goldblatt states that “Atwood creates situations in which women, burdened by the rules and inequalities of their societies, discover that they must reconstruct braver, self-reliant personae in order to survive.’’