The Connection Of The Protagonist With Nature In Surfacing By Margaret Atwood

How does nature lend a hand in the development of one’s persona over time? Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing avidly portrays a young woman struggling to identify herself and separate her fictitious memories from her realistic present day. The protagonist embarks on a quest to find her lost father, however, while doing so, she gradually navigates her own identity and progresses the development of her self. This quest graduates from a journey of investigating the island on a superficial level, to investigating her genuine self, alongside the active presence of nature. Throughout the novel, her connection to nature leads the protagonist to identify her authentic self, voiding her creation of memories. Throughout the text, readers understand how the presence of nature allows the protagonist to connect spiritually to her parents, healing her fragmented opinion of them. As the novel continues, it becomes apparent how nature provides a connection for the protagonist in her struggle against feminine oppression, developing her lust for self-dominance. Given such proof, it is clear that the prevalence of nature in Surfacing by Margaret Atwood proves significant to the development of the character throughout the novel.

The presence of nature guides the protagonist towards identifying her authentic self, straying from her prior fictional mindset to be present in her most organic form of reality. At the end of the novel, the protagonist finds herself identifying with the natural world. As she acquires a new identity, she retreats from being a victim of her fictitious memories. The protagonist begins her journey by holding on to memories of her mind’s creation, unaware of what is real compared to what is created by her mind. At a pivoting point of the novel, the protagonist looks down into a lake in search of one of her father’s painted rocks. After a few attempts to locate the rock, she sees something familiar in place of it. Rather than a painted rock, she sees “a dark oval trailing limbs...a dead thing”. Upon recovering from the lake, she discovers that what she had seen was her aborted fetus, a memory that she had created in her mind as an ‘abandoned child’. The realization of this altered memory unlocks the other pieces of her past that she had invented to avoid the truth. The vision of her aborted fetus initiates her investment in nature. She begins to find liberation in her natural surroundings, taking on the role of a wild figure. She becomes an animalistic being, embodying the traits of a wild animal to be closer to natural life. She creates lairs for shelter, chooses to eat only the food that is permitted, and takes on the role of a wild animal. Sacrificing her old self, she surrenders to nature allowing her to be free as a natural woman, releasing herself from the armor that she invented to cover up her past.

Looking in the mirror for the first time she is caught by an alarming reflection, “I turn the mirror around: in it there is a creature neither animal nor human”. This reaction to her appearance is pivotal, as she begins to stray away from self-judgment, retracting herself from any stereotypical group of being. She describes herself as 'a natural woman, state of nature ... a new kind of centerfold'. She can see herself in her most organic form in nature, opening herself up to begin the journey to identify her genuine self. She peels away the unnatural facade that she had created over time, as her newfound relationship with nature allows her to decipher her authentic self, further developing her quest for identity. The presence of nature allows the protagonist to connect spiritually to her parents, remodeling her initial resentment towards them. Over time, the protagonist isolated herself from her upbringing, forming a lack of connection with her parents and younger self. As she begins to identify with nature, she develops a connection to her parents, recognizing them in different elements of the natural world. The protagonist initially lacks interest in the lives of her parents, often criticizing their investment in nature. She describes multiple parallels of her parents in her self, her friends, and how the nature of the property reminds her of them in her past. The nature surrounding her childhood home raises familiar memories of her mother, connecting the nature of the property with her environmental caretaking. While uncovering family photographs, she comes across pictures of her mother feeding the birds, and of herself growing up.

The protagonist associates her mother with this image of birds, returning later in the novel as a realistic vision of her mother feeding the birds. The protagonist takes the opportunity to approach her mother, to which she disappears, resulting in her belief that her mother is embodied in the blue jays. This recurring image connects the protagonist to her mother and her mother’s approach to nature. The protagonist also feels a bond with her father as she investigates his rock paintings. She feels that they provide a form of truth, insisting that they are a gift from her father. The visions of her dead parents allow her to see nature from their perspective, rather than judging them externally. As she rejects the life of civilization and bonds with nature in the way that her parents had, she feels as though her parents are guiding figures to her connection with nature. Her newfound appreciation for her parents’ investment in nature allows the protagonist to bond spiritually with her parents, healing her fractured opinion of them and her upbringing.

The connection that the protagonist has with nature throughout the novel provides a personal association for her as she struggles against feminine oppression and the domination of man. There is a great association between nature and women, as both are treated with immense judgment, and often subservient to others within modern-day society. This connection is defined as eco-feminism, “a meeting between feminism and ecology”. In Atwood’s novel, the protagonist associates herself with nature, identifying with animals and finding comfort in the landscape surrounding her childhood home. While portaging, the protagonist and her friends come across a dead heron, hanging upside down from a tree. She reacts in a horrified manner, contrasting the men who decide to take clips of the heron for David’s film Random Samples, disregarding the brutal murder of the animal. The men’s disregard for the heron indicates their acceptance of the power strike inflicted upon the bird, whereas the protagonist feels a connection to the bird from an inferior perspective. The protagonist assumes the bird was killed by the Americans that they had passed earlier. She describes that herons aren't good for food, thus there being no reason to kill one. Analyzing why the men may have killed the heron she exclaims, “to prove they could do it, they had the power to kill”. This example of power strike over the heron indicates the idea that men are superior to wildlife, similar to how the men in the story act superior to both the protagonist and her friend Anna. It is the image of the heron that initiates her recognition that herself and her friend Anna are exploited by the men in their lives, similar to how our planet earth is also exploited by “man”.

In conversation, Anna describes to the protagonist how David has a set of rules that she must follow, indicating his superiority to her. Anna mentions that this set of rules and the punishment that he inflicts upon her is “something for him to use...he waits for excuses”. David uses these ‘rules’ as excuses to express his dominance over his wife. David will not tolerate any form of self-expression and freedom from Anna, comparing similarly to the heron as both the bird and Anna function as the victim to their dominant counterpart. From an eco-feminist perspective, “Women must be recognized as subjects with decision-making power in demographic matters; in other words, subjects with their own life”. David’s dominance over Anna shows the little decision-making power that she has in her own life, similar to the lack of power that the heron had in the event of its death. This association between nature and feminism allows the protagonist to comprehend the connection between the two, enhancing her appreciation to nature and providing her insight as to what changes may need to occur in her own life.

To begin this essay, the question was asked, how does nature lend a hand in the development of one’s persona over time? We now know that nature has a major impact on the growth and development of one’s identity, shaping one’s persona based on how they identify with the natural world. Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing proves this point, as the prevalence of nature is significant to the development of the character throughout the novel. As the novel progresses, the protagonist’s connection to nature leads her to identify her true self, fleeing from her previous fictional mindset. The presence of the natural world connects the protagonist to her parents, creating a spiritual bond with her idea of them. Nature provides an association for the protagonist in her struggle against feminine oppression, as she identifies with the animals and wildlife. To close the novel, the protagonist chooses to surrender the idea that she is powerless, refusing to be the victim to not only those around her but her self as well. The protagonist’s journey alongside nature leads her to navigate her own identity, as the natural world lends a hand in the development of her true self.