“But I couldn’t have brought the child here, I never identified it as mine; I didn’t name it before it was born even, the way you’re supposed to. It was my husband’s, he imposed it on me, all the time it was growing in me I felt like an incubator. He measured everything he would let me eat, he was feeding it on me, he wanted a replica of himself; after it was born I had no more use. I couldn’t prove it though; he was clever: he kept saying he loved me.”
In this passage the narrator is describing her time during pregnancy and the resulting feeling of the child not truly being hers. She felt like the child was a burden that her husband “imposed” on her body. She makes her husband sound cruel, that she is merely a disposable tool to create “a replica of himself”. He was also controlling, making sure she ate exactly what he told her to since she would be feeding the baby through her body. It seems strange to me that she can feel so disconnected from the baby that is growing inside of her. She demonstrates this by constantly referring to the baby as an “it”, which is extremely impersonal.
The cause, it seems, for her feelings towards her child are the result of her issues with her husband. He seems to be so in control of the pregnancy that the she has no part in the decisions having to do with the child, and therefore she is not connected to it. However, there is a passage on page 28 that involves the drowning of her older brother when he was a child. The memory seems to haunt her even though she didn’t witness it and she even says “I believe that an unborn baby has its eyes open and can look through the walls of the mother’s stomach, like a frog in a jar.” This is an unsettling image, and it might be the reason she doesn’t want a part in her baby’s life.
1. Do you think that her brother’s drowning did affect the way that she felt about her baby, or is it just because of her issues with her husband?
2. Do you think it is would be possible for you to feel no attachment to a baby that you are pregnant with? Does it mean anything about her as a person that she didn’t?
1. I don't think either really affected the way she felt about her baby. It doesn't seem like she associates her brother's death with her detachment from her baby. She does put blame on her husband, but the blame seems to be illegitimate.
ReplyDelete"...all the time it was growing in me I felt like an incubator. He measure everything he would let me eat, he was feeding it on me, he wanted a replica of himself..."
The reasons she gives here about her husband and her issues don't seem to be issues really. On an outside perspective, one would say that those "issues" are more like characteristics of a caring husband who wants a healthy baby. She seems to be blaming her detachment on her husband because she does not want to admit to herself that she was just detached because of her own issues. She says, "I couldn't have brought the child here..." yet, she talks about it as if she in fact did bring the child here. The opposing comments she makes justifies even more that she is fighting some sort of internal battle.
2. I do think it is possible to be detached from your baby as a pregnant woman. As unfortunate of a situation as it may be, there are circumstances in which one cannot accept a reality of a situation. Removing one's emotions from the reality of an unwanted circumstance can reasonably lead to a detachment of emotions. As I have stated previously, I think what it says about her as a person is that she is struggling with an internal battle, not willing to accept her reality perhaps.
I'm having issues posting, so I hope people are able to see this.
ReplyDelete“Nothing is the same, I don’t know the way any more. I slide my tongue around the ice cream, trying to concentrate on it, they put seaweed in it now, but I’m starting to shake, why is the road different, he shouldn’t have allowed them to do it. I want to turn around and go back to the city and never find out what happened to him. I’ll start crying, that would be horrible, none of them would know what to do and neither would I. I bite down into the cone and I can’t feel anything for a minute but the knife-hard pain up the side of my face. Anaesthesia, that’s one technique: if it hurts invent a different pain. I’m all right,” (Atwood, 8)
In this passage, the narrator struggles to keep up with the world around her as her memories flood her mind and she is overwrought with the feelings she has for her father who is missing. Throughout this description, the author takes us into the flow of thought that the narrator experiences as she is confronted with a flood of sensory images, such as the different taste in the ice cream, the different way the road looks, the pain of the cold ice cream on her mouth. As this flood of information overwhelms her, she is confronted with the sadness she feels due to the things that she cannot control: her missing father, the changes in a place she spent a lot of time in as a child. Finally, at the end of the passage, she abruptly comes full circle emotionally stating matter-of-factly “I’m all right,” (Atwood).
What is clearly apparent is the author’s attempt at bringing the reader inside the frame of mind with the use of choppy, short images of thought brought together with continuous use of sentences beginning with “I.” Atwood writes “I slide my tongue around the ice cream…I’m starting to shake…I want to turn around and go back…I’ll start crying, that would be horrible…I bite down into the cone…I can’t feel anything…I’m all right,” (Atwood). This style of prose, I think, is used in order to convey to the reader the repetitive flashes of information that the narrator is overwhelmed with and the emotion that the information brings out of her. Furthermore, I feel that this passage is a sort of snapshot of the way in which the narrator is feeling about what has been happening in her life. Things are changing, and they’re not changing for the better in her view. These thoughts start to pervade her mind and they build up until she feels she’s going to cry, but then “anaesthesia” of the cold ice cream brings her back to equilibrium.
1. How do you think the narrator’s suppression of her emotions will affect Joe, David, and Anna as their journey together is progressing?
2. Will the narrator’s relationship with Joe be strengthened or weakened by this journey?
In regards to Rachel's Post:
ReplyDelete1. I think that it not only has to do with her brother drowning and the way her husband treated her, but also the problems she has with herself and her life. The narrator throughout the novel was very confused and trying to find where she came from, so I believe when she was pregnant, a lot of her thoughts and emotions were just getting to her and that it had more an affect than her brother or husband.
2. I think that under the narrator's circumstances, she was able to feel a detachment from her child. As I have stated above, the narrator always had trouble with her emotions and feeling the detachment was something she probably could not help but to feel.