Diving into the Subconscious of Women and Nature: Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing as an Ecofeminist Novel

Woman and nature can be considered the best creations of god. Both together keep the earth alive and balanced through the process of creation. The male dominated practices have destroyed the nature as well as women. This paper deals with the different aspects of Eco-feminism through the novel Surfacing by Margaret Atwood. The narrator’s quest to the wilderness of Canada in search for her father which leads to a quest of self-discovery in the lap of nature becomes the major focus of this paper. The unknown protagonist becomes a representative of the entire female community. The realization that women are just an object to be conquered and violated by men is what leads to the ‘surfacing’ of the protagonist. In complete harmony with nature excluding clothes, language, food etc. the protagonist goes crazy which gives her more happiness that with her other relationships. The paper also tries to analyse the close relationship between women and nature and how the virgin nature and woman are destroyed by the invasion of the male community. Repressed gender roles, submissiveness, self-realization through nature and the challenges faced by women that are presented. The concept of women and nature as both victims of the male dominated society is also emphasized. This novel is the perfect literary example of an Eco-feminist work that portrays the destruction of women and nature even in the minutest episodes in the novel. Nature is a treasure-house of many myths that lay hidden in the beliefs, rights and rituals of the aboriginals which are passed from one generation to another. In the same manner women also are the sustainer's of many myths that the male society has made upon her. The mother i.e. both woman and nature is examined here.In a vast country like Canada,nature comprises to its majority through its wilderness.This wilderness hides many priceless virtues and knowledge that can be learnt only in complete harmony with nature.Surfacing is not just the journey of a woman but it is the quest that the female gender thrives for.This paper combines the theories of eco-criticism, eco-feminism and to analyse the novel Surfacing into a biological whole that merges nature, man and the beliefs of man that make existence meaningful and life worth living. In an era of rapid industrialization and materialism, it is necessary to go on a quest back to nature and learn how life was easier in the lap of nature. Great writers like Shakespeare,Chaucer and Wordsworth were able to carve out such master pieces only because of their relationship with the purest and virgin nature which is the greatest teacher for mankind of all times.

presented. The concept of women and nature as both victims of the male dominated society is also emphasized. This novel is the perfect literary example of an Eco-feminist work that portrays the destruction of women and nature even in the minutest episodes in the novel.
Nature is a treasure-house of many myths that lay hidden in the beliefs, rights and rituals of the aboriginals which are passed from one generation to another. In the same manner women also are the sustainer's of many myths that the male society has made upon her. The mother i.e. both woman and nature is examined here. In a vast country like Canada, nature comprises to its majority through its wilderness. This wilderness hides many priceless virtues and knowledge that can be learnt only in complete harmony with nature. Surfacing is not just the journey of a woman but it is the quest that the female gender thrives for. This paper combines the theories of eco-criticism, eco-feminism and to analyse the novel Surfacing into a biological whole that merges nature, man and the beliefs of man that make existence meaningful and life worth living. In an era of rapid industrialization and materialism, it is necessary to go on a quest back to nature and learn how life was easier in the lap of nature.
Great writers like Shakespeare, Chaucer and Wordsworth were able to carve out such master pieces only because of their relationship with the purest and virgin nature which is the greatest teacher for mankind of all times.
Keywords: Eco-Criticism, Eco-Feminism, Self-Realization, Wilderness, Victimization From the beginning of the world, man has started composing works of literature, first in the oral form and then in the written form. It is no wonder that the major themes were always nature and women as nature and women are believed to be the most beautiful creations of God. The Creator has tied women and nature through an invisible thread which makes them share many of their features with each other. Both can be called as 'mother' due to their ability to give, nourish and sustain life. Nature is always presented as feminine and this is why it is called Mother Nature. But the patriarchal society approach both nature and We are two-legged wombs, That's all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices. (128) This shows the pure agony faced by women as well as nature when they play the mere role of producers and victims to the capitalist patriarchy who gains profits from them. In her novel The Edible Woman, Atwood explains how nature and women are creations to be consumed and enjoyed by men like beautifully iced cake. As a contemporary Canadian writer, Atwood mainly focuses on nature and women thus creating symbols, instances and ideas that reveal the injustice done to both nature and women. Surfacing is a novel that is set in an inchoate island in Northern Quebec of Canada.
The vast landscape of Canada is known for its 'wilderness' and this creates an identity crisis and fear in the mind of its inhabitants. It is the quest of a twenty-eight year old unnamed protagonist in search for her father (who has disappeared without a word) as well as her inner self (which she has lost years ago)into the lap of nature. She is accompanied by a couple positive sides as he has no benefit from them. When they reach the old bridge, the narrator observes that the dam controls the lake now. The patriarchal society is trying to control nature like they control women with the use of science and technology.
As they approach the village a heavy fog raises which indicates the confused state of mind of the protagonist. Here she sees herself in nature and this makes her say, ''what stayed in my head was only the misty whiteness, the hush of moving water and the rocking motion, total safety" (19). She feels totally calm and secure when she is close to nature. The reference to the cushions with the embroidery of Niagara Falls that Paul's wife Madame gives her (as well as her mother) is symbolic of the intense aspiration to be free, powerful and cool like the Niagara Falls that cannot be controlled by man. Images from nature keep repeating in the novel to compare nature and women. The narrator remembers how her mother put her ''hands on the sheet curled like bird claws clinging to a perch" in her death bed as she wanted to save herself from death. The only records that her mother kept in the diary was weather (she displayed her emotions through seasons) and works done on that day. This shows how nature had become a companion for her mother with whom she could identify herself with.
The restrictions imposed on the female gender restricts her from being immersing herself into nature and thus makes them loss their identity. The narrator says, ''shorts were The garden maintains its vitality as it was not intruded upon by the patriarchy for a long time.
This made the beings of nature rejoice in the garden as structure and pattern has already vanished from there.
The only terrific incident that the narrator remembers while living in the cabin was her brother almost drowning. She was an unborn child when the incident occurred but she has watched the incident from her mother's womb like a frog trapped in a jar. Here both the body and jar becomes an obstacle to the sight of the narrator and the frogs were they are trapped in.
Ecofeminists attempt to showcase the symbols and metaphors that bind nature, women and animals and presenting how all of them are the victims of suppression. They also use various images that relate the body with different organisms of nature. The narrators love for Joe's body filled with hairs like that of an animal is the best example for this. It is not Joe's Mythology, Sita is termed as the daughter of nature and even fire was not able to hurt her as she is nature personified.
The patriarchy has an attitude to commoditize women as the 'other' and himself as the 'self' and the ecofeminist writer's questions this. These writers believe that this distinction results in hierarchy and oppression of the female race. The patriarchy also classifies the nature as the other because nature is also been imagined as feminine. In the conclusion of the novel, the protagonist realizes that leading a hidden life in the island makes her a fugitive rather than a survivor. She decided to free herself from the clutches of patriarchal cruelty and become an active member of the society and thus emerging as a powerful woman. will ever hurt anyone...withdrawing is no longer possible and the alternative is death"(206).
Here the narrator can be compared to Shakthi, the goddess of power and strength in the Indian mythology who is unstoppable by any force of the universe. Nature itself is unstoppable when it comes to natural disasters. In the ability of destruction also women and nature are at par with each other.
Atwood has created Surfacing as a perfect example of ecofeminism and as a 'master narrative'. She structures the reality of this novel according to experience as well as landscape. Any narrative gains power through the landscape of its existence. The great poet Puran Singh in his poem Ghar ki Gahal Changi (How Wonderful is the Woman in Home) does not portray woman as a Freudian sign and as an object of suppression rather treats her as having the cosmic ability and aesthetic power to convert a red earthen pot to an intoxicated object going under the water like a sufi saint. He says that 'she listens to the music of morning birds, but it is not just the music of Pythagorean numbers, it is Kirtan, the music in which the wonder and beauty of this universe is sung. When she gives water to drink or cooks food to eat, it tastes like Nam, the meditative remembrance of the most beautiful'. This is how Atwood wants women and nature to be treated. Atwood hopes for a society that is devoid of differences and that respects women and nature rather than exploiting it. Surfacing is not only quest of a woman for her inner self but also a narrative on the land use patterns by the capitalist society.