To truly delve into Margaret Atwood's Surfacing, the reader must understand the symbolic meaning of a mirror in the novel as well as its function as an object of symbolization itself implemented through the characters, their interrelationships and the faculties of the mind, such as memory and perception. After examining the mirror as a physical object in the novel, this article proceeds to provide an interpretation of its figurative meaning. In contrast, the second part of the essay deals with the abstract representation of the mirror that manifests itself through the relationship between the protagonist and her partner, as well as through the protagonist's perception of herself. The final part of this work aims to apply the conclusions drawn in the previous paragraphs of the analysis to the ending and title of the novel. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayIn their study of the role of duality in Atwood's works, Constance Classen and David Howes point out "his frequent references to mirrors", which can be found in a variety of writers' poems and novels [1] (par. 2 ). In Surfacing the image is also incorporated into the plot, completely imbued with a symbolic meaning. This becomes more evident at the end of the novel when the protagonist, at the height of her nervous breakdown, realizes that "she must stop looking in the mirror" so that "it no longer traps her", because she comes to understand the subjective and the reality distorted that the mirror provides her, “reflection that comes between… eyes and vision” (Atwood 138). Proceeding to imagine it as “Anna's soul locked in the golden covenant,” the narrator thus reveals his perception of the mirror as a tool for conforming individuals to social expectations (Atwood 138). The subsequent refusal to use it, therefore, can be considered a symbol of the protagonist's protest against the submission of her own desires and will to that of society. In retrospect, the scene is foreshadowed in the narrator's episode of self-reflection on her life before and after marriage as she observes: "Woman sawed in a wooden box... smiling, a make-up done with mirrors... only with me there had been an accident and I fell to pieces” (85). Here, the image of the mirror is found openly associated with an illusion that, typically, the narrator perceives as not working for her the mirror is used as an epitome of social constraints, which the protagonist implicitly rejects through her attitude towards the physical representation of the symbol. However, this image of distorted reality caused by social pressure is not limited to mirrors only as physical objects characters themselves serve as reflections of each other, as the protagonist points out, in an attempt to justify her reluctance to marry Joe: "He didn't love me, he loved an idea of ​​himself" (Atwood 87). However, it is not only the other characters, but the narrator herself who resorts to falsifying reality, in her case by rewriting her own story, creating a mirror made of her fictitious memories of the past and, as the character's instability progresses, manifesting itself also through the nature of his apparitions. Commenting on the topic in her interview with Linda Sandler, Atwood observes: “She's obsessed with finding ghosts but once she finds them she frees herself from that obsession… my character can see those ghosts but they can't see her.” (qtd in Royappa 123). This non-reciprocity of the relationship between the character and her apparitions echoes the same type of relationship that she maintainswith the other heroes - that of mere reflection, of which, in conclusion, the narrator becomes the object for the other characters and of which she herself resorts in the course of the search for self-identification. However, as Kokotailo noted in his essay on the novel's form, "the entire structure falls apart... when the narrator dives" into the lake, the surface of which was earlier in the novel compared to that of the "dark mirror" (par. 23; Therefore, one of the possible explanations of the book's title is that it alludes to the mirroring effect of the sliding of water, and the surfacing, therefore, implies the breaking of this reflection. For the protagonist this means first of all shedding oneself of one's disappointments by admitting of having fabricated his own memories: “A counterfeit album, the memories fraudulent as passports; but a house of cards was better than nothing and I could almost live in it, I had lived in it until now” (Atwood 112). of recovery involves separating from the apparitions of his dead parents or, as Burkhard Niederhoff describes it “witnessing their decline and accepting their death – in other words, mourning and burying them” (72). After recognizing the internal inconsistency of the character's perception of herself, she thus becomes capable of facing the false external representations imposed on her by society, which manifest themselves through her regained ability to look at herself in the mirror. The change in his perception, as he sees in the mirror “a creature neither animal nor human,” indicates the narrator's enduring challenge to give in to the prism of social lenses, the refusal to discern between animals and humans that he stated before, for “[a ]everything we could do to animals we could do to each other: we practiced on them first” (Atwood 149; 95). Finally, the last phase of the character's recovery involves re-establishing her relationship with Joe by breaking the “spurious peace” of “mutual avoidance” and choosing real communication, “the intercession of words” (Atwood 151). The fabricated reality to which Surfacing's protagonist is exposed is composed of several layers: those constructed by society are symbolized by the physical forms of the mirror, while those created by the narrator herself as a means of a coping mechanism are demonstrated by the mirrored nature of her delusions and her relationship with Joe. As the character comes to terms with a real state of affairs in his life, he gradually begins to extricate himself from the illusions, and this takes the form of a re-evaluation of the distorted reality that is present in the mirror's reflection, his memories, apparitions and representations in society. The title of the novel, as has been suggested, serves as a symbol for “breaking the surface,” which, in turn, could be interpreted either as idiom for “floating upward” (thus leading back to the idea of ​​emerging) and a figurative breaking of the surface of a mirror, for the protagonist to, as she says, “Not to see me but to see” (Atwood 138). Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get custom essays[1] Such as, for example, “Tricks with Mirrors”, “The Circle game”, Alias ​​​​Grace, The Journals of Susanna Moodie and Survival, which are briefly analyzed in the aforementioned Classen and Howes essay, “Margaret Atwood: Two-Headed Woman.” Works Cited Atwood, Margaret. Outcrop. McClelland and Stewart, 1972. Web. Accessed April 18, 2017. Classen, Constance, and David Howes. "Margaret Atwood: Woman of Two Heads." Canadian icon. Accessed April 19, 2017. http://canadianicon.org/table-of-contents/margaret-atwood-two-headed-woman/Kokotailo, Philip. “Form in the Atwood outcrop: Toward a synthesis of critical opinion.” Studies in Canadian literature/?tudes en litt?rature,. 2017.