Surfacing

by

Margaret Atwood

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Surfacing makes teaching easy.
Paul is an old Quebecois friend of the narrator’s father who still lives in the village near the narrator’s family cabin. A kindly man, he writes to the narrator to let her know of her father’s disappearance. Toward the end of the novel, after the narrator’s mental breakdown, he boats the narrator’s lover Joe back to the island to look for her.

Paul Quotes in Surfacing

The Surfacing quotes below are all either spoken by Paul or refer to Paul. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Logic and Insanity Theme Icon
).
Part 1  Quotes

What he means is that a man should be handling this; Joe will do as a stand-in. My status is a problem, they obviously think I’m married. But I’m safe, I’m wearing my wedding ring, I never threw it out, it’s useful for landladies.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Joe, The Father, The “Husband”, Paul
Related Symbols: Gold Ring
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:

What impressed him that time, he even mentioned it later, cool he called it, was the way I took my clothes off and put them on again later very smoothly as if I were feeling no emotion. But I really wasn’t.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Joe, David, Anna, The Father, Paul
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:
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Surfacing PDF

Paul Quotes in Surfacing

The Surfacing quotes below are all either spoken by Paul or refer to Paul. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Logic and Insanity Theme Icon
).
Part 1  Quotes

What he means is that a man should be handling this; Joe will do as a stand-in. My status is a problem, they obviously think I’m married. But I’m safe, I’m wearing my wedding ring, I never threw it out, it’s useful for landladies.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Joe, The Father, The “Husband”, Paul
Related Symbols: Gold Ring
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:

What impressed him that time, he even mentioned it later, cool he called it, was the way I took my clothes off and put them on again later very smoothly as if I were feeling no emotion. But I really wasn’t.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Joe, David, Anna, The Father, Paul
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis: