The Edible Woman

by

Margaret Atwood

Trigger is Peter’s best friend from college, and the last of Peter’s old friends to get married. When Trigger does get married, Peter struggles with the idea that his bachelor days are over. Marian finds it difficult to square the clean-cut Trigger she meets with Peter’s stories of their debauched hunting trips together.

Trigger Quotes in The Edible Woman

The The Edible Woman quotes below are all either spoken by Trigger or refer to Trigger. 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:
Gendered Expectations vs. Personal Identity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 7 Quotes

Maybe he had intended the bathtub as an expression of his personality. I tried thinking of ways to make that fit. Asceticism? A modern version of hair shirts or sitting on spikes? […] Or maybe it had been a reckless young-man gesture, like jumping into the swimming pool with your clothes on, or putting things on your head at parties. But this image didn't suit Peter either. I was glad there were no more of his group of old friends left to be married: next time he might have tried cramming us into a clothes closet, or an exotic posture in the kitchen sink.

Or maybe—and the thought was chilling—he had intended it as an expression of my personality. A new corridor of possibilities extended itself before me: did he really think of me as a lavatory fixture? What kind of a girl did he think I was?

Related Characters: Marian McAlpin (speaker), Peter Wollander, Trigger
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

“One shot, right through the heart. The rest of them got away. I picked it up and Trigger said, ‘You know how to gut them, you just slit her down the belly and give her a good hard shake and all the guts’ll fall out.’ So I whipped out my knife, good knife, German steel, and slit the belly and took her by the hind legs […] God it was funny. Lucky thing Trigger and me had the old cameras along, we got some good shots of the whole mess.”

After a while I noticed with mild curiosity that a large drop of something wet had materialized on the table near my hand. I poked it with my finger and smudged it around a little before I realized with horror that it was a tear. I must be crying then!

Related Characters: Marian McAlpin (speaker), Peter Wollander (speaker), Leonard Slank, Trigger
Related Symbols: Cameras
Page Number: 70
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

She watched the capable hands holding the knife and fork, slicing precisely with an exact adjustment of pressures. How skillfully he did it: no tearing, no ragged edges. And yet it was a violent action, cutting; and violence in connection with Peter seemed incongruous to her. Like the Moose Beer commercials, which had begun to appear everywhere […] The fisherman wading in the street, scooping the trout into his net was too tidy: he looked as though his hair had just been combed, a few strands glued neatly to his forehead to show he was wind-blown. And the fish also was unreal; it had no slime, no teeth, no smell; it was a clever toy, metal and enamel.

[…] She looked down at her half-eaten steak and suddenly saw it as a hunk of muscle. Blood-red. Part of a real cow that once moved and ate and was killed.

Related Characters: Marian McAlpin, Peter Wollander, The Underwear Man, Trigger
Page Number: 163
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Edible Woman PDF

Trigger Quotes in The Edible Woman

The The Edible Woman quotes below are all either spoken by Trigger or refer to Trigger. 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:
Gendered Expectations vs. Personal Identity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 7 Quotes

Maybe he had intended the bathtub as an expression of his personality. I tried thinking of ways to make that fit. Asceticism? A modern version of hair shirts or sitting on spikes? […] Or maybe it had been a reckless young-man gesture, like jumping into the swimming pool with your clothes on, or putting things on your head at parties. But this image didn't suit Peter either. I was glad there were no more of his group of old friends left to be married: next time he might have tried cramming us into a clothes closet, or an exotic posture in the kitchen sink.

Or maybe—and the thought was chilling—he had intended it as an expression of my personality. A new corridor of possibilities extended itself before me: did he really think of me as a lavatory fixture? What kind of a girl did he think I was?

Related Characters: Marian McAlpin (speaker), Peter Wollander, Trigger
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

“One shot, right through the heart. The rest of them got away. I picked it up and Trigger said, ‘You know how to gut them, you just slit her down the belly and give her a good hard shake and all the guts’ll fall out.’ So I whipped out my knife, good knife, German steel, and slit the belly and took her by the hind legs […] God it was funny. Lucky thing Trigger and me had the old cameras along, we got some good shots of the whole mess.”

After a while I noticed with mild curiosity that a large drop of something wet had materialized on the table near my hand. I poked it with my finger and smudged it around a little before I realized with horror that it was a tear. I must be crying then!

Related Characters: Marian McAlpin (speaker), Peter Wollander (speaker), Leonard Slank, Trigger
Related Symbols: Cameras
Page Number: 70
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

She watched the capable hands holding the knife and fork, slicing precisely with an exact adjustment of pressures. How skillfully he did it: no tearing, no ragged edges. And yet it was a violent action, cutting; and violence in connection with Peter seemed incongruous to her. Like the Moose Beer commercials, which had begun to appear everywhere […] The fisherman wading in the street, scooping the trout into his net was too tidy: he looked as though his hair had just been combed, a few strands glued neatly to his forehead to show he was wind-blown. And the fish also was unreal; it had no slime, no teeth, no smell; it was a clever toy, metal and enamel.

[…] She looked down at her half-eaten steak and suddenly saw it as a hunk of muscle. Blood-red. Part of a real cow that once moved and ate and was killed.

Related Characters: Marian McAlpin, Peter Wollander, The Underwear Man, Trigger
Page Number: 163
Explanation and Analysis: