The Edible Woman Themes

Throughout The Edible Woman, the 1969 book that author Margaret Atwood deems her “proto-feminist” novel, protagonist Marian is surrounded by different models of femininity. At work, her bosses Mrs. Bogue and Mrs. Grot thrive off of potlucks and pension plans, a life of financial stability and egg salad sandwiches. At home, Marian’s flirtatious roommate Ainsley decides that her “deepest femininity” can only be fulfilled by having a child. And whenever Marian visits her pregnant…

Marian McAlpin, the heroine of Margaret Atwood’s 1969 novel The Edible Woman, is surrounded by advertisements. On the way to work, Marian stares at print commercials on the bus, taking in posters for canned tomatoes and restrictive shapewear. Marian’s job, too, centers on advertisement; Marian works for Seymour Surveys, an organization that questions housewives about their spending habits in order to maximize sales for various home products. Even Marian’s impending marriage to Peter…

The Edible Woman, Margaret Atwood’s 1969 novel about patriarchy and consumerism, follows a strange affair between a conformist young woman named Marian and a droll, unconventional English PhD student named Duncan. As Marian prepares for her upcoming wedding to her boyfriend Peter and dodges her friends Clara and Ainsley’s pregnancies, she feels increasingly alienated from the words and customs her society has defined for itself. The novel depicts this alienation structurally; soon…

Marian McAlpin, the protagonist of Margaret Atwood’s 1969 novel The Edible Woman, begins every day in the same way: she makes herself coffee and an egg, then catches the bus to work, where she fills out the same forms and talks to the same people and takes her breaks at the exact same time. At first, this routine is comforting to Marian, certainly preferable to the chaos of her roommate Ainsley’s…