The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
"The Edible Woman" by Margaret Atwood is a novel that explores themes of identity, gender roles, and societal expectations through the experiences of Marian McAlpin, a recent college graduate. Set in Canada, the story follows Marian as she navigates her job at a marketing research company and her complex relationships with friends and romantic partners. The narrative delves into her interactions with her roommate Ainsley, who aspires to motherhood without the constraints of marriage, highlighting contrasting views on female autonomy.
As Marian becomes increasingly engaged in her relationship with her boyfriend Peter, she begins to feel a loss of agency and identity, symbolized by her developing aversion to food and her bodily autonomy. This physical manifestation of her internal struggle raises questions about consumerism and conformity within the context of women's roles in society. The presence of Duncan, a more enigmatic character, adds layers to Marian's journey of self-discovery as she confronts her fears and desires.
The novel is not only a critique of societal pressures on women but also an exploration of personal freedom and the quest for authenticity. As Marian’s sense of self diminishes, she ultimately grapples with her choices and the implications of her relationships. "The Edible Woman" is a thought-provoking examination of femininity, identity, and the complexities of modern life.
On this Page
The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
First published: 1969
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Comedy of manners
Time of plot: Mid-twentieth century
Locale: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Principal characters
Marian McAlpin , a young womanAinsley Tewce , her roommatePeter Wollander , Marian’s fiancéClara Bates , Marian’s friendJoe Bates , Clara’s husbandLen Slank , Marian’s friendDuncan , Marian’s friendFischer “Fish” Smythe , andTrevor , Duncan’s roommates
The Story:
Marian McAlpin, a recent college graduate, works for Seymour Surveys, a marketing research company. One hot summer day she and her roommate, Ainsley Tewce, visit Clara and Joe Bates, who live nearby and have two small children. Clara is seven months pregnant, and her house is in disarray. She sits languidly in the garden, holding a baby, while Joe cooks dinner and changes the babies’ diapers. Later, Ainsley tells Marian that she has decided to have a child. Although she does not want to get married, she plans to find an appropriate man to father the child. Marian tries unsuccessfully to dissuade her.
Working the next day, Marian conducts a door-to-door survey about a proposed advertisement for Moose Beer. One person who responds to the survey with interesting but ambiguous answers is a mysterious young man named Duncan. Marian meets him unexpectedly in various places: a park, a Laundromat, and a movie theater. Duncan takes her to a mummy exhibition at a museum and invites her for dinner at the apartment he shares with Trevor and Fish, fellow graduate students in English.
Marian’s boyfriend, Peter Wollander, is a young lawyer. He is depressed because one of his friends just got married, so Marian hopes to cheer him up by introducing him to her friend Len Slank, who has recently returned from England. They go to a bar and are surprised when they find Ainsley there. She has come to check out Len as a possible father for her child. She has heard that he is attracted to young girls, so she is dressed up to look young, and she orders ginger ale. Peter and Len converse animatedly about hunting and photography. Marian behaves strangely. She cries, although she does not know why. They all go to Len’s apartment, and Marian hides under the bed. Upon leaving, she runs away from Peter. He reaches her as a storm is brewing, so she agrees to get in his car. They watch a lightning storm, and then Peter asks her to marry him.
Meanwhile, Ainsley has decided that Len is an appropriate father for her child. When the time is right, she seduces him. He is horrified to learn that Ainsley is pregnant and tries unsuccessfully to persuade her to have an abortion. She explains that motherhood is necessary for women, and she plans to raise the child herself.
Once engaged to Peter, Marian loses her appetite and feels that she is shrinking or dissolving. She asks Peter to make decisions, such as the day of their wedding or what to order for dinner at restaurants. She stops eating meat and then stops eating other foods as well. When Duncan’s friend Trevor invites her for dinner, she tosses her pieces of meat to Duncan, trying to be inconspicuous. The third roommate, Fischer “Fish” Smythe, expounds at great length about birth imagery and the importance of birth, claiming that what is needed is a new pregnant Venus.
In preparation for her child, Ainsley reads books about childcare, attends parenting workshops, and knits baby clothes. One workshop claims that to grow up well adjusted, children need fathers. She hopes Len will agree to marry her for the sake of the child. He refuses.
Peter is holding a party and urges Marian to dress up for it. She invites some of her young coworkers, and Duncan and his two roommates, to attend. She buys a red dress, gets her hair done, and has Ainsley apply dramatic makeup for her. When Duncan arrives at the party he tells her he did not know it was a masquerade, and he does not enter. Instead, he heads for a Laundromat. Both Len and Ainsley attend the party separately. When they encounter each other, they argue, and Ainsley announces to the guests that they are going to have a child. Len responds by angrily pouring his glass of beer over Ainsley. Duncan’s roommate Fish takes off his sweater to dry Ainsley. He is excited to encounter a pregnant woman. Marian is afraid of Peter’s camera, as if it will literally shoot or freeze her. She flees his party and goes to the Laundromat to find Duncan.
Duncan has claimed that he is sexually inexperienced, and Marian decides that this is the time for her to initiate him sexually. As she has no money with her and Duncan has little, they find a seedy hotel for the encounter. The next morning, they go out for breakfast, and then Duncan takes her to a snow-covered ravine. Marian asks Duncan to talk to Peter because she does not know what to say to him. However, Duncan says that to do so is impossible and that she must solve her problems herself.
Marian decides she must determine whether her fear of Peter is justified. When he phones her to demand an explanation, he is invited to come to her apartment later. In preparation for their meeting she bakes a cake in the shape of a woman and decorates it with a face, a pink frosting dress, and a bouffant hairdo. Peter arrives, and she presents him with the cake. She tells him that she knows that he had been planning to destroy her, so she made a substitute. Peter leaves hurriedly.
Marian cleans the apartment and invites Duncan over to eat the cake. Duncan is upset because Fish is moving away from his apartment. Marian explains that Fish and Ainsley are getting married and going to Niagara Falls for their honeymoon. Duncan starts to eat the cake, and Marian begins to eat it as well. Duncan pronounces that she is now back to “so-called reality.”
Bibliography
Bouson, J. Brooks. Brutal Choreographies: Oppositional Strategies and Narrative Design in the Novels of Margaret Atwood. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993. Bouson’s second chapter, “The Edible Woman’s Refusal to Consent to Femininity,” discusses the courtship process as a predatory hunting ritual. In refusing marriage, Marian rejects subservience to claim her own power.
Howells, Coral Ann. Margaret Atwood. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996. A lively critical and biographical study that elucidates issues that have energized all of Atwood’s fiction: feminist issues, literary genres, and her own identity as a Canadian, a woman, and a writer.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. This collection of twelve excellent essays critically examines Atwood’s novels, including The Edible Woman. Includes a concise biography of the author.
Keith, W. J. Introducing Margaret Atwood’s “The Edible Woman.” Toronto, Ont.: ECW Press, 1989. Intended as a reader’s guide, this book provides a chronology of Atwood’s life and works and a useful, accessible chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis of the novel.
MacLulich, T. D. “Atwood’s Adult Fairy Tale: Lévi-Strauss, Bettelheim, and The Edible Woman.” In Critical Essays on Margaret Atwood, edited by Judith McCombs. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1988. This essay focuses on the novel’s depiction of food and eating. Draws from Claude Lévi-Strauss’s analysis of mythic structure as a way of mediating between culture and nature, and then compares The Edible Woman to the children’s story “The Gingerbread Man.”
Stein, Karen F. Margaret Atwood Revisited. New York: Twayne, 1999. This book is intended as a guide for the general reader. Stein’s third chapter focuses on Atwood’s first three novels. Its section on The Edible Woman analyzes the book as a darkly comic parody of romance fiction, consumerism, advertising, and courtship.
Stow, Glenys. “Nonsense as Social Commentary in The Edible Woman.” Journal of Canadian Studies / Revue d’etudes Canadiennes 23, no. 3 (1988): 90-101. Stow compares The Edible Woman to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. She points to Atwood’s use of techniques of nonsense writing such as distortion and exaggeration to call attention to the oppressive nature of modern society.
Wilson, Sharon Rose. Margaret Atwood’s Fairy-Tale Sexual Politics. Toronto, Ont.: ECW Press, 1993. Wilson finds that Atwood makes extensive use of fairytale plots in her novels. The chapter “Cannibalism and Metamorphosis in The Edible Woman: ’The Robber Bridegroom’” compares a range of fairytales with The Edible Woman.