Footnote to the Amnesty Report on Torture by Margaret Atwood
"Footnote to the Amnesty Report on Torture" by Margaret Atwood is a poignant exploration of the grim realities of torture and its normalization within political systems. The poem opens with a stark depiction of a torture chamber, contrasting it with familiar, everyday spaces such as a dirty train station, which evokes a sense of discomfort and recognition in the reader. Atwood introduces a janitorial figure, representing the ordinary individual tasked with cleaning up after acts of violence, who grapples with the grotesque remnants of brutality while maintaining a sense of gratitude for his relatively safer position. This character embodies the moral complexities faced by those who have no choice but to comply with oppressive systems for the sake of their families. The poem further emphasizes the tragic outcomes of state-sanctioned torture, illustrating horrific imagery of victims, including children, used as tools of coercion. Through these visceral descriptions, Atwood critiques the desensitization and complicity within political machinery, prompting reflection on the human cost of such systems. The work ultimately serves as a powerful commentary on the intersection of personal and political trauma, urging readers to confront the uncomfortable truths of human rights violations.
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Footnote to the Amnesty Report on Torture by Margaret Atwood
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1978 (collected in Two-Headed Poems, 1978)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
The first stanza of “Footnote to the Amnesty Report on Torture” introduces the torture chamber. The voice in the poem describes how the chamber defies the human imagination; it does not resemble a dungeon, it is not reminiscent of a pornography magazine, and it is not futuristic. Instead, the chamber is compared to a dirty train station—a place that is all too familiar. The image of the train station includes a man who cleans the station’s floor. This individual is the precursor to the unnamed man introduced in the third stanza who sweeps the floor in the torture chamber.
The man who cleans the torture chamber must deal with the grotesque smells and remove the remnants of the previous night’s activity. He reminds himself that he is grateful for his job and that he is not the torturer. This man remains unnamed and generic; he could be any man in any country.
Other shocking images in the poem include limp bodies of those who refuse to speak thrown onto the consul’s lawn. Bodies of children who have been killed in order to extract information from their parents are also described. Despite these atrocities, the anonymous man performs his job each day and does his best to dissociate himself. He completes his work because he must provide for his children and his wife; however, he is fear-ridden. In the back of his mind he cannot detach himself from this cruel world, and he knows that he and his family could be the government’s next targets. The poem makes a bold statement about the harsh reality behind political systems.
Bibliography
Cooke, Nathalie. Margaret Atwood: A Biography. Toronto, Ontario: ECW Press, 1998.
Hengen, Shannon. Margaret Atwood’s Power: Mirrors, Reflections, and Images in Select Fiction and Poetry. Toronto, Ontario: Sumach Press, 1993.
Nischik, Reingard, ed. Margaret Atwood: Works and Impact. Rochester, N.Y.: Camden House, 2000.
Stein, Karen F. Margaret Atwood Revisited. New York: Twayne, 1999.
Wilson, Sharon, Thomas Friedman, and Shannon Hengen, eds. Approaches to Teaching Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Other Works. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1996.