The Man from Mars by Margaret Atwood
"The Man from Mars" is a short story by Margaret Atwood that explores themes of fear, desire, and cultural misunderstanding through the experience of a young woman named Christine. Set in Toronto, the narrative begins with Christine being approached by an Asian man seeking directions, a seemingly innocent encounter that quickly escalates into an unsettling situation. Despite her initial kindness, the man begins to pursue her obsessively, provoking a mix of fear and intrigue in Christine, who grapples with her self-image and societal perceptions of beauty and desirability.
As the story unfolds, Christine's life becomes increasingly intertwined with the man's relentless pursuit, leading to moments of terror and confusion. The contrast between her reactions and those of her mother highlights the complexities of cultural expectations and personal boundaries. Ultimately, Christine's experience with the man leaves a lasting impact on her life, influencing her relationships and her understanding of herself amid the backdrop of societal changes, such as the Vietnam War. The narrative serves as a poignant commentary on the interplay of attraction and fear while examining the nuances of identity and the consequences of being perceived as different.
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The Man from Mars by Margaret Atwood
First published: 1977
Type of plot: Social realism
Time of work: The 1950's and 1960's
Locale: Toronto
Principal Characters:
Christine , the protagonistA young Asian man , most likely Vietnamese
The Story
While walking through a park in Toronto, Christine is stopped by an Asian man asking for directions. She kindly draws him a map, expecting to be done with him; however, the man insists on exchanging names. Christine observes that if this was a person from her own culture, she would think he was trying to pick her up but that does not happen to her because she is big, or "statuesque" as her mother says. Suddenly, however, the young man grabs her arm and insists on accompanying her home. Frightened, Christine escapes by jumping on a streetcar.
When the school year comes to an end, the mysterious man calls her house, and her mother, trying to do her best for Christine, invites him to tea. Christine goes along with her mother but is pleased by her mother's dismay when she answers the door and sees he is not the foreign potentate she had imagined. Christine serves him tea but is outraged when he sets the timer on his camera, abruptly puts his arm around her, and jams his cheek up against her as the shutter clicks.
While teaching sailing at a summer camp, she leaves several letters from him unanswered. When she returns home, he locates her on campus and begins to follow her relentlessly. When she asks him what he wants, he answers that he wants to talk to her, but given the opportunity to do so, he smiles apologetically and says nothing. She is both frightened and embarrassed. This mysterious, emaciated, chain-smoking man with badly bitten fingernails and threadbare clothing who pursues Christine everywhere makes her interesting to other men; they begin to ask her out, when they never had before. Christine begins to feel different, more like Marilyn Monroe, she thinks, than a dolphin.
She becomes truly afraid when the man begins to telephone her, sometimes just breathing into the phone; he follows her down her own street, dodging behind trees when she looks back. One night he terrifies Elvira, the housekeeper, when she finds him peering through the French doors. The police are called, and Christine is relieved that she is not the one who told, although she realizes that had he been a Canadian, she would have called the police long before this. The police decide they must pick him up, so when Christine comes out of a lecture the next day and the man is waiting for her, the police take him into custody and send him back to Montreal. Christine is disappointed when she learns that she is not the first woman he has followed. When he is caught again following a sixty-year-old Mother Superior, he is deported.
Christine's life goes back to its nondescript routine; she graduates, finds employment, and puts on weight. When the Vietnam War begins to be reported in the newspaper, Christine cannot stop thinking of the mysterious man—the only man who ever found her irresistible. She studies magazines searching for his face but, haunted by nightmares of him coming through her mother's French doors, blood streaking his face, she gives away her television and takes to reading nineteenth century novels. When she does think of him, she cannot picture him in the army; instead, he would be "something nondescript, something in the background, like herself."
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.