How does Atwood use language to convey the narrator(TM)s change in emotional state?
How does Atwood use language to convey the narrator’s change in emotional state?
After reading ‘Surfacing’ it is clear to see that as the story progresses, the Surfacer has undergone a transformation that has seen her become a more complex character and therefore it has become more difficult for the reader to interpret her thoughts and actions. Her emotional state has some what deteriorated since the start and the sense of madness that the reader is now beginning to become wary of, seems to stem from her inability to cope with the standard roles of women which have been constructed in society and she becomes increasingly secluded from all the features of life as she attempts to serve as a human, a wife, a mother and a sexual being. Ultimately it’s the complexity of the language that helps to convey the Surfacer’s change in emotional state and as she is the only narrative voice that the reader can listen to it means that we too, become submerged in her psychological transformation and become able to sense a change in emotion and thought.
One of the main ways that the reader can see a change in the Surfacer’s emotional state is through the use of semiotics. The reader knows that the narrator is constantly interpreting both verbal and non-verbal forms of communication but as she starts to feel more alien in society her reading into situations start to become more inaccurate and flawed. ‘American flag on the front, another at the back’ – as she recognises them she then begins to reveal strong signs of negativity towards the Americans through the use of oxymoronic comments such as ‘friendly as a shark’. As she reinforces this ill-feeling throughout, we as the reader have no option but to take her word for it but as her unreliability begins the shine through, we see that her prior judgements were incorrect. The flag turned out to be ‘a blue and white oblong with red painting, go mets’ and the reader can explicitly see her change in emotional state when she begins to use quite violent and animated adjectives such as ‘furious’ when she realises she had misinterpreted the two Canadians as Americans. It is clear to see that the Surfacer is now becoming trapped in her own paranoid state of mind and the fact that she is beginning to get signs wrong shows her now constant unreliability and it reflects the narrator’s change both physically and mentally.
