Author(s): Dr. Girija Suri

Abstract: Margaret Atwood’s novel, Surfacing (1972) addresses the Woman’s Question through the point of view of young woman who travels with her boyfriend and two married friends and sets on a journey into her troubled past. The paper analyzes the different ways in which the novel portrays the growing distance of the protagonist’s self-identity from her sense of language, history, and culture. It delves into the role of language, reason, and logic in imbuing as well as taking away the protagonist’s self-belief. It also probes Atwood’s portrayal of nature, especially wilderness, as an essential aspect of one’s psychological development and realization of desires. The paper argues that the novel is a quest for female identity and meaning in which language and nature play extremely significant roles.

Keywords: quest, identity, language, nature, civilize, society

Article Info: Received: 09 Apr 2024; Received in revised form: 10 May 2024; Accepted: 20 May 2024; Available online: 02 Jun, 2024

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.93.27