Surfacing Style

Surfacing Style

Point of View

The novel is related through the narrator's point of view. Atwood never provides her protagonist with a name, which helps readers submerge themselves into her subjective world. Structuring the novel from the narrator's point of view also helps Atwood develop her themes, especially her focus on appearance, reality memory, reminiscence, and a search for self. Since readers understand the development of the plot from the narrator's limited point of view, we see firsthand her struggle to establish an identity as she tries to piece together the reality of the past. As she recalls fragments of the truth about the abortion, readers become engaged in the reconstruction process, which offers a more personal and therefore more complete understanding of her character.

Jerome H. Rosenberg, in Twayne's World Authors Series Online, concludes that Atwood's construction of the narrative in the present tense causes problems for the reader who struggles to sift...
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