About this guide
The Edible Woman is the first published novel by Margaret Atwood. Rich in
metaphor, deliciously comic, and glittering with insight, the story chronicles
the fantastic and dramatic ego disintegration of Marian McAlprin, who seems at
first to be a perfectly conventional young woman, with friends, a successful and
attractive man in her life, and a reasonably good job working for a market
research company. Everything in her life seems to fly out of control with her
engagement, just as Marian seems ready to fulfill "every woman's" dream of
trading in her troublesome job for marriage and a new life at home with
children. The manner of her collapse and the startling ending make for often
hilarious reading.
This brilliant and witty early work by one of the most admired novelist of our
time contains the hallmark themes in the body of work that inspired Vogue
magazine to call Atwood "one of the most intelligent and talented writers to set
herself the task of deciphering life in the late twentieth century."
For discussion
- Do you see a relationship between the kind of work Marian does in consumer
research with the particular way her life begins to disintegrate?
- Peter is afraid of being captured by a woman, of losing his freedom; Marian
begins to feel hunted, caught in his gaze; eventually she even confuses his
camera with a gun. In what ways can all the characters seem at once to be
hunter, then predator, master then slave, subject then object?
- Two parties take place in the book, the office party and the engagement
party. Discuss what these parties do for the structure and development of the
novel.
- Sexual identity lies at the heart of much of the story. Discuss the role
Marian's roommate Ainsley, her friend Claire, and finally the "office Virgins"
play in helping define Marian's dilemma. Discuss the men: Why is Marian drawn to
Duncan? Contrast him with Peter.
- The novel is narrated in first person in parts one and three, third person
in part two. What is the effect on the reader of the change in voice?
- Margaret Atwood has described The Edible Woman, her first novel, as an
"anti-comedy," with themes many now see as proto-feminist. Give examples of
Atwood's clever use of food images throughout the book.
- First Marian drops meat from her diet, then, eggs, vegetables, even pumpkin
seeds. Can you point to the incidents that precede each elimination from her
diet? How does her lack of appetite compare or contrast with Duncan's unnatural
thinness, his stated desire to become "an amoebae?"
- What is the meaning of the cake Marian serves Peter at the novel's end? What
is the significance of her eating the cake?
- Margaret Atwood is a writer who often plays with fairy tale images in her
work. "The Robber Bridegroom" (which she much later turns on its head with The
Robber Bride) was likely an inspiration for The Edible Woman: the old crone
warns the bride-to-be " . . . the only marriage you'll celebrate will be with
death . . . When they have you in their power they'll chop you up in pieces . .
. then they'll cook you and eat you, because they are cannibals." What images of
cannibalism does Atwood use? Do you see traces of other fairy tales in this
novel?
- At the time The Edible Woman was written in 1965 food, eating and weight
issues had yet attracted wide attention as feminist concerns. Three decades
later, in The Beauty Myth, author Naomi Wolf observes that the obsession with
thinness began to become a serious national problem for women America around
1920, coinciding with women's right to vote; studies indicate that today nearly
half of American young women have had at one time or other had an eating
disorder. What are the symbolic meanings of food, and why does it become the
focus for so much anxiety?
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