Cat's Eye Misogyny

In Cat’s Eye, Margaret Atwood portrays the lasting negative influence misogynistic behavior has on Elaine Risley throughout her life through parallelism and motifs. Initially, Elaine Risley, the dynamic protagonist, decides “it’s time to go back” (459) to her hometown for an art gallery she is featured in and she remembers how she learned all of her disavowal tendencies. Upon arrival, she recalls the 1st time she encountered “real girls at last, in the flesh” (52) and does not know how to act around them. As she begins to adapt, she befriends the dynamic antagonist Cordelia, Grace Smeath, and Carol Campbell and “begin[s] to want things [she’s] never wanted before” (59) because she wants to fit in. For the next year, the three girls relentlessly pick on Elaine, making her believe “whatever is wrong with [bloomers] may be wrong with [her] also” (88) making her compare herself to dirty underwear which breaks down her self-esteem.
Just look’” (175) at how she does not live up to Cordelia’s standards. As Elaine grows up, she reunites with Cordelia and feels as if “Cordelia is afraid of [her] and she is afraid of Cordelia” (249) because Cordelia’s obscene gestures towards her in their childhood have rubbed off on her and she started to bully Cordelia. Once an adult, she is being interviewed and tells the interviewer “[she is] the mother of two. [she] bake[s] cookies” (95) as a way to contradict the interviewer’s opinions on Elaine because she knew it would make the interviewer angry. Finally, Elaine is standing on a bridge and looks back and thinks she sees Cordelia wearing the “same green wool knee socks” (459) showing how Cordelia manipulative ways have stuck with her throughout her whole life. Conclusively, in Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood, she uses parallelism and motifs to illuminate the lifelong impact of misogyny has on