Margaret Atwood is famous for many books that are centred on issues predominantly affecting women. In all of her writing of careful craftsmanship, Margaret Atwood has captured and explored many issues of our time. Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and in Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliff College. As the daughter of a forest entomologist, Atwood spent a large part of her childhood in the Canadian wilderness. At the age of six, she began to write poems, comic books, and an unfinished novel about an ant. At sixteen, she discovered that writing was the only thing she wanted to do.
Throughout her career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and several honorary degrees including the Canadian Governor General's Award and the National Arts Club Medal of Honour for literature. She is the author of more than thirty volumes of poetry, non-fiction, and fiction including several children's books and stories. Her most recent works include Cat's Eye (1989), Alias Grace (1996), Morning in the Burned House (1995), and a volume of poetry. Atwood's work has also been published in more than twenty-five countries.
The Edible Woman is the first published novel by Margaret Atwood. This book is said to be rich in metaphor, deliciously comic, and glittering with insight. The fantastic plot development and dramatic ego all demonstrate the disintegration of Marian MacAplin. She is the main character and is a conventional young woman with friends, an attractive man in her life, and a position at a market research company. Everything in her life seems to go out of control when Marian stops eating to the point where her body refuses to consume anything at all. Her sane and structured world then slips strangely out of focus. As a result, Marian finds herself unable to eat: first meant, then eggs, and finally vegetables.
What Marian experiences throughout the novel may be characterized as symptoms of the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, which is a mental illness involving the fear of eating and gaining weight. Sufferers of anorexia will starve themselves to the point they become severely malnourished. Like Marian, the anorexic becomes self-conscious about her actions and her body image. The anorexic will not feel good about him or herself, treat his or her body as their enemy, and have a lack of self-esteem. Anorexia can also involve symptoms of fatigue, disintegration of muscles, stomach bloating, and even amnesia. Shrinking of internal organs can also occur, and depending on the severity of the anorexia, this may be irreversible. |
