67 pages 2 hours read

Margaret Atwood

Cat's Eye

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1988

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Background

Authorial Context: Margaret Atwood

Cat’s Eye has been described as Atwood’s most autobiographical novel, and Atwood herself has acknowledged certain autobiographical connections. Born in Ottawa, Atwood spent much of her childhood in northern Quebec and Ontario, where her father, like Elaine’s, worked as an entomologist. Like the novel’s protagonist, Atwood struggled to adjust to life in the city when her family moved to Toronto and to make friends in the mainstream education system. Also, like Elaine, she found herself set apart from other girls, who found her love of insects strange and her unwillingness to wear dresses unusual. At one time, she became the target of severe bullying, an experience mirrored in Elaine and Cordelia’s difficult relationship. Atwood has suggested that writing about Elaine’s traumatic childhood allowed her to confront the emotions she too had suppressed from her own childhood. Atwood’s experiences therefore heavily inform the novel’s exploration of The Specter of Male Violence and the Reality of Female Violence.

The theme of Vision and Visual Art also draws inspiration from Atwood’s own life. Like Elaine, Atwood was a visual artist before she was a writer, attending first the University of Toronto and then the Sheridan College of Art.

Related Titles

By Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

Alias Grace

Margaret Atwood

Alias Grace

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

Backdrop Addresses Cowboy

Margaret Atwood

Backdrop Addresses Cowboy

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

Death By Landscape

Margaret Atwood

Death By Landscape

Margaret Atwood

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE

logo

Hag-Seed

Margaret Atwood

Hag-Seed: William Shakespeare's The Tempest Retold

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

Happy Endings

Margaret Atwood

Happy Endings

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing

Margaret Atwood

Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing

Margaret Atwood

Plot Summary

logo

Lady Oracle

Margaret Atwood

Lady Oracle

Margaret Atwood

Plot Summary

logo

Life Before Man

Margaret Atwood

Life Before Man

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

MaddAddam

Margaret Atwood

MaddAddam

Margaret Atwood

Plot Summary

logo

Rape Fantasies

Margaret Atwood

Rape Fantasies

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

Stone Mattress

Margaret Atwood

Stone Mattress

Margaret Atwood

Plot Summary

logo

Surfacing

Margaret Atwood

Surfacing

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

The Blind Assassin

Margaret Atwood

The Blind Assassin

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

The Circle Game

Margaret Atwood

The Circle Game

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

The Edible Woman

Margaret Atwood

The Edible Woman

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

The Heart Goes Last

Margaret Atwood

The Heart Goes Last

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

The Landlady

Margaret Atwood

The Landlady

Margaret Atwood