Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing †Is the Film More Absurd than the Novel? :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing – Is the Film More Absurd than the Novel? Surfacing, starring Joseph Bottoms, is not only an astute interpretation of Atwood’s work, but it is also a marvellous film in itself. Yes, marvellous. Certainly, it does justice to Atwood’s portrayal of substanceless women, but if it has any clearly defined themes, they are lost on the audience. What more could an audience want but a film that is incoherent and that is filled with vivid imageries? A woman dancing half-naked with a maggot-infested heron. A deadly fight breaking out because someone pipes up, "You play as well as you shoot?" The narrator searching for rock paintings. These fragments make up the backbone of this film and yes, they are shown in the proper sequence, unlike Margaret Atwood’s novel! No more pieces of information surfacing at unpredictable points in your mind, no further need to decipher the narrator’s invented past, and best of all, no need to agonize over the narrator’s painful process of finding her authentic self. In the film, the narrator is given a name, Kate. She is now more tangible, unlike Atwood’s narrator. Everyone knows that tangibility is what makes a piece of work great. At any rate, the film does a great job of stripping everything down to their essentials. Why make you plod through Atwood’s depiction of the tensions that exist between the French and the English? Just remove all that political nonsense! Why create suspense about the truth behind the narrator’s father’s drawings? Remove this as well, for it is a waste of time! Film viewing time is better spent on David and Anna’s preoccupation with sex, after all. Now, be forewarned: Relationships in the film have taken a different route from that of Margaret Atwood’s novel. "Kate" and her boyfriend Joe exchange many a word in the film, and they know one another well. Joe is easygoing and he even romps with David. In Atwood’s Surfacing, Joe is quite a different character. He is quiet and sullen, and he does not even like having the narrator look at him! Being unmarried is looked down upon in this little town, but in the film, when Evans sees "Kate" and Joe together, disapproval is apparent, and Evans comments on how Kate is "growed (sic) up and married." Of course, it may be suspicion on Evans’ part, but one cannot be sure. The most important discovery that the narrator makes in Atwood’s Surfacing is the discovery of her authentic self – the discovery that she needs not be a victim of her false self.