Canadians: What do They Want?

1. Canadians: What do They Want? Margaret Atwood

2. Margaret Atwood • Born Nov. 18, 1939 • Canadian • Atwood is among the most-honored authors of fiction in recent history . • Booker Prize, Arthur C. Clarke Award, and Governor General's Award

3. Concerned with Canada’s cultural identity; Feminist concerns Literature: “a map, a geography of the mind," suggesting that a country's literature tells its citizens something about the characteristics of the country itself. Early in her career she became concerned by the tendency of Canadians to ignore their own literature and sought to explain through her work the nature of Canada. The Circle Game (1966, poetry) Survival (1972, non-fiction) The Edible Woman (1969, novel) Surfacing (1973, novel) Lady Oracle (1977, novel) Dancing Girls (1977, short) Life Before Man (1979, novel) Dancing Girls and Other Stories (1982, short stories) Bodily Harm (1982, novel) The Handmaid's Tale (1985, novel) Bluebeard's Egg (1987, short stories) Selected Poems: 1965-1975 (1987, poetry) Margaret Atwood

4. 42 books; 10 novels Postmodern, self-reflexive mode mixing poetry and fiction, mixing a lot of genres (Gothic, detective story, fairy tales, family romance, comedy, allegory, etc.) Margaret Atwood Selected Poems II: 1976-1986 (1987, poetry... US) Cat's Eye (1989, novel) Wilderness Tips (1991, short stories) The Robber Bride (1993, novel) Good Bones and Simple Murders (1994, short stories) Alias Grace (1996, novel) A Quiet Game(1997, The Blind Assassins (2000)

5. Canadian inferiority • Canadians, concerned with national identity and prone to doubting whether they can produce art comparable to that of England or the United States, have been accused in the past of thinking that anything well-written must come from somewhere else. When Margaret Atwood was a young woman in the 1950s, this sense of Canadian inferiority was very prevalent. Some suggest this may have been because they saw themselves as a perennial second best, being citizens of a former colony of Great Britain-the motherland of the English language-and overshadowed as well by the larger and more self-reliant United States. Whatever the reasons, Canadians acquired what the famous Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye called "frostbite at the roots of the imagination" and were reading only what other nations produced as opposed to developing a literature of their own.

6. Margaret Atwood defines the relationship between Canadians and Americans in her article “Canadians: What do They Want?” Although Canadians are addressed in the writing, it is mainly focused towards Americans. Atwood’s main idea is that American citizens are not only unaware of the “members of the family” to the north but of the different relations shared.

7. It tells of Americans attitude toward the Canadians as a lesser person and their need to be liked by others. • The Canadians are looked at as inferior because after WW II, American business owners went into Canada and took over most of their businesses. Some Canadians hate Americans for this because they have taken their own identity away from Canada.

8. Vocabulary • To prepare for the worst, we had better think of all the possible scenarios. (situations that could possibly happen in the future) • The mechanism of society is analogous to a living being. (similar) • Don’t let them bully you into working on holiday. (hurt sb. by using strength and power) • This is a penetrating analysis of the situation which clarifies many controversial issues. (keenly insightful) • The way he tackled the dilemma was typical of politicians, who tended to prefer expediency rather than principle. (a quick and effective way of dealing with a problem)

9. Para.1 • Why does the author suggest we start liking men from the feet? What does “feet” possibly represent? • “Feet” are of the lowest part of one’s body. Atwood by mentioning “feet” first is suggesting that woman can start loving one man from the most unimportant part of him, thus gradually accumulating her affection toward the man.

10. On the other hand, “feet”, as the part touching the ground most closely and longest, may symbolize the man’s quality of being down to the earth. Loving a man who always stays grounded and devoted can certainly bring much security to a woman. Such a suggestion of Atwood is, as a matter of fact, rather practical. • Unfortunately, “feet” may also relate to something not so good, hence disputes arise, as said in later passages of Atwood.

11. 1. In what ways was the young man displeased with Atwood’s poem “How to Like Man”? • It seems that he disliked the poem in two aspects: firstly, the poem suggests loving a man from his feet, which is only part of the whole person; secondly, the poem regards man as the only one who involved in the misdemeanors like launching a war or committing raping, which is rather unfair to men.

12. What do you make of the statement “I admitted that this was so; but could he, maybe, see that our relative positions might be a little different” (par. 1)? Is it an understatement? Why/why not? What function does this statement serve? • Yes, it is. In this sentence, not only has Atwood made a recession, but also by using understatement, she tries to satirize the young man’s meanness and narrow-mindedness.

13. In this sentence, the author first compromises by saying that “I admitted”. Then she humbly requests “him” by asking a question, in which words and expressions like “maybe”, “might be”, and “a little” give out the effect of understatement since they are dictions of very weak degree, and are not fully expressing the seriousness of the situation Atwood is actually referring to.

14. Paraphrase: Unfortunately, the question of jackboots soon arose, and things went on from there. • Men’s feet at once reminded us of jackboots and stirred up its unfortunate association with oppression and dominance, and the prose poem continued to discuss other parts of men’s body from feet upward.

15. Vocabulary • I still believe in a society run on egalitarian principles. (equal) • Many passages in Scripture alludetothis concept . (refer to sth. in an indirect way)

16. Para. 2 Vocabulary • He is unlikely to veer from his boss's strongly held views. (change or become quite different) • We need to handle the situation delicately. (carefully) • Johnson categorically denied the possibility of his involvement in the current scandal. (in a very clear and definite way)

17. How is the dislike of Americans related to the old Lifebuoy ads? • The old Lifebuoy ads say, “even your best friend won’t tell you”, so won’t the Americans tell Canadians that they don’t like the Canadians, though Canadians are supposed to be their best friends, or even family members. By quoting the ad’s lines, the author wants to say that when it involves one’s secrecy, no one would clearly speak them out.

18. Comparing America to the stinky friend and Canada a buddy having a tough time telling him he stinks works well to provide emotional response and to present a Canadian opinion on the neighboring country’s relationship.

19. 2. How is the asterisk of “Offer Good Only in the United States” (par. 3) associated with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights? • Perhaps it is excusable for some people from other countries in the world to take a difficult view that the so-called “equity of all men” stated in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, though not literally written in the document, is actually a conditional offer—it applies to US citizens only—which is similar to the case of that of the Popsicle Pete.

20. 3. Why does the author say that Canadians no longer own their souls? • Canadians used to have their souls (before WWII), but during the war, they invested too much in fighting, thus creating a capital vacuum. Then they depended too much on the US investments, and in order to exchange for US money, they have to sell themselves out at the expense of their inborn right to equality and freedom, getting nothing but troubles.

21. They’ve started to rely so heavily on American’s dominance that even if they were called upon to protest against the United States’ destroying the world by manipulating world politics, they would not very much willingly to participate in that movement. Canadians have long been accustomed to watching the American affairs in a detached way.

22. Para. 7 • Para. 7 presents a logical approach to proving a point. In this section, Atwood emphasizes a well known idea of stepping into someone else’s shoes to gain perspective. • She illustrates a situation where America becomes economically controlled by Mexico and experiences a situation similar to what Canadians face. The key part to the comparison is the end, when Atwood points out a response to a change in economic control to exemplify how Canadians feel. In the 80’s when this article was published, America continued its economic prosperity resulting from the Second World War, while Canada was still stuck in a rut. As a result, much of Canadian economy was bought by American investors. Atwood is wise to include this in her writing because it is one of the largest factors for the difficulties in relations between the US and Canada. Her logical approach is effective in educating readers by having them experience a new perspective.

23. 4. What do Canadians dislike most about Americans? • From paragraph 5, we know that “the United States is an empire and Canada is to it as Gaul to Rome”. Being the empire, the United States takes it for granted that all Canadian profits should be of theirs, and it would let the Canadians to pursue any revolution. What is worse, while curbing the Canadian’s protests, they are expecting to be liked by Canadians.

24. 5. According to the author, what do Canadians want? • In the author’s view, Canadians should start to develop on its own, and they actually have done so. They are, for instance, “attempting to regain control of its own petroleum industry” (par. 8). Americans as a whole group should not expected to be liked by Canadians, who may carefully decide which one of the American people to like. Such a process of loving should be gradually rather than abruptly.

25. 6. Why does the author say, “if you like men, you can like Americans” (par. 16)? • From paragraph 2 on, this essay draws an analogy of US-Canada relations to those of man and woman. In the last paragraph of this text, the authors echoes back to her previous depiction. Since she has suggested that woman can like a man by starting from loving his feet; Canadians, likewise, can start liking Americans step by step with careful selection and decisions.

26. 4. What is the point of the analogy between the Gaul-Rome and the Canada-US relationship? • As an important analogy in the passage, the two kinds of relationship share similarities, and show dissimilarities, too. Both Rome and US are the empires dominating its neighboring countries—Gaul and Canada. However, while Rome can expect to be loved by Gaul, the US should behave so ignorantly when confronting the Canadian’s dissatisfactions.

27. 5. How would you describe the tone set in the statement “revolutions is considered one of a very few home-grown American products that definitely are not for export” (par. 9)? Search in the text fro sentences pitched in the similar tone. • One could flatly sense the sarcasm within the statement from words like “very few”, “home-grown”, and “definitely” because they indicated that Atwood’s scorn at America’s

28. lack of history and distinctive features of its own. Also Atwood is criticizing the United States’ hegemony of exploiting but not benefiting Canada. • Other examples of this kind of sarcasm can be found in par. 2 “best friends”, par. 10 “Americans did it for them”, par. 13 “minor and relatively harmless example”, and par. 15 “just that vague, cold place”, etc.

29. 6. What images do you see in the expression “sock-under-the-mattress hoarders” (par. 10)? • This is an open question. Everybody has his/her own portrait of what a mean guy look like. But in traditional Chinese culture, a poor and thrift person can be represented by a little mouse who secretly hides petty food in its hole. Also squirrels hide pine nuts for winter. What does this expression strike in your mind?

30. E-C translation I look back over what I’ve written and I know it’s wrong, not because of what I’ve set down, but because of what I’ve omitted. What isn’t there has a presence, like the absence of light. You want the truth, of course. You want me to put two and two together. But two and two doesn’t necessarily get

31. necessarily get you the truth. Two and two equals a voice outside the window. Two and two equals the wind. The living bird is not its labeled bones. • Excerpted from Margaret Atwood’s novel The Blind Assassin

32. 回顾我的作品，我发觉自己错了，不是错在已经写出的东西，而是错在自己忽略的东西。没有的东西一样存在，正如光线的缺失(反而让人感知到光线的存在)那样。 当然，你想要知道的是真相，你想要我根据事实推导出真相，但事实未必就等于真相。事实是窗外的声响，事实是一阵清风，而活生生的小鸟可不仅只是骨架标本。 ——节选自玛格丽特·阿特伍德的小说《盲刺客》

33. Reference Key to C-E translation • 我崇拜朝气，欢喜自由，赞美胆量大的，精力强的。一个人行为或精神上有朝气，不在小利小害上打算计较，不拘泥于物质攫取与人世毁誉；他能硬起脊梁，笔直走他要走的路。他所学的或同我所学的完全是两样东西，他的政治思想或与我的极其相反，他的宗教信仰或与我的十分冲突，

34. 那不碍事，我仍然觉得这是个朋友，这是个人。我爱这种人也尊敬这种人，这种人也许野一点，粗一点，但一切伟大事业伟大作品就只这类人有份。 • 选自沈从文《篱下集》题记

35. I worship vitality and love freedom. I extol the courageous and the energetic. Any person who is vigorous in his actions and spirit—who doesn’t haggle over petty advantage or care about/stickle the material gains and public prestige—can stiffen his backbones and go straightforward his own way. No matter that what he knows is of total difference from what I know, or that his

36. political thoughts are in opposite to mine, or that his religious belief and mine are in conflict with mine, I insist reckoning him as a friend, a real person. I love this kind of person and respect him as well. He might be a little wild, or a bit crude, but only people like him stand behind great accomplishments and great literary works. • Excerpted from ShenCongwen’s “Colophon of Anthology on Living Under the Roof of Other’s Family”