The Construction of Masculinity in Margaret Atwood's, The Edible Woman Book Review by Top Papers

The following paper will look at the construction of masculinity in Margaret Atwood's, The Edible Woman. In so doing, the paper will look at the topic of marriage and how this defines the construction of masculinity in the text - most notably by showing how men with romantic depictions of masculinity tend to recoil at the prospect of marriage. Additionally, the paper will compare the treatment of the female form in the novel to the treatment of the male form - paying particular attention to the latter. In the process of so doing, the "physicality" of the human body will not only be looked at through a comparative prism but also looked at in a manner which reveals the male body as something that stands for adventure, action, freedom (of the sexual kind, certainly) and functionality. When all is said and done, masculinity in Atwood's, The Edible Woman, is held up as fleeing from the constraints of domesticity and women - unless, perhaps, those things can be controlled by the man. Put another way, the masculine retreats when it perceives its freedom of movement to be under assault.