A short note on the Narrative Technique of the novel Surfacing by Margaret Atwood

In the novel Surfacing by Margaret Atwood, two narrative innovations are worth particular mention: Atwood’s unreliable narrator and her use of poetry in a work of prose fiction. Most of Atwood’s first-person narratives are characterised by a particular kind of unreliable narrator: one who seems to be a wonderfully reliable observer of details but who is also remarkably unreliable in her interpretation of details and events. Often called “flawed perceivers,” these unreliable narrators appear in a number of well-known works of the twentieth century that aim to give readers a glimpse into the characters’ thoughts (especially those by such Modernist writers as Ford Madox Ford, Henry James, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf). What characterises Atwood’s unreliable narrators, however, is the way they seem, at first glance, to be entirely reliable. Only after we are lured into trusting them do we start to see the signs of their duplicity. The Surfacer, who we follow into a kind of nervous breakdown, is an excellent example.

The second narrative innovation is peculiar to this novel. At a certain moment in the Surfacer’s breakdown, Atwood faces the dilemma of how to represent a woman who has abandoned language (as one of the trappings of civilisation) in a novel that is written in the language. She opts to slip from standardised prose and punctuation into lines of poetry which themselves flow back to prose. Consequently, in chapter 25, just after the Surfacer has seen a vision of her father, the novel’s lines shorten and become end-stopped, like the ragged-right-edged lines of poetry, before retiring into the long lines of prose. In a section set apart from the rest of the chapter, the Surfacer pauses to notice a fish jump. But what at first appears to be a real fish jumping, then a “wooden fish,” and later on “antlered fish thing” or “protective spirit,” perhaps even the version of her own father, before returning to the original (187). Consequently, the narrative’s movement from prose to poetry and back to prose follows the fish’s own transformation from concrete reality and back again.

Another important aspect of the narrative technique in Surfacing is its stream-of-consciousness style. We come to know about the story through the narrator’s thoughts, memories, and perceptions rather than through a straightforward chronological sequence of events. Past and present frequently merge as memories interrupt the present narrative. This technique allows readers to experience her psychological state directly and makes her search for identity more immediate and convincing. In this novel, Atwood employs a non-linear narrative structure. Instead of presenting events in a clear chronological order, the novel gradually reveals crucial details about the narrator’s past, particularly her failed relationship, abortion, and emotional trauma. These revelations emerge slowly through recollections and self-reflection, creating suspense while simultaneously illustrating the narrator’s struggle to confront painful truths. The fragmented narrative mirrors the fragmented self that the protagonist seeks to recover.

The use of symbolism further strengthens the narrative. Images of water, animals, forests, and the submerged landscape repeatedly appear throughout the novel, functioning as extensions of the narrator’s inner world. Through these symbolic elements, Atwood creates a narrative that operates on both realistic and psychological levels, making Surfacing a significant example of experimental and modernist fiction.

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