Cat’s Eye is the most devastating piece of media on bullying and its effects on a person’s life I have ever consumed. Bullying is not an end in itself; more lethal are the scars and consequences that stay with you, shaping your choices, biases and relationships your entire life.
Elaine’s bullying at the hands of Cordelia and co. in early childhood defines her relationship with and her views on both genders for all her life. She essentially turns into a misogynist. Most of her relationships with girls have been terrible while her limited interactions with boys/men adequate.
She sees girls as her enemy, always out to get her. They have an ulterior motive in everything they do; wickedness behind a mask. We see how she is proven wrong with Susie, how while saving her from a failed abortion she comes to the realization that Susie was ‘just a nice girl, playing dress-ups’; an innocent girl madly in love with the wrong guy.
This inner rejection for women leads her away from all acts and behaviors she sees as overtly feminine. She becomes somewhat of what we would today call ‘pick-me’. She stays silent when men around her openly denigrate women, mostly because she agrees with them. She does not confess that she loves Josef, as this would put her in the same bracket as Susie. She does not stop Jon from fooling around. She stays with him despite his arrogant want to be detached from worldly matters; the world is too cheesy for him. She wants to be uncomplicated, unfeeling, unlike women.
Men, she does not see and judge in the same light as women. Women’s behavior is something they have control over; if they behave badly, it is a result of their choice to do so. Whereas men do not have control over their behavior; it is natural to them and one can do nothing to change it. She demeans women by giving them power while elevating men by snatching theirs.
Here, I would like to draw parallels with my views and relationship with both genders. Mine has been the same but opposite. My interactions in life have mostly been with boys and very limited with girls; my relationship with boys being a mixed bag. I know of men’s potential for malice and cruelty. I started putting women on a pedestal, thinking them superior to men in all regards. I knew that not all women can be the picture of virtue, we are all human after all, but still broadly they could not be as bad as men. In this book, I saw this notion of mine reflected, switched. I was grateful for having read an account on feminine behavior, cruelty and misogyny. It is uncommon coming across such portrayals that let you as a man dive so deep into the female experience. I have felt this way with both The Blind Assassin and Cat’s Eye and cannot wait to read more Atwood (slowly throughout the years as I do not share the same enthusiasm for the depression I get while and after reading her).
Around the middle, we see the power dynamics turn on their head. Elaine, after ending her bullying by Cordelia by simply walking away (and forgetting all about it after a short time), becomes a bully herself with a mean mouth. Cordelia now gets the taste of her own medicine. While this switcheroo would have made one hoot with satisfaction if this was a teen comedy, we readers know all too much of how the bullying could affect her that we can only wallow in deeper sorrow. As this is Elaine’s story and not Cordelia’s, we do not see in detail and how truly the bullying affects her, but we can guess that it must have played a part in her downfall.
We also see what made Cordelia the way she became- her relationship with her family, especially her father. She simply continued the cycle. One cannot be a bully by birth; if so, one would have to be evil incarnate.
Cordelia’s suffering throughout the novel, being only in the background shows the unending and unknown nature of such cruelty and its consequences. We hurt each other in ways we cannot comprehend or are ignorant of (which goes for both Elaine and Cordelia). We will always be unaware of the suffering we have caused others.
Even though we know of all the distress Elaine has gone through, we still end up wanting her to help Cordelia when she reaches out. Elaine does not, she cannot help it. It is as if life has come full circle, Cordelia’s cruelty has shaped Elaine in such a way that she is unable to help. It is a cruel fate as well that Elaine ends up being the only one she can hope to count on.
From the beginning, we lie in wait of the confrontation between adults Elaine and Cordelia. Surely, the book was driving towards that closure. That awaited confrontation, where things might get solved or get worse, never comes. Their last interaction is anticlimactic, with Cordelia too far gone and Elaine unwilling. We do get a scene around the end where Elaine sees Cordelia as she was-just as herself- and forgives her and moves on. Her scars would never completely heal but she has come quite far.
by Accomplished_Yam_989