Summary of Margaret Atwood's Survival

 Introduction

            Margaret Atwood is a famous Canadian writer.  She has written many novels.  The prose Survival talks about her reading habits, when she was young.  It also talks about her introduction to Canadian literature.

 

Atwood’s First Books

            At her young age, Atwood started reading Canadian literature without knowing that she is reading Canadian literature.  Later she reads comics like Captain Marvel, Plastic man and Batman.  She reads comics because her parents asked her not to read them.  She also read some animal stories.

 

Reasons for her Reading

            Nobody says her that she was reading Canadian literature.  Even if someone had said her that she was reading Canadian literature, she would not have thought much about it.  She reads for entertainment.  She did not see different literature in her reading.  She read books for entertainment. 

 

Reading at a Later Age

            Her level of reading changes when she grows up.  She reads Captain Marvel as a fantasy escape.  She reads animal stories because she finds them real.  She reads a few books on recipes.  She says that only a few recipes are good when cooked and others are bad.  The animal stories were about the struggle to survive.  It is like a riddle to her.

 

Her Christmas Gift

            When she grows up someone gives her Robert Weager and Helen James anthology Canadian Short Stories.  For the first time she reads a story named Canadian literature.  The stories have animals in the form of human beings.  The stories are about human beings chased away by other human beings.  The stories are about dead bodies.  This gives a different feel to her.

 

Conclusion

            Atwood concludes the essay by saying that she has read some her literature but other do not read their own literature.  She also says that the more she reads Canadian literature she comes to know more about her country Canada.

 

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