After reading page 3 of the comments:
Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
I recently finished a very good novel myself where the protagonist, having come to the end of her resources and committed a murder, waited for the authorities to come and take care of her.
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Title please?
Regarding the motifs, I rarely trouble myself about such things, unless a ham-handed author is clearly trying to Make A Point. Here, they seem organic to the story. I didn't realize until I saw a text version of the novel that the chapter titles are all names of quilt patterns--obviously that's meaningful, but is it any more than simply an indication that Atwood is giving us pieces we need to fit together? And of course sewing and quilting are traditionally the province of women.
Trees and water--they simply seem part of the atmosphere, and the water especially had a clear factual basis, what with the ocean crossing and the burial at sea (I think that was factual, can't remember) and the journey after the murders. So I tend to think that Atwood just expanded on what she had to work with in the historical record.