The Significance of Quilts or Quilting in Alias Grace - Essay Example

The significance of quilts or quilting in Alias Grace Novel review In the novel Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood delves into the story of the main character, Grace Marks. She does this by telling the story of different characters who come into contact with Grace in her entire life. Therefore, by mixing different points of view of Grace Marks and Simon Jordan, a multifaceted novel that discovers a particular historical moment in a very unique manner is resultant. Through these characters, the author captures the moment of that time and discloses to the reader how women were treated by their male counterparts of those days. However, the men are also explored too and their picture of the time brought to the mind of the reader in an indulging manner. Therefore, both the genders are explored by scrutinizing their emotions as well as their intelligence to bring out a compelling story of Grace Marks. However, the story is gender biased with men seeming to have a forceful amount of force as compared to their counterpart women. This character results into men being described as insensitive and selfish users. This is represented by men like Simon Jordan, Mr. Marks, Thomas Kinnear and James McDermott who took advantage of women. In addition, the author looks into the relationship each of these men had with Alias Grace that comes to the revelations that women were viewed as sexual objects, and nothing more other than that awkward position. This paper delves into this issue of women depiction by focusing on the male characters involved to bring out the role quilt has played in the novel in bringing the message home. Significance of quilt’s Quilting is a method of sewing that is done to join either two or three layers of material together that is aimed at making a thicker padded material. This quilt has different patterns that are employed at different stages to come up with a quality product. The lead character Grace Marks is introduced to quilting technique at a tender age where she grows to become fond of the Tree of Paradise pattern of quilting. Having an identity means that one has a distinctive personality from another. However, it is noteworthy that a person’s true identity is normally hidden, therefore, letting others believe what he is not. This fake existence is controlled most of the times, but at times it is given by others. This quilting technique somehow gives Grace Marks an identity, for she is shown to be making a quilt at the start of the story that goes for almost half way the story line. This is augmented by the fact that Simon Jordan, a psychologist by profession encourages her to do this just as a technique where he uses it to helping identifying herself. As the story begins, the reader is initiated to Grace Marks after serving an eight year jail term in prison. Despite what she has done, Grace turns out to be a likeable character. This may be because of her life in prison as a woman at a tender age which was very tormenting. Another reason may be that the involvement of Grace Marks in the murder of his employer is unclear, and this makes the central driver of the plot of the novel. “No longer sad and despairing, [she] lighted up with the fire of insanity, and glowing with a hideous and fiend like merriment…It appears that even the wildest bursts of her terrible malady, she is continually haunted by a memory of the past”. (Atwood, 46) Therefore, this uncertainty gives birth to the sympathy for Grace. Therefore, it is important to note that it is this virtual non existence of guilt that keeps the story going, hence playing a noteworthy role in bringing out the character of females and males as it was in the nineteenth century. Quilting, quilt as a pattern to be interpreted has been used by the author in bringing out women and their relationships in reference to the quilt as an object. Therefore, this is metaphor that has been extensively used by the author to come out with many meanings (Wilson, 132). hurdled up in the consequences of this writing in regard to patchwork, Grace’s identity, as a woman damned for murder, is attributed to her pleasure, and feeling towards mastering this art of stitching. It is noteworthy that this becomes clearer with this sense of pleasure as it spills from the artistic stitching into more personal concerns (Wilson, 123). Therefore, Atwood uses the motif of quilt in this narrative not only for symbolic purposes but also to parallel the lead character’s revelation of her forgotten past and of course Atwood’s structure of the novel. Therefore, most seem to be confused about the truth with different people having mixed opinions towards Grace is partly, and this is evidenced by different opinions of her from different characters such as the governor’s daughter when she says, “Do you think that Grace has one?…A refined nature… I am sure she did not do the murders; although she is sorry for not having told anyone about them, afterwards. James McDermott must have been lying about her” (Atwood 101-102). Therefore, as Simon Jordan who is a psychologist tries to uncover the truth concerning the murder by using different patterns, the narrator takes up this and uses them as symbols. One of the patterns Grace chooses to be her favorite is the” tree of paradise”. Grace uses this pattern to symbolize her ideas and objectives because she believes that as a prisoner she is only to follow orders given to her. However, her perception of the tree of paradise gradually changes as the story proceeds, where at the beginning, Grace, is seen to desire “the vine boarder”. This symbolizes that same vine that grew on the grave of Thomas Kinnear, a person she loved secretly. However, at the end, Grace is seen to occupy the tree of paradise with snakes to correspond to the vines that stand for the serpent in the Garden of Eden. This stood for her love for Kinnear that horded her into performing the murders. However, it dawns to Grace that the Garden of Eden only had one tree that contained both the Fruit of life and of good as well as evil. It is this outline of the quilt that has inspired many of the symbols the author implemented throughout the novel (Wilson, 121). Moreover, the author has used the quilt making of Grace to equate to her remembrance of the murders she committed as well her journey towards being set free. Therefore, as the sessions of Simon Jordan ensue, Grace gets to uncover her lost memories as she sews quilt. This is because at the start of the story, the quilt is incomplete, thus, it needs to be completed before being taken to the daughter of the superintendent. This turned out to be a positive awakening to her, for at the end of the novel; Grace gets to sew her own quilt. This, as the unfolding of the plot continues, Grace receives a revelation of her past that is equated to the progress of the quilt of governors daughter that was being made by Grace. This is, in addition to, the freedom that is equated to Grace’s talent of making her own quilt. Significantly, quilt motif is used by the author to parallel the structure of the novel. This is because as grace discovers her past, it is important that she pieces the small details and facts together to be capable of making meaning of his past. This piecing together is much like the design of the quilt that she used to sew for the governors daughter and hers too, and all these are aimed towards making something of it all. Thus, why the titles of the different chapters in the novel have derived their names from the real quilt patterns that are followed in the procedural knitting of quilt. These include chapter titles like “Jagged Edge”, “Secret Drawer” and “Pandora’s Box” that have been named after the quilt motif (Wilson, 133). Therefore, the names of the chapters do describe the content of the pattern and also contributes to the motif of the quilt on a deeper level. This use of the motif of the quilt by the author not only gives the structure and the titles of the whole novel but also to effectively equate to the actual quilt of Grace in the murders she committed. Conclusion Therefore, as the seamstress is capable of using thread to produce beautiful and intricate quilt, the author has used the same in symbolizing the feelings of grace. This is in addition, to the equation of grace’s recollection in the storyline which is comprised of the beautiful and elaborate novel. Therefore, the significance of quilt in the novel is outstanding, for it introduces three different things to the readers. The first one is that of symbolism that enables Grace to make meaning of her life since most things have happened to her since she was young. This is evidenced by her jail sentence of eight years behind bars that she started at an early age of sixteen years, a period that she could have used to make meaning of what constitutes right and wrong. The prison was hell to her as depicted in her look in the mirror that reflected a woman with light purple skin, like a discolored mark and with teeth that are greenish (Atwood 23). Therefore, it turns out that her favorite quilt pattern is Tree of Paradise, and it eventually guides her into her perception of good and evil. The other significances are that the quilt has been used to help grace remember her past, for through knitting; she was capable of recollecting the past. This knitting of the governor’s daughter quilt led to the final knitting of her own quilt. The quilt’s other significance comes in when the author decides not only to use the quilt’s motif in coming out with the story line , but also the titles of the chapters to equate that of a quilt. This was employed in a sophisticated manner to bring out the quilt of the main character, even though; the end of the story does not lead the reader into knowing whether the character was found guilty or innocent. This means that the quilt has a great significance in the story, for it involves the lead character a lot in bringing out the storyline, hence the message. Works cited Atwood, Margaret. Alias Grace. USA: Seal Books, 2000.Print. Wilson, Sharon Rose. "Quilting as Narrative Art: Metafictional Construction in Alias Grace." Margaret Atwoods Textual Assassinations: Recent Poetry and Fiction. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2003. 121-34. Print. Read More