The Edible Woman

Published in 1969, The Edible Woman was Margret Atwood’s first novel and established her reputation as a significant contemporary novelist. The Edible Woman follows recently engaged Marian McAlpin as she attempts to reconcile her need for personal autonomy with the gendered expectations inherent within the roles of a wife and mother. As Marian begins to feel a loss of identity, her body suddenly refuses certain foods, particularly meat. To reflect the inner struggle her protagonist has with alienation and autonomy, Atwood switches between first and third person points of view. Atwood’s novel discusses the implications social roles have on our physical bodies as well as the way traditional feminine values are understood in academia, society, and relationships.

All quotations in this guide are from the 1998 First Anchor edition of The Edible Woman.

Plot Summary

Having recently graduated from university, Marian McAlpin works at Seymour Surveys rewriting psychology-based survey questions into colloquial language. She lives with her roommate, psychology graduate Ainsley Tewce, and has a casual relationship with the lawyer Peter Wollander. Marian’s life at the beginning of the novel is primarily characterized by her distaste for marriage or beginning a lifelong career at Seymour Surveys.