Jordan's Reviews > Bluebeard's Egg

I have only read the short story "BlueBeard's Egg" so far, here is what I thought.

Within the pages of “BlueBeard's Egg” by Margaret Atwood we are introduced into a world of metafiction and intertexuality. Atwood spins the retelling of the fairytale of BlueBeard's Egg for the reader. Atwood does this through the narration of the man character Sally. Atwood wanders down the path of the complexities of the ordinary life, through the inner narration of the main character Sally. Atwood's main literary weapon that she uses to take the reader down this path is through the retelling of the fairytale. We are lead down the path with Sally into her inner universe that is in contrast within her own reality, which is the reality within her own mind. Sally's own fairytale is spun for the reader. Through the text we as readers must become active readers. We must try understand within the text the blurred lines of writer and reader.
In “BlueBeard's Egg” we as readers exist within the center of the multiple identities of Sally. Sally as the storyteller, the wife, the puzzle solver, and Sally as the princess.

Sally's mental universe is a creation of her own making, just like the tales she has spun. A major theme in “Bluebeard's Egg”, which correlates with the work of postmodern literature. The theme of whose reality is actual reality. The reality that we read within “Bluebeard's Egg” begins to blur. Are we reading the authors reality? Are we reading the inner reality of Sally? Or are we reading the reality of a retold fairytale? Perhaps all three questions can be answer with a yes, if so where does this leave us as readers? Atwood is very subtle within her use of breaking the fourth wall in “Bluebeard's Egg”, to address the reader, a very traditional postmodern trait. Atwood address the reader though the musing of Sally, as Sally sits down to retell a traditional fairytale. Sally is trying to figure out how to rewrite her fairytale: “What would she put in the forbidden room, in her present-day realistic version. . . She wanted to do something more clever.” (175). As readers we can see this message from Atwood, she wanted to be clever in her retelling of BlueBeard.

Atwood wants the reader to understand that they are reading fiction, and constantly reminds the reader of this as we read “Bluebeard's Egg”. Being a postmodern story, the writing of “Bluebeard's Egg”the reader receives direction from the author. Atwood uses metafiction as a theme of irony throughout “Bluebeard's Egg,” to make sure the reader is never unaware that they are reading fiction, the questions of whose reality the reader is reading constantly be questioned. Atwood plays with the reader in pushing at the readers mind, pushing at the traditional method of how the reader views a central narration in a story: “But how can there be a story from the egg's point of view, if the egg is so closed and unaware?”(176). The reader can not help but think that Atwood is poking fun at her audience and at the traditional concept of reading fiction. Atwood wants us to be active readers in our understanding of the fairytale that she has laid out before us. The concept that we are reading fiction is never forgotten, as the theme of metafiction in “Bluebeard's Egg” is ever persistent.

Another aspect that makes “Bluebeard's Egg” postmodern is the ending that Atwood has created for her reader. Perhaps it would be more accurate to state the lack of an ending in “Bluebeard's Egg”, makes the piece postmodern. We are left with a question at the end the story: “ . . . the egg is alive, and one day it will hatch. But what will come out of it?” (184). The active readers has to almost wonder if Atwood is speaking to her audience in the ending. As readers will we one day hatch from our traditional concepts of reading literature. Will we one day hatch from our inner egg?

We are lead down the path with Sally into Sally's inner universe that is in contrast within her own reality, which reality is true, Sally's own fairytale is spun for the reader. We must try understand within the text the blurred lines of writer and reader. The theme of intertexuality and metafiction are every present with “BlueBeard's Egg” and from central narration of Sally. As active readers we must escape from the traditional ideas of how as readers of literature, we must break free of our mental egg.