the problematics of motherhood in twentieth century women's fiction

more my style" (SBD . 228) says Maureen
209
Images of light
and darkness are more explicitly juxtaposed as when Maureen
1s seen dartlng In and out of dark spaces where shafts of
bllndlng light fall
The blrd/cage lmage recurs as Maureen
1s agaln described as "the brlght-yellow - bird who was In a
cage slnglng No, no, no, no" (SBD 238)
The bird caged in
the zoo becomes a llteral manifestation of this image
zowards the end of the novel
Blrds with cl~pped wlngs and
the Images of caged birds and rats ln The Handmaid's Tale
rernforce thelr assoclatlon wlth captlvlty and enclosure
5.5.2.3. Margaret Laurence, In The Diviners, develops the
image of the swallows from a casual reference (D 4 i
to an
lmage havlng a wlder slgnlflcance In the context of the
rnother-child relazlonshlp
The nurcurlng Image of the
swallows Eeedlng thelr newly - hatched fledgl~ngs (D 531,
grows xnto the xmage of the young ones ready to leave the
nest
The fledglings were ready to fly, and took up all
the space ln the nest, so the parert swallows
slept on the mud - and - straw Fazlo these nlghts
Adrnlra~le parents Intelligent Joyous (D 2321
The next reference to swallows is when Morag notices them
fidgeting and flltterlng In the nest, wanting to fly
ID 235), and flnally, when they fly away she remarks "Thls
is how you fly, kldsl
lmmobile agaln" (D 242)
rt's easy' Try it - you'll never be
Clearly, these stages correlate to