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Journey to the Interior

-Margaret Atwood

About the Author

Margaret Atwood is a Canadian writer, activist, educator, and inventor.

Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Atwood attended Victoria College at the University of Toronto as well as
Radcliffe College at Harvard University, where she earned a master's degree before pursuing a doctorate
in literary studies, although she did not complete her dissertation and left the program after two years.
After the release of her first novel, The Edible Woman, in 1969, Atwood taught at York University while
continuing to write and publish works of poetry and fiction. In 1985, she published The Handmaid's Tale,
the novel for which she is best-known today.

Atwood has won numerous awards for her work and is one of the most decorated authors of the past few
decades. In 1989, Atwood's novel Cat's Eye (1988) was a finalist for the Booker Prize. In 2000, her novel
The Blind Assassin won the Booker Prize, among a series of other awards and nominations. Her most
recent work, The Testaments (2019), is a sequel to The Handmaid's Tale and also won the 2019 Booker
Prize.

As a critic, Atwood is best known for Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature, which came
out at a time when Canadian literature was mostly absent from the Anglophone literary canon. Atwood is
credited with having drawn attention to Canadian writers, and her identity as a Canadian author has
featured heavily in the settings she uses for her realist novels. In 2004, Atwood invented the LongPen, a
device that allows for remote signing of documents with the use of an internet-connected robotic hand.

There are similarities

I notice: that the hills
which the eyes make flat as a wall, welded
together, open as I move
to let me through; become
endless as prairies; that the trees
grow spindly, have their roots
often in swamps; that this is a poor country;
that a cliff is not known
as rough except by hand, and is
therefore inaccessible. Mostly
that travel is not the easy going

Atwood’s Journey to the Interior begins with a number of similarities that she can find
between her mind and a physical landscape. She notices the hills that seem flat as a wall and
welded together. This two-dimensional image blocks her sight to look at what is behind. It
fuels her curiosity to discover what lies on the other side.
When she gets nearer to the metaphorical hills of her mind, it moves and opens a passage to
let her through. She finds herself in an endless region which can be compared to the long
fields of North American prairies (a type of grassland).
Here, Atwood is actually describing her own mind. Hence, she becomes a bit personal in her
description. According to her, the trees (a metaphor of her creativity) that grow there are
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slender as their roots are often in swamps. These swamps symbolically portray a lack of
creativity and negative emotions that led to the underdevelopment of her poetic thoughts.
She describes her mind as a poor country (it can also be a reference to her own country
Canada). When she progresses further, she comes near a rough cliff that seemed plain from a
distance. Due to this, she cannot go further. It portrays the inaccessibility of the human mind.
The final line of this section is enjambed with the following stanza.

from point to point, a dotted

line on a map, location
plotted on a square surface
but that I move surrounded by a tangle
of branches, a net of air and alternate
light and dark, at all times;
that there are no destinations
apart from this.

She describes the difficulties along the journey. The reference to a map is another extended
metaphor or a metaphysical conceit. Here, she depicts a physical map with dotted lines on it.
In the real world, a map plotted on a square surface, guides a traveler through an unknown
region. In the case of the speaker, she does not have such a map that portrays all the regions
of her mind.
Therefore, she has to be bold while traveling. She has to have faith in her instincts and move
through a tangle of branches. In this section, Atwood makes use of tactile imagery to convey
the feeling of touch. According to her, she journeys through her mind completely using her
senses. The net of air and the interplay of light and darkness help her in navigation.
At all times, she has to use the same process. Furthermore, she tells her audience that her
description of the journey mentioned in the previous lines is the only zones she explored.
Apart from that, she has not discovered any new regions. Thus she cannot tell further about it.

There are differences

of course: the lack of reliable charts;
more important, the distraction of small details:
your shoe among the brambles under the chair
where it shouldn’t be; lucent
white mushrooms and a paring knife
on the kitchen table; a sentence
crossing my path, sodden as a fallen log
I’m sure I passed yesterday

In the next stanza, Atwood talks about the differences. According to her poetic persona, the
unavailability of reliable charts and most importantly the distracting small details are the sole
differences between her mind and a real landscape.
In the physical world, there are maps of every explored region. They were created a long time
ago and were edited and rectified with time. Therefore, those charts are somehow reliable. In
the case of a mind’s map, it is next to impossible to chalk out specific routes as every person
has different mental experiences. So, each map is unique.
Suddenly, the poet digresses from the topic and gives readers a glimpse of her home. She is
sitting in a chair and her shoe is among the brambles. Interestingly, the brambles is a
symbolic reference to the attachment of the poet to reality. While she sets out for her journey,
these brambles (her family or mundane acts) hold her back.
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Furthermore, she shows her kitchen where readers can find lucent white mushrooms and a
paring knife on the table. These items remind her of her day-to-day activities. So, these
references are also connected with the idea of brambles.
When she starts to think again regarding a sentence of her new poem, it takes her again to
that imaginary world. She visualizes the sentence as a sodden log that she passed yesterday.
Here, she describes the line or associated idea as sodden. She was thinking about it
yesterday and gave it too much thought. So, now it seems like a saturated log.

(have I been
walking in circles again?)

but mostly the danger:

many have been here, but only
some have returned safely.

In the next part of Journey to the Interior, Atwood asks a rhetorical question to herself. She
asks whether she has been walking in circles again after thinking about the sentence she was
engrossed with yesterday.
In the following line, she talks about the danger of visiting the mind’s realm. Many have been
there but only, a few have managed to return safely. Here, safely is used in the sense of a
sound mental state. It is unsafe for lots of reasons.

A compass is useless; also

trying to take directions
from the movements of the sun,
which are erratic;
and words here are as pointless
as calling in a vacant wilderness.

Whatever I do I must
keep my head. I know
it is easier for me to lose my way
forever here, than in other landscapes
Firstly, no compass works there. Even one cannot find the direction from the movement of
the sun. The sun also moves erratically. None can hear a visitor as it is a <vacant wilderness=.
Here, the poet highlights how dangerous it is to be there.
According to the speaker, whatever she does there, she has to always keep her head. It is
easier for anyone to lose direction in the alleyways of mind. If one gets lost, there is no way
out of it. The chances are higher to lose oneself than the physical landscapes. In this way,
Atwood proscribes readers to be cautious while dealing with their minds. It can lead them
anywhere if they are controlled by this abstract instrument of wonder.

Journey to the Interior as a Metaphysical Poem:

The title of the poem contains a metaphysical conceit for the poet’s journey into her mind.
Margaret Atwood, one of the greatest Canadian poets, compares her mind to a real landscape.
She points out the similarities and disparities between them in order to give readers a holistic
idea of the human mind. The poet projects herself as an experienced traveler and shares her
experience with the readers. Her description is so vivid and trustworthy that readers can
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easily imagine a perilous landscape, closely resembling the intricacies of the mind. Due to
this far-fetched comparison between two distinct ideas, it is an ideal example of metaphysical
poetry. In this way, Atwood gives a form to formless, description to the indescribable.

This poem taps on the themes of the inaccessibility and mystery of the human mind and self-
discovery. Throughout the poem, Atwood details her travel to the unknown regions of her mind
by using several metaphors. She describes the mind as a hilly landscape with no access point.
The more she visits there the more she becomes entangled in the web. Finally, when she
understands the complexities of the mind, she warns readers not to follow her path. It might
cause someone to lose his or her mind. In this way, Atwood depicts how inaccessible and
mysteriously beautiful the human mind is.
Another important theme of this piece is self-discovery. Atwood, being a veteran of creative
pursuit, is well-versed in dealing with her mind. She knows the nooks and corners of her mind’s
alleyways. If anyone needs some help, she is always there to help. Her knowledge of her own
self, as well as her mind, gets reflected in this poem