“Things Have a Design to Them”
It can be said that the quilt patterns within Alias Grace represent the multiple intersections and contradictions of “unity and diversity, for freedom and security, for process and closure” (Murray 68). Quilting also describes the intersections and contradictions of powerlessness and authority that Grace has over her own story. Grace herself is like a quilt, there are fragmented elements of her story that must be sewn together. Readers are invited into these artistic processes and patch together the stories that are presented and determine who has narrative authority.
The final chapter, titled “The Tree of Paradise” is profound in order to understand Grace’s character development. Here, she has reproduced a similar scenario as the opening scene of the novel in the Kinnear’s house, residing on a farm, but this time she is in control:
“On my Tree of Paradise, I intend to put a border of snakes entwined; they will look like vines or just a cable pattern to others, as I will make the eyes very small, but they will be snakes to me; without a snake or two, the main part of the story would be missing…” (Atwood 557).
Drawing on the insight of Szalay, the snakes function to “frame her story of female community” by including “the characters whose treachery came to destroy her and her friends’ lives” (178). These male characters and the pain they inflicted allude to: the man who performed Mary Whitney’s illegal abortion, Mr. Kinnear’s impregnation of Nancy, and Jamie Walsh whose witness statement determined Grace’s fate. Grace views quilting as an act of resistance against the exploitation of women’s bodies, so without mentioning the men of her story, her story would be incomplete.
Tree of Paradise Quilt Block
“The Tree itself is of triangles, in two colour, dark for the leaves and a lighter colour for the fruits; I am using purple for the leaves and red for the fruits…” (Atwood 557).
Grace draws attention to the contrast between light and dark colours on her quilt. This duality, although physically portrayed through fruit, represents the duality within her own story. Grace provokes readers to approach stories like hers in “two different ways, by looking at the dark pieces, or else the light” (Atwood 188). Szalay embellishes this argument by suggesting to readers that since “the quilt is made up of the very same pieces and can be read as altogether different (and often contradictory) stories, that is, inherently polyphonic” (179).
“But three of the triangles in my Tree will be different. One will be white, from the petticoat I still have that was Mary Whitney’s; one will be faded yellowish, from the prison nightdress I begged as a keepsake when I left there. And the third will be a pale cotton, a pink and white floral, cut from the dress of Nancy’s that she had on the first day I was at Mr. Kinnear’s, and that I wore on the ferry to Lewiston, when I was running away.” (Atwood 557-58).
Grace continues to tell the stories of significant women in her life, Mary and Nancy, by sewing pieces of their clothing into an arrangement. Despite the varying opinions on these women, readers are directed to how “the fates of these women are interdependent to such an extent that they need to be stitched together in a circular pattern, marked off from the rest of the quilt” (Szalay 178). Overall, quilting remains to be a salient metaphor throughout Alias Grace. In her craftsmanship process, Grace demonstrates her control over the contradictions and intersections presented within the novel– most notably, through her ‘Tree of Paradise Quilt.’
Works Cited
Murray, Jennifer. “Historical Figures and Paradoxical Patterns: The Quilting Metaphor in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace.” Studies in Canadian Literature, vol. 26, no. 1, 2001, pp. 65-83. ProQuest,https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/historical-figures-paradoxical-patterns-quilting/docview/214495372/se-2
Szalay, Edina. “Quilting Her Story: The Resisting Female Subject in Margaret Atwood’s ‘Alias Grace.’” Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS), vol. 9, no. 1, 2003, pp. 173–80. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41274220
