“Lusus Naturae” by Margaret Atwood describes an unknown creature that everyone renounces at first glance. It is a girl with specific congenital syndromes that make her appearance strange and intimidating. The author uses Point of View (PV) to describe characters and set up a plot in which the main character reacts to events in the first person. It helps to feel the emotions of a vulnerable person who gradually goes insane due to social rejection and isolation.
Appearance is a subjective concept that is highly dependent on social and cultural traditions. The unnamed main character of “Lusus Naturae” suffers from social rejection since childhood due to expressive health problems and ugliness that even the family admits (Atwood 2016, 110). They even faked the girl’s death so that others would begin to perceive them as ordinary people and not associate with the monster in their house. It is essential to understand that the storytelling from the girl’s perspective allows one to simultaneously observe the events around and her individual thoughts. The decision to move and leave the heroine in the old house was met with approval, since the protagonist perceived it as an opportunity for the family to become more satisfied at her expense. Thus, PV reveals the images of the characters and the plot from the side of a disadvantaged girl who is forced to come to terms with personal grief and loneliness for others’ well-being.
“Lusus Naturae” is a complex and multifaceted story in which the relatives of the main character are her main enemies and allies at the same time. The girl’s PV determines the characteristics of the people around and their relationship to the terrible heroine, allowing one to move through the plot with the necessary dynamics. Besides, the author uses this kind of storytelling for an emotional response, namely pathos, as a connection between the reader and the main character’s image.
Reference
Atwood, Margaret. 2016. Stone Mattress. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.