Cats Eye By Margaret Atwood follows the life of Elaine, a successful artist who is stuck in limbo between living in her past or moving on. The meaning of Cat's Eye is that the events and struggles in your life never go away, and play a role in present life, either helping or hindering . The meaning is enhances by randomly skipping around from past to present. "You don't look back along time like a line, but down through it, like water. Sometimes this comes to the surface, sometimes that, sometimes nothing. Nothing goes away"( Atwood,3) .
The people that had the greatest stronghold on Elaine's life, physically when she was younger, and figuratively as an adult, were Cordelia, Grace and Carol, Elaine's controlling childhood "friends". The relationship of the girls changed over time, first starting as playmates, then becoming slightly more vicious. "I can hear the hatred, but also the need. They need me for this, and I no longer need them. I am indifferent to them, there is something hard in me, crystalline, a kernel of glass"(Atwood, 208). Elaine becomes like the cats eye marble, hard, cool, and unfeeling. Elaine come on the realization that they are not her friends, but they needed her, to make themselves feel superior. As Elaine enters high school, she once again becomes connected with Cordelia, this time, Elaine is in control. Cordelia goes to a different school, but she is still the one with the need to Elaine. "One night just after exams have finished, the phone rings, it's Cordelia. I realize I've ben expecting this. "I"d like to see you" she says. I don't want to see her, but I know I will. What I hear is not like but need"(274). Elaine once again forms a dependence on Cordelia in her adult life. She often wonders if she will run into her in the city, and tried to locate her in the phone book. " If I were to meet Cordelia again, what would I tell her about myself? The truth, or whatever would make me look good? Probably the latter, I still have that need.