Exploring the Sense of Belonging and the Notion of Home in Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye

Human beings need to associate and mingle with their surroundings, be they the family, neighbours, colleagues, nature or a place, in order to feel attached and belonging to a particular society and its environment. This article explores the concept of a sense of belonging in Margaret Atwood’s novel Cat’s Eye (1988). The story is about the protagonist, Elaine, revisiting her childhood memories, where she learned about friendship, longing and betrayal. Although she was being bullied by her own best friends, Elaine remained with them as she feared being alienated. Despite the many years spent outside Toronto and away from her sad childhood memories, Elaine still felt that her hometown was her real home. The notions of belongingness used in this analysis are aided by Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and William Glasser’s Choice Theory. Elaine’s strong attachment to her hometown and her childhood memories is due to the human needs for love and belonging and in an attempt to evade alienation and loneliness. Parallel to what Maslow defines as a sense of belonging, humans on a very basic level long for belonging, respect and love, and Elaine’s actions are seen as a desperate attempt to get through her days in the way that Glasser outlines in Choice Theory – the need for love and belonging is closely linked to the need for survival.


INTRODUCTION
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the literary world was introduced to a new kind of critical approach. Known as 'Ecocriticism' in the USA and 'Green Studies' in the UK, this approach aspires to analyze literary and cultural texts from a fresh viewpoint -the environmentalists' viewpoint -in order to make some difference to the world outside literary academia (Kerridge p. 531). Ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment (Glottfelty, 1996). The establishment of ecocriticism was to prompt literature to take an effort to connect literary pieces to the issues of today's environmental crises (Oppermann, 1999). Although ecocriticism is defined as the study of the relationship between humans and nature or ecology and responses to global ecological issues, and highlights important environmental crises -which make it an earth-centred ecological approach -that alone cannot possibly be the sole underlying concept of ecocriticism (Oppermann, 1999). Instead, it concerns the relationship with nature (natural landscape) and  (Oppermann, 1999). To sum up, ecocriticism is where texts are analyzed to show how literature interacts with the entire ecosphere 1 (Oppermann, 1999).
Over recent decades, ecocriticism has seen rapid growth and development and as it has been becoming a distinct discipline, environmentalism has also gained in diversity and complexity. It means different things to different people. It does not only concern the subjectivity of the physical, but also the racial, cultural, social, regional, urban, rural, gender etc. (Mazumdar, 2013). In fact, ecocrticism is known for being wide and diverse, what Mazumdar calls a 'rag-bag that accommodates all the diverse, often conflicting views and positions' (2013). Ecocriticism takes literature to another level and is a critique and celebration of places and spaces. As for the meaning of the word itself, ecocriticism derives from the Greek words oikos and kritis, eco and critic, a pair meaning "house judge" or outdoor writing (Howarth, 1996). In ecocriticism, the whole earth is considered as 'oikos', or a subject related to place, house, home etc. Perhaps, ecocriticism is an approach most directly concerned with the relationships between people and places within literature (Baldwin, 2012).
In a wide range of disciplines and in studies of the psychology of place, environmental psychology seeks to answer questions such as: 'how do people interact with the nature?' and 'how do people make meaning in places?' (Baldwin, 2012). Although psychology of place is a root with many branches, place attachment and place identity are two concepts that can be seen as leading concepts relating to the notion of 'home' (Baldwin, 2012). Attachment, familiarity and identity are three major psychological processes which act as agents bonding an individual to a place (Fullilove, 1996).
In the simplest definition, place attachment is 'a sense of positively-valanced emotional connection to a familiar place' (Morgan, 2010). To explain the further, it is 'the existence of positive experiences in and of particular place during childhood that was generalized into an unconscious working model of place, which manifests subjectively as a long-term positivelyvalanced bond to that place' (Morgan, 2010). Fullilove also conceptualizes place attachment as a mutual relationship between a person and a beloved place (1996).
On the one hand, to illustrate this, in 2010 Rollero and de Piccolo conducted research on Italian undergraduates who had either relocated from other towns to study or were residents of the university city itself. In general, they managed to pinpoint a relationship of place attachment and social well-being; however, their application of a psychometric approach to study such relationships was hindered by the complexity and subjectivity of individuals' definitions of place (Rollero and de Piccolo, 2010). They came to the conclusion that 'people ascribe meaning to landscapes and places and in return become attached to the meaning' (2010).
On the other, place identity deals with the extraction of a sense of self based on the places through which one passes during one's life (Baldwin, 2012).
The opposite of place attachment is displacement. This is when people are removed or evacuated from their homes and places as a result of various disruptive events, such as war, decolonization, natural disaster or epidemic (Fullilove, 1996). Detachment or displacement from place can trigger the lack of a sense of belonging and traumatize victims. Psychological concepts such as loneliness, alienation and hopelessness can also be reflections of the lack of a sense of belonging (Hagerty, 1992).
A sense of belonging is 'the experience of personal involvement in a system or environment so that person feels themselves to be an integral part of that system or environment' (Hagerty, 1992). In what Maslow defines as a sense of belonging, above all other emotions, among their basic needs, humans long for belonging, respect and love.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The notions of belonging used in this analysis are aided by Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and William Glasser's Choice Theory.  Those needs are self-actualization, esteem, love or belonging, safety and physiological. This paper will specifically look at the third need, which is love or belonging. Putting human needs in parallel with animal instincts, humans start from the scratch with a very weak sense of beginning before gradually growing and seeking the top-most need, self-actualization (Simons, Irwin and Drinnien, 1987). For the purposes of analyzing and highlighting a sense of belonging in Cat's Eye, this paper focuses on the third level of needs in the hierarchy, which is the need for love and belonging.
Once levels one and two of needs are achieved, people will strive to fulfil the third level of needs. Maslow states that people seek love and belongingness in an effort to conquer feelings of loneliness and alienation (Simons, Irwin and Drinnien, 1987). This process includes the actions of giving and receiving love, affection and a sense of belonging (Simons, Irwin and Drinnien, 1987).
To supplement the preceding theory, this paper also utilizes Glasser's Choice Theory. In his theory, Glasser explains that humans need and seek love and belonging as important keys for survival, and that the desire for closeness and bonding lead to the 'creation of family and social structures'. Glasser explains the reason for these needs as follows: The needs for love and belongingness covers a wide range; from the intimacy between people and encompasses caring, compassion, empathy, a sense of having a place in the world, being a part of a community, feeling accepted and approved of versus rejection and disapproval, attention and affection.
(K. Justice, 2003) As Glasser explains in his Choice Theory, anything that sparks a sense of detachment or disconnection from others jeopardizes the satisfaction with the need for love and belonging. In her article, Lisbeth K. Justice illustrates that scenarios such as the physical or emotional abandonment of a child by parents or significant others, a betrayal or breach of trust by someone important to the person and physical isolation, among others, are scenarios that cause turbulence in one's search for satisfaction in the need for love and belonging (2003).
The selected theories are used to highlight the sense of belonging of the protagonist, Elaine, to places from her childhood days and her childhood circle of friends.

ANALYSIS
In the novel Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood, the protagonist, Elaine Risley, experiences a nomad life with her family during her childhood, due to war and Elaine's father's work. As an entomologist, Elaine's father has to collect new samples and specimens, and this is why they have to move around every once in a while. Through this process, Elaine develops a fondness for nature and wildernesses. After a while, the family finally settle down in Toronto. Elaine befriends Carol, Grace and Cordelia, and the four girls become close friends. However, even though they are best friends, Elaine is bullied by the other three girls. One incident causes the tables to be turned upside down.
After being abandoned by her friends and nearly freezing to death, Elaine stays away from Cordelia, Carol and Grace. However, Elaine and Cordelia reunite when they go to the same high school, before going to different colleges. When Elaine is in college, she falls in love with her art-class instructor, Josef, but she is also involved in a secret affair with her classmate, Jon. After she becomes pregnant, Elaine and Jon get married. When her marriage with Jon fails, Elaine takes her daughter and they flee to Vancouver.
Living a new life enables Elaine to focus on her art works. Later, she meets Ben and marries him. One day, a female artist invites Elaine to join a female-artists-only art exhibition. On the day of the exhibition, Elaine takes her time, strolls around the gallery and examines her own paintings. As she is scrutinizing them, she has an epiphany.
She realizes that, after all these years, she still longs for love and belonging, that she is, after all, a displaced person.

1. Elaine and home
During her childhood days, Elaine and her family move around a lot. With the pressure of war and her father's work demands, moving around seems like the only possible solution. They go to and camp in northern Canada, in an abandoned logging camp, in Vancouver, and many more places. And throughout their whole nomad-like lifestyle, Elaine is not able to make friends with anyone but her own brother, Stephen.
Given that Elaine's father is an entomologist, it is only natural for him to choose places like forests and wildernesses as their next logging destinations. Living like a nomad and like tourists, going camping, affects Elaine's life in two ways. Firstly, being exposed to and staying close to nature and wildernesses develops Elaine's fondness for nature; and secondly, having Stephen as her only friend, possible accentuates a need for female friends to surface in Elaine. Thus, I will look at how the two aforementioned issues in Elaine's life are driven by her need for love and belonging, and hence explore a sense of belonging in Cat's Eye.
Firstly, let us look at what Elaine defines as home. Although Elaine travels to many places, she is very attached to the landscapes of her childhood days. Nature, its surroundings and the smell of fresh air from her childhood days remain vivid in her mind. In the later stages of her life, the reader is aware that she is living in a city in British Columbia. However cozy the place may be, it still does not satisfy her. She does not feel a connection between her and this place. This is what Glasser explains in his Choice Theory as a disconnection from something that hinders satisfaction with the need for love and belonging (K. Justice, 2003). In Elaine's case, being away from her ideal home does not provide a sense of belonging for her towards other places she lives in, as she still holds dear the memory of home -nature -from her childhood. This is apparent in the novel.
After the family settle down in Toronto, they decide to take a vacation. They leave Toronto to go to northern Canada. Although the place is a completely new, alien and unfamiliar place, Elaine is glad the moment her eyes caress the beautiful view of a sawmill, rocks, trees and forests. Although the place is new, the familiarity she feels on seeing nature there enables her to connect quickly to it, which she describes thus, "when I see them, I remember them, I know them, I greet them as if they are home" (Atwood, 1988, p. 71).
Apart from having a strong sense of belonging to nature and wildernesses, Elaine also establishes a bond with Toronto. Toronto is the first place they actually stay and live like a normal family. There, Elaine makes her first female friend and gradually joins a circle of girl friends. The establishment of this relationship is the reason why Elaine feels very attached to Toronto. This is supported by what Glasser believes is the key to one's happiness, which is to have a successful relationship (K. Justice, 2003). Although the girls' friendship is not a happy sort of relationship, nonetheless Elaine is content with it; to have the girls around her is in itself already an achievement, to be visible in the range of intimacy between her and her friends and consequently reserve her spot in that place. This is comparable to what Glasser highlights in his Choice Theory -that humans need to feel they belong in a relationship, to experience the sense of having a place in the world and being part of the community in order to fulfil their need for love and belonging (K. Justice, 2003). Therefore, given that she somehow manages to fulfil her need for love and belonging, for the first time, in Toronto, this is the place which she truly believes warrants to be deemed home, even after so many years have passed, as a grown-up.
When she is living in British Columbia, she describes the house as being surrounded by an unrealistic landscape (Atwood, 1988, p. 15). The house and place function as a mere vacation house, a place where she finds ideal to evade and seclude herself from others on some days, whereas on other days the place is described as being "oppressive" (Atwood,

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1988, p. 15). Furthermore, in Vancouver, Elaine longs for the nature. "I close my eyes, thought about the mountains on the coast. That's home, I told myself. That's where you really live" (Atwood, 1988, p. 46). Clearly, being detached or not connected to the place hinders a sense of belonging between Elaine and other places, which results in Elaine longing for nature, where she can truly find the meaning of home. As a child she established a rapport with nature, felt close and belonged there. Despite having a nice house in the city, it is not home. After all, home is where the heart is, and for Elaine it is nature.

2. Elaine and her friends
"I want some friends, friends who will be girls. Girl friends. I know that these exist, having read about them in books, but I've never had any girl friends because I've never been in one place long enough." (Atwood, 1988, p. 30) The above excerpt is from one of Elaine's idle visits to her childhood memories. As stated previously, Elaine's only friend is her elder brother, Stephen. She is often fascinated by and in awe of her brother's interest in time, space and science. She considers her brother to be a genius and enjoys playing with him. Even so, in secret or not, she wishes to know and have a girl friend.
Earlier, I discussed how Elaine is attached to nature and her definition of home. However, apart from her need to belong to a home, Elaine aches to be in a peer group. In Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the need to belong is split into four: 1) a sense of belonging and being loved, 2) a sense of belonging, 3) a sense of acceptance, and 4) a sense of not being lonely/estranged from society (Jevanathan, 2012). In the next few paragraphs, I will describe how Elaine is desperate to make friends in an attempt to sate her need for love and belonging.
When Elaine went to Queen Mary Public School, she got the chance to become friends with some girls. One day, a girl named Carol Campbell approached and made friends with her. But Carol's approach to Elaine had, more or less, an ulterior motive -she was afraid of not having a partner at lunchtime or someone to sit with on the school bus. The girls visited each other's houses and became close. Although Elaine realised she was just a substitute best friend for Carol, she did not mind. After a while, Carol introduced Elaine to another best friend, Grace Smeath. Grace was a year older than Elaine and Carol and that naturally made her the 'leader'. They would agree with whatever Grace suggested out of fear that Grace might walk away, pretending that she had a headache. At first, Elaine felt awkward mingling with them and having to act like a girl but, as time passed, she managed to fit in.
After a few months, Elaine's family decided to leave and head north for a short while. When they came back from the mountains, Elaine saw Carol and Grace with another girl. That was when she was first introduced to Cordelia. During their first meeting, Elaine felt self-conscious and shy with Cordelia. But Cordelia reacted warmly towards Elaine, and this seemed to encourage Elaine to accept the friendship. She appreciated the bond built between them, founded by Cordelia -"She creates a circle of two, takes me in" (Atwood, 1988, p. 77).
Yet, the politics of children are as complicated as real politics. Naive, or perhaps out of pure desperation, Elaine allowed herself to be bullied by Cordelia, Grace and Carol. Elaine was often singled out and asked to reflect on what she said and why they refused to talk her, but she had absolutely no idea what she had done that seemed so wrong in the girls' eyes. To illustrate, on one of the days when the girls were hanging around in Elaine's house, she was forced to sit on the window ledge, by herself, as the girls refused to talk to her, and Cordelia reckoned that it would be best for her to trace back through all the words she had spoken, so

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Volume 38 that she would be able to appreciate what wrong she had committed. Although it was obvious that Elaine had done nothing wrong, she made the effort to find the right answer as a way to make the girls talk to her again. She comforted herself by believing that "they are my best friends" (Atwood, 1988, p. 128). In the midst of the tension between Elaine and the other three, Elaine's father came into the room, to check on them. The girls acted like nothing had happened and responded to her father in a plain, normal way. Cordelia even came close to Elaine and slung her arms around her. This gesture sparked some reassurance in Elaine, that she "will be acceptable once more" (Atwood, 1988, p. 128).
Other than singling out Elaine for no apparent reason, they would abuse her -not physically, but oppressing her mentally and verbally. They would constantly correct her posture, her walk and even her arms. However harsh and hard it was for Elaine, the events between them should remain a secret between the four girls. It was a rule and Elaine knew better than to violate it. It was like tacit knowledge, should she violate it, she would "be cast out forever" (Atwood, 1988, p. 131).
Based on the above illustrations, I would like to highlight Maslow's statement about how humans seek to overcome feelings of alienation and loneliness (Simons, Irwin and Drinnien, 1987). As a young girl who finally managed to live in a real house and make friends with some girls, she was expected to come to terms with and put up with the other girls. Elaine admits that, "They are my friends, my girl friends, my best friends. I have never had any before and I'm terrified of losing them. I want to please" (Atwood, 1988, pp. 131-132). She wants to be friends with the girls and feels it is necessary for her to become friends and maintain a relationship with them. A disconnection or breach of friendship with Cordelia, Carol and Grace would jeopardize her satisfaction and need for love and belonging. This is what Maslow describes as receiving and giving love and affection, and a sense of belonging helps to fulfil the need for love and belonging (Simons, Irwin and Drinnien, 1987). Glasser also claims that, "the desire for closeness and bonding results in the formation of family and social structures that bring new members of the species into existence and nurture and support them on an on-going basis" (K. Justice, 2003).
However, as always in life, it only takes one thing to turn the tables. Similarly, one incident changes the lives of Cordelia and Elaine. It happens on an ordinary day. As the girls are strolling along, Cordelia slips on an icy road and it irritates her when she hears Elaine laugh at her. Upset with Elaine, Cordelia throws the hat Elaine is wearing into an icy creek and dares her to go and get it back. Helplessly, Elaine does as she is told. The other three girls immediately leave the place after making sure Elaine is down in the creek. The creek water is icy cold and Elaine is soaked to the waist, she can feel the iciness in her bones. She gets out of the creek and tries to climb the hill, but pain shoots through her limbs. Elaine falls down, passes out and is nearly freezing to death when she sees the Virgin Mary in a vision, acting as her saviour, urging her to go back home. After she recovers from a fever, Elaine goes back to school. She confronts the other three girls and finally stands up for herself. Elaine no longer plays with any of the girls and after a while all of them become separated, going to different schools.
After that, Elaine hears nothing of the girls until, one day, Cordelia's mother telephones Elaine's mother to inform her that Cordelia will be going to the same high school as Elaine.
To her mother's surprise, Elaine hears the news nonchalantly and the two start to become friends again. Throughout their teenage days Elaine often hurts Cordelia's feelings with her harsh words. When they are hanging around, Elaine toys with Cordelia and scares her with various things. She finds satisfaction in doing so. "I'm surprised at how much pleasure this gives me, to know she's so uneasy, to know I have this much power over her" (Atwood, 1988, p. 256). In addition, she admits she is being hard on Cordelia. Whenever she senses that Cordelia is on the verge of an emotional breakdown, she hardens against her, justifying why she has "nothing to offer her in the way of solace" (Atwood, 1988, p. 284). They lose touch with each other somewhat after Elaine marries Jon, although it is undeniable that Elaine is often curious and wonders about Cordelia's whereabouts and well-being.
It is interesting to note that, after all the happenings, Elaine could simply terminate her relationship with Cordelia, but she does not. After all, Cordelia was mean towards her when they were children and Elaine was mean towards Cordelia, starting in their high-school days and afterwards. But still, why does Elaine insist on keeping the relationship going − although she is evasive towards Cordelia in the later stages of her life -and why are memories of places and friends from her childhood days still vividly remembered by her? To answer this question, I offer an explanation in the following section.

Elaine's self-realization
Towards the end of the novel, Elaine is busy preparing for the art exhibition with her artist friends. On the day of the exhibition, Elaine takes some time to stroll round the gallery and recalls the events in her life. Each painting tells a story of its own and Elaine 'explains' the behind-the-scenes tale of each work. Mrs. Smeath -her childhood friend Grace Smeath's mother -is the subject of quite a number of her paintings. Although she herself cannot fathom the reason why she loathes Mrs. Smeath so much, Mrs. Smeath makes constant appearances in her art.
Elaine narrates that she put a lot of effort into painting Mrs. Smeath, but the explication of Mrs. Smeath in the paintings is "not only mockery, not only desecration" and the eyes of Mrs. Smeath mirror Elaine herself, which she describes thus, "Now I can see myself, through these painted eyes of Mrs. Smeath: a grazzle-headed ragamuffin from heaven knows where… ". Previously, when scrutinizing her own paintings of Mrs. Smeath, Elaine shares her thoughts about how she used to think that Mrs. Smeath's eyes were "self-righteous eyes, piggy and smug inside their wire frame; and they are." (Atwood, 1988, p. 433). She continues by describing how Mrs. Smeath's eyes "…are also defeated eyes, uncertain and melancholy, heavy with unloved duty. The eyes of someone for whom God was a sadistic old man; the eyes of a small town threadbare decency" (Atwoo, 1988, p. 433). She concludes her monologue by admitting that she, like Mrs. Smeath in her paintings, is a displaced person, "Mrs. Smeath was a transplant to the city, from somewhere a lot smaller. A displaced person; as I was" (Atwood, 1988, p. 433). Although in the painting she portrays Mrs. Smeath as an unknown miserable entity from somewhere in a strange place, in actual fact, whether intentionally or not, Mrs. Smeath in the paintings is Elaine herself. She is displaced.
Therefore, I suggest that the reason for her struggle and search for love and belonging is because she feels miserable and helpless as a displaced person. Again, I am quoting Glasser's claim, that disengagement from others "jeopardizes the satisfaction of the need for love and belonging" (K. Justice, 2003). Looking back, Elaine has experienced the threat of disconnection from place (due to a nomad-like lifestyle) and from a relationship (her friendship with Cordelia). Also, it was important for her to work hard and maintain her connection with places and friends in order to conceal and protect herself from suffering alienation and loneliness.
On a final note, I would draw your attention to the scene where Elaine revisits the bridge near the creek, the place where she nearly froze to death when she was young. After so many years, Elaine recalls or reenacts the scene all over again, in her head. Even though it is

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Volume 38 only a mental reenactment, she still manages to summon up the emotions that swirled around in her at that time, "There is the same shame, the sick feeling in my body, the same knowledge of my own wrongness, awkwardness, weakness; the same wish to be loved; the same loneliness; the same fear" (Atwood, 1988, p. 459).

CONCLUSIONS
In the novel Cat's Eye, Elaine is portrayed as a displaced person, longing for love and fearing loneliness. Although she has left Toronto, her childhood place and friends, and is able to stay away from them, she feels a need to keep holding onto the memories. Elaine does forget many of her childhood memories, intentionally or not, but the scenes in which Cordelia, Grace and Carol were her 'best friends' reel vividly in her mind. She fears detachment from her home, be it from place or the friends.
As a person who has suffered displacement, Elaine's need for love and belonging is immense. Keeping and cherishing the ties between her and place and friends provides her with a great sense of belonging. Elaine's heart is strongly bound to her childhood memories, where she learned to love nature, to appreciate a permanent residential place, a home, to know about friendship, a place where she belongs. After all, home is where the heart is. As for Elaine, home is the places she visited in childhood -nature where she found comfort, and Toronto, the place where she learned about friendship.