Atwoods Theory of Canadian Short Stories.

             Margaret Atwood detects that in most Canadian stories there seems to be some sort of victim and their quest for survival. In the stories The Wedding Gift, The Butterfly Ward, and Skald, we find three of her four types of victims. First there are creative non-victims who are successful at not being victims, secondly, there are victims who acknowledge the fact that they are victims but who blame their situations on something they cannot control, like fate. Last of all there are those who know that they are victims and who try to better their situations whether they are victorious or not.

             In the story The Wedding Gift by Thomas Raddall, we encounter a young woman named Kezia Barnes. She is portrayed, by Atwoods theory, as a creative non-victim. She cleverly uses her situations to her advantage. A "nor'easter"(15) snow storm allows her to 'forget' about "Mr. Barclays wedding gift for Mr. Hathaway."(15) which just happens to be a tinderbox. She uses the storm as reason to bundle up with Mr. Mears so as to stay warm. Kezia never wants to marry Mr. Hathaway, so after the storm clears she proclaims to Mr. Mears that she'll "have to say [she] bundled with [Mr. Mears] in a hut in the .

             woods."(21), and of course "bundling was an invention of the devil."(22). Therefore Kezia cannot declare her bundling with Mr. Mears to Mr. Barclay or Mr. Hathaway for fear of being punished. Kezia then offers herself as wife to Mr. Mears, thus getting her out of an undesired marriage and no longer being a victim to that arrangement. She demonstrates an incredible amount of intelligence in her situation. .

             The Butterfly Ward by Margaret Gibson introduces the reader to Kira, a patient of the Neurological Ward in a Toronto hospital. She is the type of victim who blames her mental illness on something else, "the amoeba"(104). She claims that "it is nourishing itself on what they call [her] brain.