History Literature / CatsEye1988

* CanadaEh: Toronto is ''very'' vividly depicted.

* AbusiveParents: Cordelia's father is obviously quite psychologically abusive towards Cordelia, despite the charming façade he puts on around her friends.
** Carol's parents aren't much nicer, her father even beats her with a belt, ''buckle end'' at one point, and her mother beats her with a hairbrush for leaving Elaine to die in the river.

* ChildrenAreCruel

* AttemptedSuicide: Suzie, a girl from Elaine's art college, slashes her wrists when she becomes pregnant with Mr. Hrbik's baby. It's not made clear if she survives, but Elaine does have a strange dream about her.

* TheBully: Cordelia's vicious bullying of Elaine is particularly disturbing because she keeps insisting it's to "improve" her. She also turns on Carol occasionally, and Grace later on.
** Ironically, Elaine starts to bully Cordelia when they are reunited at thirteen, but nowhere near to the same extent.

* MoralEventHorizon: In-universe for Elaine's parents, when Cordelia, Grace and Carol force Elaine to climb on the icy river and leave her to drown and freeze when the ice breaks. Despite Elaine's protests that [[BlatantLies the girls weren't with her]], Elaine's mother calls the girls' parents who each exact their own punishment. For Elaine, she decides that dying is much worse than the daily scorn that the girls can push on her.

* AdultFear: Quite a bit.
** Elaine's mother in her last years talks about how she wishes she had known how to help Elaine with her bullies, and how nasty they were.
** Stephen's [[spoiler: arrest and death respectively, separated by years apart]]. For Elaine's parents, they find it hard to comprehend how the latter happened so randomly.
** Elaine has a lot for her two girls, and watches over them to see the telltale signs of bullying.

* AuthorAvatar: A very mild example, but Margaret Atwood is also the daughter of an entomologist.

* BadDreams: Elaine constantly dreams of Cordelia after they lose touch in their adulthood.

A 1988 novel by Creator/Margaret Atwood, following the story of Elaine Risley, a painter, who returns to Toronto to find herself overwhelmed by her past. Memories of childhood - unbearable betrayals and cruelties - surface relentlessly, forcing her to confront the spectre of Cordelia, once her best friend and tormentor, who has haunted her for forty years. The novel focuses largely on the theme of identity, as well as UsefulNotes/{{Feminism}} and mentions Canada during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.

A 1988 novel by Creator/Margaret Atwood, following the story of Elaine Risley, a painter, who returns to Toronto to find herself overwhelmed by her past. Memories of childhood - unbearable betrayals and cruelties - surface relentlessly, forcing her to confront the spectre of Cordelia, once her best friend and tormentor, who has haunted her for forty years. The novel focuses largely on the theme of identity, as well as UsefulNotes/{{Feminism}} and mentions Canada during World War Two.

A 1988 novel by Margaret Atwood, following the story of Elaine Risley, a painter, who returns to Toronto to find herself overwhelmed by her past. Memories of childhood - unbearable betrayals and cruelties - surface relentlessly, forcing her to confront the spectre of Cordelia, once her best friend and tormentor, who has haunted her for forty years. The novel focuses largely on the theme of identity, as well as UsefulNotes/{{Feminism}} and mentions Canada during World War Two.

A 1988 novel by Margaret Atwood, following the story of Elaine Risley, a painter, who returns to Toronto to find herself overwhelmed by her past. Memories of childhood - unbearable betrayals and cruelties - surface relentlessly, forcing her to confront the spectre of Cordelia, once her best friend and tormentor, who has haunted her for forty years. The novel focuses largely on the theme of identity, as well as {{Feminism}} and mentions Canada during World War Two.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Josef after Suzie nearly kills herself, since she carried his child. Elaine leaves him over his lamenting.

** Carol's parents aren't much nicer, her father even beats her with a belt, ''buckle end'' at one point.
* AdultsAreUseless: Elaine's parents seem vaguely aware she's being bullied, but are clueless as to how to stop it, because she hasn't been physically hurt.

* {{Jerkass}}: Grace and to a larger extent, her mother Mrs. Smeath, who is pointlessly cruel to Elaine, ''a child'' for being a 'heathen'. Elaine gets her own back later when she paints a series of humiliating portraits of Mrs. Smeath for an art gallery opening.
* NiceGuy: Mr. Banerji, a student of Elaine's father, who is a very polite, respectful individual.

A 1988 novel by Margaret Atwood, following the story of Elaine Risley, a painter, who returns to Toronto to find herself overwhelmed by her past. Memories of childhood - unbearable betrayals and cruelties - surface relentlessly, forcing her to confront the spectre of Cordelia, once her best friend and tormentor, who has haunted her for forty years. The novel focuses largely on the theme of identity, as well as Feminism and mentions Canada during World War Two.

* Catchphrase: "So?", which both Cordelia and Elaine use.

* SiblingThemeNaming: Cordelia and her older sisters all have names from Shakespeare.

* Tomboy: Elaine, like her mother, which makes her very much ill-equipped to deal with the expected social dynamics of young girls.