Art, Science, and Religion Theme Analysis

A certain tension between art and science runs throughout Cat’s Eye. In fact, Atwood’s novel can be seen as a series of experiments on the path to understanding the world—as the daughter of an entomologist, protagonist Elaine Risley starts by following the pattern set by her family, which is oriented towards atheism and science; she then tests out Christianity as she comes of age, before eventually becoming a painter. Elaine reaches for art, science, and religion as a means of parsing and controlling the often-cruel or indifferent world she encounters, yet in the end, none of these options in isolation saves Elaine from loss and disaster. Elaine ultimately chooses not to distinguish entirely between these three categories at all, and instead finds ways that they overlap through the vessel of her paintings. There is no singular way to make sense of the world, the novel thus suggests, and only through a combination of art, science, and spirituality does Elaine arrive at some form of fulfillment and self-knowledge.

As a child, science shapes Elaine’s worldview. She hides out with her brother Stephen in the science building where their father works, where they seemingly never tire of using the microscopes to examine “butterfly wings” and “cross-sections of worms.” Elaine excels at biology in high school but, in the “middle of the Botany examination,” realizes “that I’m not going to be a biologist, as I have thought. I am going to be a painter.” Though she does not explicitly reject science or her family, this decision aligns with her growing apathy towards her father—who enjoys talking about scientific catastrophes and other topics that Elaine categorizes under “this is not what people are supposed to talk about at the dinner table”—and the growing distance she feels towards her brother and his arcane knowledge of physics.

Unlike Elaine’s relationship to science, which begins as her following in her father’s and brother’s footsteps, her relationship to religion is an active rejection of her family. She starts attending church around the age of nine with the family of her friend Grace Smeath, despite her agnostic parents’ reluctance. She initially finds the ceremonies compelling—after she comes home the first day, she thinks that the stars “no longer look cold and white and remote,” but instead now “look watchful.” Religion directly replaces the coldness of science and gives her actions (like memorizing psalms) she can take to imbue her world with meaning. However, after she starts being regularly bullied she comes to find religion unfulfilling. She reports “losing confidence in God” and resenting the strict and judgmental Christianity of Mrs. Smeath. Elaine decides to abandon God because she feels abandoned. She also comes to realize she does not want to forgive her bullies, despite what religion may teach: “if it means I will have to forgive Mrs. Smeath or else go to Hell when I die, I’m ready to go.”

Having found both science and religion unable to offer fulfillment, Elaine turns to art and synthesizes the categories that have shaped her through her paintings. Some of these include the influence of her scientific background, especially those that relate to her brother. She calls one painting Unified Field Theory, referencing the theory in physics that explains how forces are transmitted through fields—but the painting itself is of a “wooden bridge,” beneath which “is the night sky, as seen by a telescope […] or so you think. But there are also stones down there … because this is the underside of the ground.” This painting connects her brother’s scientific passion with his childhood decision to bury a jar of marbles underground, which unites this grander theoretical field with the kinds of personal events that define Elaine’s life.

In other paintings, Elaine builds in religious references. The “Virgin of Lost Things,” a representation of Mary, appears to her during her childhood near-death experience in a frozen river. Although she ostensibly abandons religion because of her resentment towards God, this figure reappears in that same Unified Field Theory painting, where, “between her hands, at the level of her heart, she holds a glass object: an oversized cat’s eye marble, with a blue center.” The Virgin represents the figure that Elaine felt saved her, which suggests the ambiguity of Elaine’s feelings about religion. She may have developed agnosticism towards strict dogma, but her personal sense of faith still allows religion to have meaning—here expressed in her art.

Elaine choosing to integrate her personal experiences with science and religion into her art has the effect of blurring the lines between these categories, which many people perceive as distinct pillars of society. For Elaine, religion and science provide a backdrop for connecting with other people and trying to understand the world, but neither fully satisfies her—however, instead of rejecting them entirely she integrates these modes of understanding into her paintings. Her art allows her to create an oasis of order in her life, but ultimately does not change anything—rather than impacting the world itself, art (much like science and religion as depicted in this novel) impacts one’s understanding of the world. Therefore, combining elements of these three distinct categories allows her to at self-knowledge that she could not have found alone.

When asked “Why do you paint?” by an interviewer, Elaine replies, “Why does anyone do anything?” This question teases at the novel’s core questions—that is, what orders a life, and what should one live for? On the one hand, Elaine’s response points at a certain nihilism; on the other, it suggests an innate human drive to pursue fulfillment. In the end, while Elaine chooses to focus her life on art over science and especially religion, she acknowledges the way that all three methods evoke the questions that shape human existence—and encounter similar difficulties in answering them.