The Man From Mars - Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood's The Man From Mars from her 1977 short story collection, Dancing Girls is a frequently anthologized story about a young college female, who after showing some kindness to an international exchange student from Asia, finds herself doggedly "pursued" by him. She is at times embarrassed, frightened, and empowered by his attention. The story is set on a Canadian college campus and raises issues of national identity, class identity, and gender identity.

Some questions that I thought would lead to interesting discussion are:

1. Consider the different aspects of Christine’s identity in the story, “The Man From Mars,” – how do they affect the way she acts/thinks? Her national identity? Her gender identity? Her class identity?

2. Christine’s family calls people from other countries, “a person from another culture.” Do you think this phrase is applied also to Canadian minorities? Did your family have a particular phrase for “the other?” How does  confusion over whether her “friend’s” behavior is normal for his culture affect Christine’s response? How have cultural misunderstandings affect student’s you work with (i.e., roommate conflict)? How have cultural misunderstandings affected your response to individuals from other cultures/countries?

3. Christine wants to be a good ambassador and “ do her duty” by being polite when she first meets him, having him over for tea – are there examples when you made yourself uncomfortable because you wanted to represent your national/class/racial/gender/sexual identity in a positive light? Do you have examples of students you’ve worked with doing so?

4. Christine doesn’t consider her family wealthy. Her father says “nobody made any money with the Government.” When did you become conscious of your class identity? How do you think awareness (or lack of) affects the students we work with? 

5. In describing her role as a woman, Christine “wasn’t a cock-teaser, a cold fish, an easy lay or a snarky bitch; she was an honorary person. She had grown to share [her male friends] contempt for most women.” This story was set presumably in the 60s (before the outbreak of the Vietnam War) – are these categories for women still present? How do they affect our students? Who defines them?

6. Being chased made Christine feel special. How valid is the idea that you should be attractive to someone else to be special? How does this affect the students we work with?

7. In the story, Christine’s “friend” faces explicit limitations in the form of language difficulties and visa permit regulations. Presumably, he also struggles with financial issues and finding friends also from Vietnam. What struggles do international students face? How can we help them?