On Margaret Atwood's At the Tourist Center in Boston

Poet Margaret Atwood utilizes a variety of imagery and senses to ground herself in a distinct sense of aesthetic reality all the while suspending the reader in a separated state of disbelief. Her depiction of the American dream utilizes manufactured snapshots, tourist lures, and sales pitches. Her poem runs truly deep as the clear blue lakes of Canada, making it apparent that she yearns to return to her native land. Her poem "At the Tourist Center in Boston" is about nationalism, alienation, commercialism, and also tourism gone wrong.

In the beginning of the poem, the narrator sees a map of her country, Canada, in the tourist depot of Boston and describes it as a "white relief" (l. 2). She does so to invoke a sense of alleviation regarding her return to her homeland. She is taking an objective look at its blandness: "reduced to the size of a wall - " or how typical Americans would view the country from the tourist depot (l. 4). Although the author has distanced herself from Canada, the narrator cannot distance herself from the nation's nationalism-clearly she feels that there is something deep and disturbing going on in the U.S. Some of this emotion arises from her description of the snapshots of the provinces; "all blues however/ of an assertive purity." (ll. 9-10). Perhaps she is feeling that the paradigm of the U.S. has grown to be too oppressive in nature-seizing other nations' identities and warping them for profit. Perhaps that is why she is returning home; the American environment is overwhelming her.
Still, her yearning overwhelms her. She is somewhat befuddled by the corniness of the pictures-the focus on the lakes; the representations of Quebec and Ontario as a restaurant and empty government building; the empty trails; and the lack of fishermen. Perhaps this narrator is meant to be archetypal-neither a he or a she-simply a patriotic Canadian who realizes, at this particular moment captured in time, just how much is really going on back in Canada.

This sentiment is matched with repugnance for the United States. Written in 1968, "From a Tourist Center in Boston" is a poem born at the dawn of the commercial age in America-something that revolutionized the mercantilism that revolves around the U.S. This aesthetic quality arises in the description of Saskatchewan, Canada's primary area of banishment and desolation. Atwood writes:

look here, Saskatchewan
is a flat lake, some convenient rocks
where two children pose with a father
and the mother is cooking something
in immaculate slacks by a smokeless fire,
her teeth white as detergent. (ll. 16-22)

Not only is this an inside joke for Canadians, it is a joke to the rest of the world. Clearly this a sold-out image of any area. Not only is everything extremely clean already, the author explicates the advertisement's need for cleanliness in a commercial picture like this in her description of the mother's teeth being "as white as detergent." (l. 22). She also does an excellent job of juxtaposing the contemporary commercialism of the family with the natural plainness of the lake in the background-it is easy for a reader to picture the quintessential American family having a little too much fun on the "convenient rocks" (l. 17).

She illustrates the theme of economy when she looks at the pictures, asking "whose dream is this?" (l. 23). Everyone who has suffered through a TV ad or seen pictures like the one above knows-it's the American dream. A "manufactured/ hallucination" (ll. 24-25). She mentions that it is for "export only/" which is another commercial term signifying the widespread surrealism of America's marketable imagery (l. 26). This poem is meant to open Americans' eyes to what they are doing by accepting this lifestyle of materialism and excess; it provides a moment of realization for America as well.

In the next stanza she remembers "slush," "machines," and "garbage," all ugly sides of Canada which are misrepresented by the idyllic pictures (ll. 28-29). Here, Atwood is continuing with her brutal honesty in hopes of opening her audience's eyes to how Canada is being spoiled by commercialism and, also, tourism. Mockingly, she continues on in this manner, pointing out the absurdity of the conflict between Canada's majestic wilderness and modernity by writing about her hopes of home to see her fellow Canadians hiding from the tourists and hiding in the woods, waiting to be subdued. She is also pointing out the shamefulness of Americans for ever even considering the dream of bringing their materialism to Canada, for good or ill, let alone publishing it in a tourist guide.

I, myself, have seen pictures regarding Milwaukee that are similar to the ones illustrated in the poem. It was a picture promoting tourism too. It caused me to experience the same sentiment that "At the Tourist Center in Boston" so wonderfully describes about the misrepresentation of one's home.

Although I've grown up around advertisements and learned to accept them as a ceaseless presence in the world, I've found a new understanding of how irresponsible they can be after reading the poem; I've never enjoyed advertisements but I've never cared enough about them to look at them too deeply. From here on, however, I know there will always be an overbearing amount of absurdity in advertising's imagery and the commercialism found in the U.S. will always be to blame.

Yet Atwood's poem does more than simply reinforce my general apathy towards mainstream advertising-it reminds me that it is absurd and that its alienating effects are what makes me unique. I.e., I'm not falling for the idyll because I know better and am more mature as a person.

So the next time I see a picture (like the one attached) that misrepresents Milwaukee I find comfort in my better understanding of what others like me think when they are exposed to dubious images: 'These people aren't having fun walking! They're just average Wisconsinites like me!'