Advocacy for the Abused
Atwood writes often about minority groups. She lends her voice to the voiceless, not so much in a call for social justice as in an act of love to share real stories of real pain. In "Bull Song" she describes how helpless and foolish the bulls used in matador exhibitions must feel, knowing they will die without a purpose they can believe in. While the crowds love them, that doesn't matter to the bulls who face immanent death at the hand of clever beings, whom Atwood compares to gods.
Other under-represented groups whom Atwood advocates for include animals and women and prisoners. In "They eat out" she imagines how the animals on people's plates must feel. They, too, have become trapped in the slave trade of consumerism. In "Marrying the Hangman" Atwood tells the story of a real woman who saved herself and her fellow inmate by convincing him to become a hangman and marrying him. She was not given the opportunity to free herself, but she exploited the chances she did have, despite the failure of the system to support her.
Desire for Liberation
A common theme in Atwood's poetry is the pressing against captivity. Her narrators and subjects all find themselves trapped, somehow or another. For Atwood's narrative persona captivity looks like being inside her own head and the domestic sphere, as she describes in "Hesitations Outside the Door." Especially when discussing women, Atwood entertains this idea that people are always yearning for liberation. "Marrying the Hangman" ends with a somber realization that just because the woman has cleverly left prison and a death sentence behind her does not mean that she is free. She has merely changed masters.
Identification with the Other
In many of her poems, Atwood writes in the first person. When combined with her advocacy for under-represented groups, she communicates an identification with the Other. To her, the animal has a voice which deserves to be heard, even if it must be imagined. "Bull Song" and "They eat out" are both written as if the animal understands that it is to be sacrificed to humans who will not appreciate its fear and its feeling. In these texts Atwood's on narrative voice is abandoned in favor of the imaginative representation of experiences foreign to Atwood herself. She cannot understand what it feels like to be a cow, but she can imagine and place herself in that position all the same.
