In her novel 'Alias Grace', Margaret Atwood constructs images of quilting and patchwork to assemble protagonist Grace’s story as a historiographical metafiction. A historiographical metafiction allows for multiple versions of the truth, or history, shaped through different perspectives or through different ways of storytelling from the past. The existence of multiple stories in this sense forces one to question if the complete truth can be known in a text.
In ‘Alias Grace’, the entire structure and form of the novel becomes a patchwork of both history and fiction, so that they are intertwined yet difficult to distinguish from the other. Various versions of the events are incorporated into this structure, for example testimony, romantic fiction, false memory, lies, imaginative reconstruction and historical records. An important part of this structural patchwork is what is not said – elements of the story which are potentially left out, or patched up by layers of lies – creating infinite possibilities in these gaps.
The patchwork structure also toys with Grace’s feelings and personality. Underlying in the metaphor of the quilt, is the bed: a place for sex. It is possible that this could be Grace’s intention, to use her sexuality to her advantage in her relationship with Simon Jordan? This introduces one of the versions of events told in the novel: the representation of Grace’s story as a romantic fiction within her conversations with Simon. The possibility of this depends on Simon’s voyeuristic position in the male gaze. He views Grace as a sexual object which enables her to use her sexuality to create the idea of potential sexual or romantic relations between them. In doing this, she forms a bond with Simon and tricks him into listening and believing her version of the story that she wishes to tell him, regardless of whether or not it is the truth.
The quilt acts as a metaphor for patching together different versions of the truth to create a confusing story for the reader from which the real and complete truth cannot be distinguished. Ultimately, the reader is not supposed to know whether Grace is guilty or not, and this is a crucial part of the quilting metaphor. The patched-up blend of different versions of events rejects the possibility of a final and certain reading in Grace’s story.
Atwood’s construction of this novel is an art form itself, the same way patchwork is art, pulling all possible elements of imagination and history together to creatively convey the very point that makes Grace’s story so intriguing: no one will ever know the truth.