CGJung's comment, "Man's unconscious mind sees correctly even when conscious reason is blind and helpless", is indicative of Margaret Atwood's book The Edible Woman. Let's see how the unconscious unconsciously influences a woman's mind. The mind and body are interconnected. They work together even though the conscious mind may not know it. Atwood's main character, Marian McAlpin, was normal. After graduating she started her simplistic job. Her relationships with people, friends and her boyfriend were purely superficial. She began to feel paralyzed by the mundanity of her already mapped out life. She dreaded the thought of being the annoying old lady in the basement. He feared living a married life with children, unhappy like Carla. He dreaded the very thought of the “pension plan” because it symbolized the future. A future she hadn't begun to question until she met Duncan. We see a change in characteristics between Duncan and Marian. His job is to chew words to make it easier for people to read and understand, then test them with his revisions. Duncan, however, treats the test as a psychological evaluation that amplifies the fact that one should think and question the simplistic. This is what Marian begins to do. He needed to escape the thoughts that resided in his unconscious. She was afraid of being blocked. We get images of it throughout the book. His thoughts of cannibalism represent his fear of consumption. Destruction. Peter makes these feelings explode inside her. His marriage proposal filled her with such irrational fear that her physical self began to react to her unconscious self. His inability to eat animals was an important symbol of his not wanting to define life. This transgressed to the point of not being able to eat vegetables, because they too seemed alive to her. It can be argued that he could only eat pasta and beans because they are starchy and hard. They fill her up but pose no threat to her because they are not necessary for life and are not realistic. He begins to act neurotic, like Duncan. Let's take a look at his unconscious with his obsession with ironing things. His unconscious mind needs to straighten out and unwind. He controls it. Feels comfortable ironing even the most wrinkled items. Another interesting character in the book is Marian's roommate, Ainsley..