Atwood's principle technique works within the prose poem and its binary nature to convey conflicting messages about important social issues. Her powerful and demanding approach to what she sees as fundamental contemporary problems within Canadian (and indeed worldwide) culture offers much to the reader. Through the techniques of metafiction, antifiction, selfconscious narration, intertextuality, magical realism, parody, irony, and the deconstruction of cultural myths, Atwood demands both introspection and reflection from her reader.