Margaret Atwood was born on November 18, 1939 in Ottawa, Canada. She is known as a poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist and environmental activist. His books have received critical acclaim in the United States, Europe, and his native Canada, and he has received numerous literary awards, including the Booker Prize, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the Governor General's Award, twice. Atwood's critical popularity is matched by his popularity among readers; his books are regularly bestsellers. Some of Atwood's award-winning poems, short stories, and novels include The Circle Game (1966), The Handmaid's Tale (1985), Snowbird (1981), The Blind Assassin (2000), The Tent (2006), and more. Suffering is common for female characters in Atwood's poems, although they are never passive victims. In the clever and funny poem “Siren Song,” Margaret Atwood uses speaker, allusion, and repetition to convey the true meaning of the poem, which is that women have the ability to manipulate and flatter a man to get what they want. The speaker of the poem is one of the three Sirens. Atwood depicts the mermaid as this beautiful and irresistible woman who is not content to sing the same “song” over and over again. The mermaid creates a false vulnerability to make it seem like she is in danger. The purpose of this is to attract men and make them believe that they are different and that only they can save her. “Help me! / Only you, only you can, / are unique” (22-24). The mermaid is used as a symbol to show one of the typical stereotypes of women in today's society. The stereotype shown is that women tend to appear helpless by playing the role of the “damsel in distress”. In describing her curse, the mermaid laments her “image… in the center of the card… the speaker’s “true” feelings about her existence, which is simply an imprisonment, due to unwanted beauty. However, the speaker then states “…come closer…”, and suddenly the reader knows that his wailing was merely an extension of his deadly art. The last line: “It's a boring song but it always works,” is satirical in nature and is quite funny. It shows the speaker shrugging her shoulders at her actions, a clear comment made by Atwood about the negative opinion of women. Works Cited Atwood, Margaret. "Siren Song" Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. XJ Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 4th ed. New York: Longman, 2012. 467. Print"Margaret Atwood's Siren Song." Enotes.com. Enotes.com and Web. November 22, 2013. "Margaret Atwood: The Poetry Foundation" website. Poetryfoundation.org. The Foundation of Poetry, nd Web. 27 November. 2013.