Atwood's output from 1979–1987 did not abandon the themes of her earlier writing and she still focused upon survival, the role of women and Canadian identity in the novels, short stories and poetry from this second phase. But each of these issues is explored more widely and its remit expanded in order to negotiate conflicting and contrasting viewpoints. The idea of survival, which had been located firmly in the treatment of Canadian literature, was drawn further back into prehistory and pushed forwards into science fiction. Concern with understanding how women were, and are, repressed by patriarchy and male violence became more pronounced, but at the same time, the men depicted in the prose and poetry become understandable, more sympathetic characters; from this period on Atwood's male protagonists are as finely detailed and carefully presented as the women. Simultaneously, Atwood began to become interested in international politics, incorporating her acute vision of Canadian society, with its American and British biases, together with a realization of the brutalities of war, first-world economic expansionism, and the threat to the earth's ecological stability. This was the period in which Atwood became active in Amnesty International and wrote children's fiction encouraging a more responsible attitude towards nature.

The heading of this chapter, ‘it 's time to like men again’, is taken from her collection of prose poems, Murder in the Dark (1983) because it epitomizes the unstable boundaries surrounding the dangerous realities of rape and war. The poem constructs the reader as a woman who fears the actuality of assault, ‘two hold your legs, two your arms, the fifth shoves a pointed instrument into you’, while at the same time recognizing the intimate physicality of ‘the man you love and also like’ (MitD 54). As with the earlier works, there are no easy resolutions to Atwood's imploding accepted binary divides, gendered and political, but the remit is more extensive and the questions asked directed towards an international readership. Alongside this recognition of the international success of her works, and perhaps also because of that success, Atwood became intensely interested in the role of, and responsibility of, the author.