Women's Research in Surfacing and Song of Songs Margaret Atwood in her novel Surfacing and Toni Morrison in her novel Song of Solomon require their heroines go through a stage of self-interpretation as a prerequisite for reinventing the self. This phase of the female journey manifests a critical act typically absent in the traditional male journey, and which places Atwood and Morrison's heroines at odds with the patriarchal community. If female travel writers meet the requirements set by feminist critics like Dana Heller, then we must also provide a method of textual interpretation that can be palatable to critics of patriarchy. Otherwise we perpetuate hostility between camps that debilitates everyone. The typical task of the male hero is to return to his community and share the benefit of his journey. That advantage could be a desperately needed treasure for the economy of culture, it could be a new wisdom necessary for the proper dispensation of justice and national trust, it could be the return to fruitfulness through the defeat of a monster who imposed impotence on the earth. . Whether the advantage is economic or spiritual, according to the monomythic model, the stories credit the male's efforts and de-emphasize the heroine's roles in achieving the advantage. The heroine's typical journey, however, existed at best as a subplot of the male's endeavor. . His role in the quest "is not intended for his active heroism," as Dana Heller says, "but for his passive submission to a hero" (10). Therefore, if she had not died during the search, she would have married the hero. As his bride, she helped him dispense her favor in the typical feminine way of caregiver, lover or innocent. Often, the... center of the paper... New York: Ballantine Books, 1972.Brenner, Gerry. “Song of Songs: Rejecting the Monomyth and Rank's Feminism,” Critical Essays on Toni Morrison. Reserve Shelf, University of Montana, 1993.Fabre, Genevieve. “Genealogical Archaeology, or the Search for Legacy in the Song of Songs,” Critical Essays on Toni Morrison. Reserve Shelf, University of Montana, 1993.Heller, Dana. “The Feminization of Quest Romance.” Reserve Shelf, University of Montana, 1993.Hoy, David Cousens. The critical circle: literature, history and philosophical hermeneutics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978. Morrison, Toni. Song of Songs. New York: Penguin Books, USA, 1978. O'Shaughnessy, Kathleen. “Life, Life, Life, Life: The Choir Community in the Song of Songs,” Critical Essays on Toni Morrison. Reserve shelf, University of Montana, 1993.