Commentary | It is Dangerous to Read Newspapers by Margaret Atwood

In “It is Dangerous to Read Newspapers”, Atwood depicts a narrator distressed by the terrors of the world around her, brought to life through the newspapers she reads. The poem claims that reading newspapers is dangerous. Atwood connects the lives of people in war-torn, devastated countries to that of the narrator, who enjoys a life of comfort away from war. Her only connection to the danger experienced by so many is in reading the news, which is her only source of information about the harsh horrors of the world.