How Did The Handmaid's Tale Change

Times are difficult for Offred whenever she reminisces on her loved ones that were taken away from her in her past life. The moment in the story when Offred runs into Miora, an old friend, is another case where she is intrigued to do something she should not be doing. “...She turns her back on me. Our old signal. I have five minutes to get to the women’s washroom...

Author, Margaret Atwood, uses a certain interpretation of language that goes beyond just English . The tone she sets for the novel represents a form of power. Power throughout the novel was used in context of how characters of certain roles were controlled to what they were limited to say and not say. Freedom of speech demonstrates power. Power gained over freedom of speech is greatly demonstrated in the novel, alongside with Offred’s interpretation of how she uses her ‘power’. Her guidance of ‘power’ led her to escape the unfortunate situations of her life.

Offred collaborates with the Commander and his wife, Serena Joy, in order to repopulate the earth, like every other red woman must do with their commanders and their commander’s wives. Offred also works with Nick, the household’s Guardian, firstly to produce a child for the commander and his wife. After developing a sexual relationship with Nick, he manages to work an escape for Offred from the home she was stationed in. According to the afterpiece, which states, “The item was unearthed on the site of what used to be called Bangor… [which] was a prominent way station on what our author refers to as ‘The Underground Femaleroad’ ” (301), Offred was able to escape up to Maine, at the very least, of not escaping the country to Canada. Left behind in Maine, was tapes of Offred telling her

Offred has no choice but to go along with his decision or she is afraid of what will happen if she chooses not to. The commander takes advantage of the fact that he is in charge and she has to follow his orders. He knows that Offred wants to go out and “be free” and he uses this to his advantage and makes her dress a certain way. He also manipulates her

As her current position is devastating to her, she takes refuge in her ability to remove herself from her surroundings. She tragically describes her loss of identity and her tangibility to that of pear, finding that she comes of short in the measurement of reality. Because Offred has lost her sense of autonomy and ability to influence her reality, she becomes even more accommodating and willing to conform to the structure of the Gilead society. In fact, Atwood explicitly expresses this loss of agency, acknowledging, “the expectations of others…have become [her] own” (Atwood

Neologisms and Biblical Language help to give new meaning to words that were heard before and are scattered throughout the novel, from beginning to end. With language resulting in so much of the woman’s freedom, the story quite frankly could go two ways. After Offred has her child (assuming she has one), she may find a new perspective in all of this and find her place in society, something that she has been searching for since she became a Handmaid. This would result in no social change, but would end the story as her

Through these flashbacks the reader learns of her husband Luke (another biblical name), her daughter, and their life before and right after the Sons of Jacob began taking over control. Before the extremists took over Offred explains how she was having an affair with a married man (Luke) who she later marries and has a child with. In this way even before the revolution Offred was in a way a Housemaid as she bore a daughter from a married man. She goes on to tell the story of how woman began losing their rights, women began being fired from their jobs as they were seen as unfit to keep them and losing the rights to their money that was transferred to their closest male relative. This was the revolutions way of restoring the conservative roles of woman forcing them back into the home and making them rely on men for survival. With the more control they gain the extremists go as far as banning women from reading and

Offred offers a seemingly ineffective form of resistance. That resistance is to escape within herself to still have her own thoughts and old memories. By doing this she resists Gilead and shows her individuality. This is a method many other women placed in desperate situations like these have used. By retreating inward Offred shows that she still has a choice.

Her belief gives her a false sense of security as well as her unwillingness to rebel due to fear of the Eyes. Her conversations with others are "Praise be," "Blessed be the fruit," and "May the Lord open" it is difficult for Offred or any women to really have a meaningful conversation for fear that anyone is a spy. Everything that Offred does is now part of the norm of society. She doesn't question her duties just does what is expected of her. As Offred begins a secret relationship with Nick she believes she has reclaimed a tiny piece of her past. She becomes addicted to the small amount of companionship from Nick, causing her to turn a blind eye to the injustices going on around her. She feels empowered because it was her own choice. When in reality she did what was expected of her. Using her body in order to produce a child.

When she arrived at the commander’s house, she gave the food and ingredients to Rita who is a 60 year old and a grumpy women. She’s someone who isn’t satisfied with anything. After giving the food to Rita, Offred went back to her room which was a room to many others of her

Though Offred’s mind has been affected by the indoctrination, she still expresses her individualism throughout the novel. This is seen through small acts of rebellion like when she takes the butter to use as moisturizer and by manipulating language to retain what is left of her sense of humour. It 's an event, a small defiance of rule, so small as to be undetectable, but such moments are the rewards [she] hold[s] out for [her]self, like the candy [she] hoarded, as a child, at the back of a drawer. Offred relies on these ‘rewards’ because they symbolize an opportunity for individuality, whether it is sneaking a look at one of the guardians or touching herself during the night, she attempts to clutch at what arguably makes her human. Contrastingly, when given a substantial choice by the doctor, she remains indecisive and almost apathetic which leads to the diminishment of the readers sympathy. This would suggest that it isn’t the society that is responsible for the dehumanisation of the individual, it is the individual themselves.

Throughout the novel, Offred continuously clashes with her own inner thoughts and feelings, creating a difficult internal battle. Like the lotus flower, the character, Offred remains beautiful and maintains her dignity regardless of the challenges she faces, including political ones. Firstly, it is important to understand that the Gileadean government is a very politically strong totalitarian force. In this society, there is a complete lack of freedom.

Offred used her language throughout every encounter with the commander to show that she has meaning and to emphasize that she is a person just like the

Offred is continuously showing patterns of confusing feelings she has for the commander. The commander lets her play scrabble. The commander also lets her read magazines. Offred states they had a new arrangement.

The novel The Handmaid’s tale begins with the main character Offred introducing the facilities she is living in, the role of the people, and the kind of place and caste system she is living in. Offred is crucial to the story because one she is the main character and two she gives us descriptions of what kind of roles or changes have been placed in the Gilead nation. Also another character Ofglen who is a handmaid like Offred plays a role as a friend like figure to Offred. They are assigned as partners to one another and without Ofglen, Offred would be completely lonely but she does not play that big of a role in the novel. Moira was Offred’s friend before the start of Gilead and is usually seen through Offred’s flash back moments. She plays