Quotes From The Handmaid's Tale

One of the many prevailing themes in literature is that power is gained and can be manipulated when restraints are placed on natural desires of the individual. This passage is significant because it is an example of this theme, for it shows how power and manipulation have completely changed and restricted the people, especially women, of Gilead. Due to this, the passage reveals the shared anger that the Handmaids possess, and the cruelty that has been brought upon the society. The use of similes, diction, syntax, and illustrate the impact that this event had on Offred, for she feels such anger towards the unknown man and the crime he has supposedly committed. These literary and rhetorical devices additionally serve to make this event seem as

The Handmaid's Tale has been referred to as a ‘scathing satire' and a ‘dire warning'. The author, Margaret Atwood, is warning us not to take our rights and freedom for granted. There are many significant examples in the book which support this idea such as how Gilead took away all the rights and freedom of people, women are sometimes blamed for their own rape, and people didn't have the right to use birth control and abortion.

The Aunts even subject Offred’s body to routine exercises where they ask her to “breathe in to the count of five, hold expel” (70). Offred’s time is void, and her existence in Gilead is an empty vessel, a body to breed. She compares Gilead is a blurry white noise, where memories are the only thing that keeps Offred going.

First off, Offred lives in a dystopian society which has many rules that are not liked by most of the people. This society was formed from the past life which was more normal like the world today. The rules are so strict that people who disobey them are punished severely. “We stop, together as if on signal, and stand and look at the bodies… They have committed atrocities and must be made into examples, for the rest” (Atwood 32 & 33). This quote proves

Serena Joy is the most powerful female presence in the hierarchy of Gileadean women; she is the central character in the dystopian novel, signifying the foundation for the Gileadean regime. Atwood uses Serena Joy as a symbol for the present dystopian society, justifying why the society of Gilead arose and how its oppression had infiltrated the lives of unsuspecting people.

She was scared of the consequences of her rebellious actions and she realized she should have just accepted the new way of life. At the beginning of the book, Offred would just think about being rebellious and breaking the rules. She lived her life very by the book because she was scared of the potential consequences. Although Offred followed the rules, she still thought of breaking them.

In the dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Offred is forced into being separated from her family members when Gilead is established. Afraid of descending into insanity as a Handmaid, Offred tries to forget about her past and the family she once spent all of her time with. Offred recalls her mother as a rebellious and determined woman who did not need anybody’s help. After realizing how risky pregnancy is for her mother’s reputation, Offred could recognize her mother’s own sacrifices. Instead of being bitter at the separation from her daughter, Offred views her child as a beacon of light for the future of Gilead. Offred is able to value different forms of motherly admiration and endearment because of the suppression she

Offred's memories are a way for her to escape a society riddled with hopelessness. The authoritarian society of Gilead prevents her from

Gilead, the fictional country that The Handmaid’s Tale takes place in, is an exceedingly hypocritical society that constantly contradicts themselves. It declares women who are raped and objectified to be better off than they were in the prewar days when they were free. It is very desperate for people to reproduce and continue on the human race in Gilead, yet they kill people for simple crimes. It tightly restricts all forms of behavior by not allowing women and men alike to have any thoughts of their own.

This is the part where the author gives us an insight on the small village and how the children were on the beach

Although strong of spirit, Offred characterizes herself as being weak, and “a wimp,” as Moira also describes her. Offred at first seems a rare being in Gilead, as she has kept possession of her individual beliefs but appears on the

describes a very real reality in modern day America. In America and other parts other world,

pg 22, “She found a peasant and his wife, hard working, bent down by care and labour, distributing a scanty meal to 5 hungry babes. Among these there was one which attracted my mother far above the rest.”

He walks through the ancient temple ruins searching for the thing he needed the most: the book of knowledge kept secret by the gods of Moria to save his dying wife. He steps over the broken cobblestones, walking deeper into the never ending labyrinth.

In the story of The Handmaid’s Tale, a totalitarian and theocratic government takes control of the United States of America and everything changes. Under this new regime, women, including the main character, lose all government and societal rights. They lose all freedom and every action is restricted. Because of dangerously low reproduction rates, “handmaids” or women taken and indoctrinated into the new government’s, The Republic of Gilead, ideals, to bear children for the elites. Once a beautiful miracle of life has now become an enslavement chain. The unnamed main character bands together with other handmaids to fight their persecutors. The ending of the story is unclear, it is not specified if the main character escaped to safety. (Atwood) This complete loss of freedom affecting the handmaids gives the quotation above its’ meaning.