The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

The dead bodies of those who have committed acts against the government hang on a structure called the Wall. The Wall is a method to implement fear on the citizens. Offred describes the purpose of the wall when she states, “We stop, together as of on signal and stand to loook at the bodies. It doesn’t matter if we look. Were supposed to look: this is what they are there for, hanging on the wall. Sometimes they’ll be there for days, until there’s a new batch, so as many people as possible will have a chance to see them” (Atwood 40). The wall is a symbol of sin and it creates fear and force in the Republic of Gilead. It is a warning to the citizens of the punishment for disobeying the rules. The people that hang on the Wall “have committed atrocities and must be made into examples, for the rest” (Atwood 42). Therefore, when the citizens see the punishment for violating the government’s rules, they

In the novel A Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood uses different descriptions of Offred’s room to illustrate the government’s control over her and her role in the society. She uses the room to allude to her situation almost because she is unable to explicitly state her discontent with her current conditions.

Written by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel set in the near future where the United States is overthrown and a military dictatorship forms called the Republic of Gilead. Gilead is a society that reconsolidates power and creates a new hierarchical regime that limits women entirely of their rights. The rulers of this dystopia are centrally concerned with dominating their subjects through the control of their experiences, time, memory, and history. A woman called Offred narrates the story and works as a Handmaid for reproductive purposes only. In her storytelling, Offred describes flashbacks consisting of portions of her life before the revolution. These flashbacks are the only thing that keeps her going in this

In her book, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, Margaret Atwood describes a dystopian society in which all of the progress in the feminist movement that was made during the twentieth century is reversed and the nation is reverted back to its traditional patriarchal ways. The story is told from the point of view of Offred, a woman who was separated from her husband and child and forced into the life of a handmaid. In this book, Atwood explores the oppression of women through her use of literary tools such as figurative language, symbols, and literary allusions.

In “The Handmaid’s Tale” Offred and Ofglen were walking back home and decided to take a different route. Ofglen wanted to see the church which caused them to pass the wall. The wall was an old tall wall that was made from red bricks just like the sidewalk (Atwood 31). The wall also had hooks in which the looked like “...steel question marks, upsidedown and sideways” (Atwood 32). On these hooks “... bodies [were] hanging by their necks and their hands tied in front of them” because their actions went against the beliefs of what Gilead considered to be a perfect society. “They [used the wall] to scare” those who believed that their meaning of a perfect society was not correct (Atwood 32). The wall was put there for everyone to look

They are hanging there for everybody to see because, “they have committed atrocities and must be made into examples, for the rest (Atwood 33). They are there to teach people a lesson and meant to scare them. The Wall is a symbol for the people so they see the importance of fertility and birth. Offred believes, “no woman in her right mind, these days, would

The Handmaid’s Tale: A Feminist Post-Apocalyptic Novel In Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, birthrates have fallen vastly below the replacement rate causing a threat to the human race’s existence. The reproductive apocalypse has prompted a theocracy in which women have lost all of their basic rights and civil liberties. In Gilead, the new tyrannical theocratic regime that has taken over the United States, Offred’s fertility has deemed her useful.

In Gilead Handmaids are seen as adulterous, harlots and are hated by everyone because of their role, “But the frown isn’t personal: it’s the red dress she disapproves of, and what it stands for.”(pg.19 ) they are especially hated by the wives of commanders.

•A portion of the occupations they had included: Agriculturists - the greater part of the general population were ranchers. They developed grain to make hold up under, wheat for bread, vegetables, for example, onions and cucumbers, and flax to make into cloth. They developed their products close to the banks of the Nile Waterway where the rich dark soil was useful for crops. Craftspeople - There were a wide assortment of specialists employments. They included woodworkers, weavers, gem dealers, calfskin laborers, and potters. How gifted a skilled worker was would decide his success.Soldiers - Turning into an officer was an open door for a man to ascend in the public arena. The vast majority of the warriors were footmen. There was an all around

The hurricane of 1938 is one of the biggest tragedies in history. There are many factors that made this such a big tragedy. Mainly it was because of the conditions, nobody was warned, and its impact on the United States.

Therefore 'oranges' symbolise 'hope.' Overall I have come to a conclusion, that Offred the handmaid, believe that one day she will be free from the Gileadian regime and that one day she will be rescued by her prince, who will take her away from all the trouble that she is facing. Margaret Atwood has used many ways in which the novel presents 'hope' to both Offred and the readers through, flashbacks of the past, characters that are rebelling- Serena Joy, Nick, Moira and the previous unknown handmaid, and possessions such as oranges. Offred never seems to lose 'hope' and if she does she has a flash back of her past, which causes her to yearn for the past and want things to be the way they were before the Gilead regime took over and snatched her away from her family and deprived her of the one thing that she had, which was love and affection. All Offred is left with is 'hope.' Hope for a better future, hope of a method to escape, hope to find her family and hope that one day things will be back to normal so that she can... ' Pick up from' where she left

In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Offred recounts the story of her life and that of others in Gilead, but she does not do so alone. The symbolic meanings found in the dress code of the women, the names/titles of characters, the absence of the mirror, and the smell and hunger imagery aid her in telling of the repugnant conditions in the Republic of Gilead. The symbols speak with a voice of their own and in decibels louder than Offred can ever dare to use. They convey the social structure of Gileadean society and carry the theme of the individual's loss of identity.

She says the man is “as if he’s a half dead rat dragging itself across a kitchen floor”. This portrays the way Handmaids view this man because of the rape he was convicted of. The comparison to something horrible and disgusting reflects the horridness of such a vile act. However, it has a bigger impact on the Handmaids due to their job and the pressure of having a healthy baby. Thus, this man and his supposed crime have released an opportunity for Aunts to manipulate the Handmaids into believing that they have the freedom to release their emotions towards such behavior. Diction is also used to portray the hate and anger the Handmaids express towards rape. Offred claims that “there is a bloodlust” and that she wants to “tear, gouge, rend”. These three words, used to express the anger she feels, are synonyms for each other. The repetition of these words is used to emphasize the passionate anger that all the Handmaids share after being told that he had raped a woman. It also shows how even in the society where such a violent crime like rape is disgraced, such violence still tends to exist within the people. Both the similes and diction illustrate the fact that those in charge allow the manipulated society to act violently towards actions that are intolerable, even when the society itself does not tolerate violence. Thus, giving a sense of freedom to the

Offred, within the novel, is seen as being in one of the lowest classes within the hierarchy of women only putting her above the women who are sent to the colonies. Unlike the handmaids, the Martha, who are helping ladies to the Wives, talk about Offred like she is not in their present but viewed her as “a household chore,one among many”(Atwood 48). Although the Martha are women too, they have more control than Offred. By viewing Offred as a household chore conveys that Offred is an inconvenience but still a necessary part of Gilead. Speaking about Offred like this emphasizes that she is below them in the status of society and they are not seen as equals. In addition, Offred, being a handmaid, wasn’t allow to talk to the Wives in a direct manner (Atwood 14-15). By Offred not being allowed to talk to the Wives illustrates that the Wives authority over the handmaids. Furthermore, the handmaid’s are viewed as less and “[reduced]... to the slavery status of being mere ‘breeders’” (Malak). By conveying the handmaids are slaves shows are they force without consent to have sex with men and that the handmaid focus is to breed, unlike the Martha, aunts, and Wives. Moreover, the class system within the female hierarchy of Gilead is utilized as a political tool thus adding to the assumption

The Handmaid’s Tale is a distillation of the real-world events that were happening before the book was published. In this novel, she talks about a handmaid living in the Gilead Republic, newly formed republic that is controlled by a theocratic dictatorship government. Theocratic dictatorship is a type of government in which laws are based on a particular religion. One leader, a dictator, rules the government, and there is neither power nor person above the leader. In the Gilead Republic, the system forces its citizens to obey its laws, and follow its agendas absolutely. Thus, the theocratic dictatorship changed the ordinary ways of life because it forced its people to live with in a patriarchal system