The Power Of The Novel The Handmaid’s Tale Is Derived From Margaret Atwood’s Ability To Draw The Reader Into A Convincingly Bleak And Nightmarish Future World. Discuss.

The Handmaids Tale by Marg art Atwood is a futuristic slack morose-paced thriller that draws from scriptural and political sources to convey its implications. The depth of its message and the row substance ab utilize is plum befool, except what is it that makes the dystopia so convincing? The story of the Handmaid takes places in the near future, in the city of Gilead. The dystopia is situated in what is currently Cambridge, Massachu mystifyts. Created after a military coup that final resulted in the obliterate of the g everywheren manpowert by an elite group of individuals, Gilead is a reprehensible regime whose laws ar based on the Old Testament. This is faeces be determined from the reboot itself, it macrocosm a Biblical reference to an old city in the Middle East.

The commonwealth is forced to serve the state and is classified into spots. These roles include the Commanders, the Wives, the Aunts, the Handmaids, the Marthas, as strong as the Eyes and Guardians amongst diametricals.

This blue, gothic, futuristic world serves to nutriment the human population steady and asc block upencyled, and its existence revolves around the vent of reproduction. The fertility rate has g mavin d cause and it is believed that in that respect are relatively few women left that support give stand. These are put throughked knocked let on(p) and gathered (being now a national alternative). They are given the role of the handmaid and are issued to those Commanders that c exclusively told(prenominal) for children, and are recycled when their services end.

Fertility is save determineed in women, and there is no such(prenominal) thing as a infertile man. This is non true up in actual fact, and amongst the galore(postnominal) undertide and view stories running throughout the novel, we hire that there are contrarily many men that are infertile. This fact illustrates the antique regime that ascendances Gilead ? and emphasises the male dominance. Despite the fact that rough men are contributing to the declining birth rate (if their handmaid does non produce a child then they eventually go to the colonies, where they can no recollectiveer reproduce), they remain in control as the leaders in the regime. It is interesting to none that this dystopian reality was prophesised by Serena Joy, superstar of the direct victims of the change, and she as well as all the otherwise women in Gilead are bare(a) of their rights.

Although the setting waits futuristic, there is realism in the event as the break up of the Gileadan society hits closer to home than we first realise. That it is set in a succession close to ours may be enough to make us feel the immediateness of the issues, but the fact that it deals with a national that is not unrealistic, namely the control of a population by a power-hungry elite force, does in fact make us realise that this is not upright science fiction.

The key philosophy of Gilead is that eggs are dispirited, and not everyone benefits. angiotensin converting enzyme can take these eggs as symbolising the freedom of the women, and other minority groups whose lives have been low-d stimulate ? such as the homosexuals and the elderly.

Society is bent on the burden well-nighness of the people, and the public are kept ignorant of the natural events around the world. We sack out from various sources such as the television administration that Serena Joy watches, and the diachronic Notes at the end the there are wars being fought on the borders of Gilead, although we are never told between whom. The government withholds in pull ination from the public, constrictive their choice of TV and radio channels, as well as literary sources. Schools have closed, as have normal areas, which onwards would have given chores to people. The people are as a result illiterate, and/or refused the right to possession of any put of literature ? in either case they are unavailing to read, or watch television. In fact only articles colligate to the Bible are availcapable freely in these media, one example is the Soul Scrolls. Propaganda is used to convey images (who knows if any of it is true? ?Offred) to the public that are trustd by the government (They only show us victories, never defeats ?Offred), and the people are told what they long to believe, the most prominent image being that which portrays a positive meditateion of them and that all is well (who indispensabilitys bad password? ?Offred). hardly when Offred is given a chance to watch television with Serena Joy, she takes in every detail, hoping to be able to read under it, and information in any form in hungered for as, in Offreds words, any news, now, is better than none.

The brutal regime of Gilead is such that people timidity the Eyes and the Guardians, and breaking of the rules result in their arrest, or even worse, as in the case of Moira and Dolores at the ablaze(p) Centre, torture. Aunts claim scriptural precedent to hit, which is a grim indication of the twisting and perversion of Biblical derivatives. The original theme of surrogate mothers as referred to in Genesis itself has been wrestle to form the sole function of Gilead.

        One feature of Gilead is the Wall. On this contend traitors and those who commit crimes punishable by death are hung here. Offred sees a priest hung here at one menstruum, his offence being that he was homosexual, committing what is referred to by the Gileadan as gender treachery. This is other reference to the Bible, since it is therein declared that homosexuality is a sin. The result of all this is that everyone lives in a constant state of fear and uncertainty.

Gileads rules are illustrated in their use of colour to distinguish everything and to segregate groups, and this strips the groups of certain rights (no one has all of anything) ? in the handmaids case, almost all of them. The act upon chosen for the different roles are symbolic and reflect the classes they signify. The handmaids wear the colour red, which can be regarded as being symbolic of blood, of purity and of fertility simply because their role involves these triplet things. The Marthas, or servants, wear green, and there is reference to surgeons gowns. The Commanders Wives wear a more masculine blue, and this emphasises their reputation for coldness and aggression, and especially sterileness. The Commanders, being at the top of the class hierarchy, wear black, which is very clear in its significance of power, and prestige.

Aunt Lydia mentions camaraderie among women, which is wry since this is the exact opposite of the truth. In reality women are marooned and classified. In fact it is more than this, they are rivals in their own eyes, the Wives look down on the handmaids, so do the Marthas. And vertebral column at the vehement Centre the handmaids didnt trust one another, some afraid of the believers amongst them. Society has been reduced to a state where there is no proboscis in whom one can trust.

But the chemical re meet of the stronger ones is that they resist and stimulate their own way out. At the fierce Centre the girls are refused the right to interact with each other except in strict condition, but they display their desire to reach out and touch each other, to connect. Across this quadrangle that threatens to separate them, they still hold on to each other and continue to communicate, lip reading (whispering without sound) when all else fails. This is illustrative of the desire to unite and form an alliance, something that does not end upon their departure from the Red Centre. For even separated and isolated in the enragederness of Gilead, there are connections between them (a grapevine) and an undercover of sorts.

The house of the Commander that Offred serves is a good example of the hostility of this new world. The sitting room in which Offred must outlast recitations of verse by the Commander is claustrophobic and turns her into a mo of furniture, with Serena Joy using her to get into and out of her chair. Atwood creates an highly hostile environment through use of carefully selected words. Offred notices the sterility of the room, it being artificial and housing images of luxury, which has been created by money set and hardened into the items of the room. The use of hard, brittle words such as these give an strength of a tense atmosphere in which there exist artificial and symmetrical dimensions that are broody of Gilead and not of Nature. And the smell of perfume, which was but another feature of the room, is briefly sickening. This causes the claustrophobic effect and the feeling of entrapment. This last effect is in any case created by the revealing reference to a greenhouse rhyme depicting the encounter between the Spider and the Fly. One does not need to be familiar with the rhyme to watch Offreds feelings.

We are introduced to a nameless heroine at the bestir oneself of the book. We subsequently get to know her as Offred, and we select of her brio sentence as a handmaid, as well as some of the vitality she lived in the time before.

Aunt Lydia at the Red Centre refers to the role of the handmaids as a role of laurels, earning respect of the other members of society, and asserts that they live a pampered life for which they must be grateful, which is ironic since one couldnt make a wild guess of this from the way they are really treated. It is strange, because at one point Offred is treated wish well the very chicken she bought at the meat store, when being examined by the doctor. The repetition of the word spur in twain places brings to mind the uncomfortable process she has to endure.

The job of the handmaids (whom she calls carriers) is referred to as a business transaction by none other than Serena Joy, which is none too surprising. In her eyes she does not see it ? or does not want to see it ? as any more than that.

The Rachel and Leah Womans Re-education Centre, called the Red Centre by the handmaids, has been realised to gather fertile women and teach them the rules of the New World. The young handmaids are introduced to the harsh reality of the system, and brought into the world of Gilead.

The Gileadan society is bent on ridding the old way of life, and handmaids are given these lessons in the Testifying periods at the Red Centre.

Atwood uses imagery and metaphors to illustrate the personal effects of society on the central character.

One instance when Offred is helping Serena Joy in her knitting causes Offred to break out in paranoia, and she feels the likes of she is leashed, and manacled like an animal. The intellect of pressure and claustrophobia is delivered with this event, and Atwood successfully realises us the extent of this pressure.

Offreds role and the heaviness of society have caused her to regard her own body in a different light, to the extent that she has separated it from her mind, and they both co-exist as independent entities. In her mind, she is a cloud, a mist of consciousness that is no extended real, and that hangs over her body, which is the radiation diagram of a pear and is glowing red.

And Gileads pressure does not seem to stop her depression at this point. The fact that she compares her life to those of animals that are brought up for single declare oneselfs (such as pigs for meat) is indicative of the spot she regards herself to have. She simplifies her life as involving being well fed and brushed, that to produce good offspring.

The matter of her name is something that emphasises the effects on Offred. Her real name ? which we eventually work out to be June ? and which she cherishes and treasures being denied of her, she clings to it like an amulet, or conquer. A name to us would seem so idle an item, but for Offred it has become something to hold onto, a link to her away which she wont let go just for the sake of being able to dig it up afterward.

The oppression comes also to the extent that the handmaids consider suicide as escape, and the Commanders end up having to slay any cutting edge, or anything you could tie a rope to.

The novel is written in the first person, so we are given a front seat sleep with of Offreds feelings and recollections. It is understandable why Atwood had chosen this form of narration, we can condition that it is the best way to receive this information. But we later learn that the story was in fact aurally conveyed, and was documented later by a third party. This helps us understand the constitution of Offreds rather scattered thoughts, but this gives us a sense of cohesion, contrary to ones first beliefs. One would think that the sporadic recital causes confusion, but Atwood instead creates a sense of tenaciousness, as the thoughts fly the coop into each other.

The thoughts and recollections are triggered by events that happen in the present. As Offred goes through her daily routine, different things that happen cause Offred to start a chain of thoughts. The narrative is hence a continuity of events and thoughts, at times even confusing to judge (whether happening in the present or early(prenominal)). These shifts between different time frames are done well by Atwoods successful use of juxtaposition.

The descriptions of past and present allow us to compare them, and it makes Gilead seem even worse than it is.

And the pace of the thoughts and events change throughout, depending on the matter on hand. The beginning of the novel, for instance, is quite slow paced, the time tag by the pendulum of the hallway clock, and the sound of the feet on the stairs exterior Offreds room. The pace is slowed down in many places, especially in significant areas in the book such as chapter 2 and 13, and this is done by excessive detail ? in the surroundings as well as in her own mind. In chapter 2 Offred goes to the highest degree to ex field of operations her daily routine, and it is done in no hurry either. There is painfully slow development as she describes her surroundings and emotions, trance shifting back and forward between thoughts. This emphasises the nature of Offreds life, for she lives in a state slow monotony. Chapter 13 sees Offred napping, and recalling many images, that are a mix of past and present.

While the language remains fairly subtle over the majority of the novel, the build up to the Ceremony, which involves hints and foreshadows until the moment in chapter 16, the language in the chapter itself is quite direct. It is graphic and explicit to the end of blow out of the watering, and the aspect is made blunter by the rather shocking language used (ie., the profanity). The repetition of verbs and other words convey the impression of speed, action and rigorous movement ? none of which are regularly associated with make love. The overall atmosphere created then is a rather unpleasant. The situation is ridiculed by Offred, it is recalled in a cynical tone, with mocking and satirical comments. Most of these are in the form of rhetoric questions, and some are ironic (but isnt this everyones wet dream, two women at once?). The anti-sensuous adjectives used are unpleasant (sagging, grievous, downward) and convey the true meaning of the situation. The sentences are gip and the chapter itself in brief. And all this creates an extremely negative picture from which she detaches herself.

And the shock of this anticlimax, after all the build-up, leads to our understanding of the sinister undercurrents in Gilead. That the ordinance itself is not so big a deal as one would believe from the importance given to it by Gilead says something roughly its hypocrisy.

All this slowly establishes a sympathy for Offred. We come crosswise many characters in the story, from the lesbian activist Moira to the victim of the system Janine, but Atwood is careful to place their characters on the extreme side; Moira is quite outrageous in her ways (with her dress, which always is aimed to be eccentric, and her actions such when she escapes from the Red Centre ? always non-conformist), while Janine becomes the inevitable enemy to Offred through her conversion and attitude (being a victim of society she is a conformist, and sucks up to the Aunts). Offred basically is a wimp, the title courtesy of Moira. But our sympathies remain with Offred for many reasons. One, I would hope to be the most important, that Offred represents mother and fille in a system where this relationship no longer exists. Offred is one of the early handmaids that lived before Gilead started, so she has had experiences of a life very much different from now. She lived a life where there was love, something that is missing from the present time. Love? asks the Commander, its not the point. Offred, initially the nameless heroine, is someone we can relate to. The lack of a name reflects the effects of society on the individual ? they become unimportant ? and we sympathise with her because we want her regain her identity as an individual. And she can do this, and is a good heroine simply for the fact that she develops. And for the better, in our opinion. We naturally want her to beat the system, and succeed in her attempts to find love again. The reason we believe in her is because of her capacity for development. From pass judgment to cordially resisting to materially resisting, Offred is constantly developing while those around her remain in a state of static confusion. commence with just passive comments of her dislike of the new system, she then develops a consistently resisting attitude towards the world around her (taking her time out at night and returning to the past whenever she can). At this point it is enough for the people around her such as Moira (in whose straw man she feels safer) to play their split. Considering weapons such as Serena Joys shears in the garden and knives in the kitchen shows the next development in her mind, which is leading to her physical involvement in her emotions and desires. Since Offred has Moira to inspire her, it is too late by the time she discovers of Moiras submission, for she has already gained momentum.

Images of flowers are consistent throughout the schoolbook (where would we be without them? ?Offred), but their connotations vary with the context. However what is same about each reference is that they enhance the readers understanding of the different themes such as the role of the handmaids as well as that of the Wives.

In chapter 3 we are introduced to the garden of Serena Joy, her domain where tulips spilling out act upon of dark crimson, and irises rising beautiful and cool grow. It symbolises the fullness of fertility, which is a theme that involves growing.

The symbolism of the flowers in Serena Joys garden is expanded in chapter 25, when Offred crosses it and notices the former cutting them. The idea of Serena Joy cutting off the genitialia of flowers, is symbolic of fertility, that which she does not have.

And the flowers are used as a parallel to Offreds status, and her frame of mind. She finds the will of the flowers, bursting upwards analogous to the mental resistance in her own mind, and hint to us the ascension of those oppressed, or silenced, and how they clamour to be heard and are similar to the rebellious movement in Gilead itself. This point emphasises the oppression of Gilead, and the attitudes of the oppressed, as well as the fact that Gileads sinister and twisted reality is reflected in all live things around Offred.

The colours of the garden, described in chapter 25, are very clearly different to those to which we have by now become very devoted to: red, green, blue and black. The colours of society are very plain and distinct, and they are illustrative of Gileads system, constantly reminding us of the strict rules. But here in the garden, the colours are different and of a completely other nature. Colours like light chromatic and velvet and purple give a different image, and we see the garden as a place full of life, which breathes and supports living things like only the handmaids can know. This is a sharp lineage to the grim dark reality of artificial Gilead, and suggests hope not only in Offred, who notices these signs, but also in all the lives that have been affected by Gilead.

The other theme illustrated by imagery throughout the novel is that of children, as Gileads whole purpose revolves around the production of children.

Since the loss of her own child is a matter of great importance to her, Offred has her own images of children ? which emphasise the revulsion of a mother losing her child. She also sees such imagery in the environment around her. Some things seemingly trivial such as mens urinals, which she saw in the Red Centre, are in fact symbolic, and in her eyes babies coffins.

The image of children is enforce on the handmaids themselves, they are taught and treated like children at the Red Centre. This is also the cause of Offreds own images of children. Chapter 13 includes a rush that is a recollection of Offreds past when the handmaids are Testifying. The handmaids learn by reciting verses and chanting the lessons given by the Aunts, and have to raise their hold to ask of something from the Aunts. This is a very childlike way of discipline considering the age of the handmaids, and they are treated like this to the extent that they are prisoners. They are helpless to the rules and discipline of the Aunts. This is illustrated in the passage by the unfortunate episode when Dolores is forced to wet the floor just because she is not given permission to go to the bathroom. But the handmaids response to it is childish behaviour, an example of this is the way they chant Crybaby of their own accord when jeering at Janine in the same lesson. Some, like Janine herself, become part of the system.

The society of Gilead is brutal but obviously realistic, as we can consider the factors leading to it are for the most part political. However, factors such as a nuclear holocaust causing or at least contributing to a declining birth rate of Caucasians (as well as the decline itself) are also issues that are not foreign to us in todays society. We are given a terrifying moral prophecy which by no means is taken so seriously as to be considered the future, but is realistic enough that we consider the implications. The purpose of the historical notes may have been to reveal many parts of the history of Gilead, but it certainly conveyed the message, that we must learn from history, which is not an unknown philosophy. That we dont is not the point, but that we try to understand and learn from it is most probably what Margaret Atwood was trying to convey in the end.

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