Blog Post #1: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

I am reading The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, a novel depicting a future dystopia set in the Republic of Gilead, in which women of a certain class are solely valued if they have working ovaries. The protagonist, Offred, is a Handmaid in this dystopia, whose job is to become pregnant for the Commander and his wife, to whom she has been assigned. Women in this society used to live like women in our society today; Offred clearly remembers the past with her husband Luke and her daughter. Now, however, the government has taken her family from her, and she is forced into the cruel customs of her new, restricted life. One aspect of the novel that I find really interesting is the author’s style. Attwood tells the story through Offred’s eyes in the present moment, but she also seamlessly integrates Offred’s memories of the past into the novel. She does so without introducing the flashback; she goes directly into it. For example, Offred starts out in a conversation: “Don’t think it’s easy for me either, said Aunt Lydia,” and then without any introduction she begins depicting a memory: “Moira, breezing into my room, dropping her denim jacket on the floor. Got any cigs, she said”(56). This style helps blur together Offred’s longing for the past with her present reality, showing the reader that Offred’s life is confusing and muddled. I think this also helps to indicate that Offred is unclear about her identity: is she still the woman she used to be?

Another interesting stylistic choice is that Atwood writes as if the thoughts are pouring directly from Offred’s head to the page, making Offred’s thoughts and actions develop organically. Her sentence structure and punctuation use also reflect the nature of Offred’s thoughts. As she describes the Commander approaching her room, she says, “The hall is dusky, this is a man, his back to me; he’s looking into the room, dark against its light… He hears me coming, turns, hesitates, walks forward. Towards me”(49). This sentence is not completely grammatically correct, but its structure mirrors Offred’s emotions in this moment. Here, she writes in a choppy manner, reflecting the fear that Offred feels. Perhaps she can’t articulate her thoughts in a streamlined way because of the fear that overtakes her in this moment. Atwood writes in a choppy style throughout most of the novel, yet her writing still remains poetic with the use of vivid imagery and other poetic devices such as similes. Here, Offred describes seeing herself in the mirror: “I can see it as I go down the stairs, round, convex, a pier glass, like the eye of a fish, and myself in it like a distorted shadow, a parody of something, some fairy-tale figure in a red cloak”(9). Atwood uses this beautifully descriptive writing style throughout the novel, drawing readers in and letting them create a clear picture in their head. The picturesque language in combination with the choppy sentence structure and organic sentence development creates an emotionally-charged, captivating writing style.