1. The story is set in the future where men and women are separated as women try to repopulate the Earth. Women are no longer allowed to read and must be covered head to toe. People are now categorized as Eyes, Handmaids, Econowives, Commanders, the Wives of the Commanders, Guardians, Marthas, and Angels. Eyes are secret spies from the government in various jobs in order to watch the people. Commanders are in charge of some kind of governmental activity but no woman is allowed to ask or know. Commanders are rich and enjoy many privileges the masses in the Colonies don't have. (People in the Colonies actually live in waste lands filled with murder and disease. It is the exile that people will get if they don't behave.) Guardians are the low-class government workers that try to become upgraded to an Angel will they will be able to be issued a wife if they prove themselves worthy. Their wife would be an Econowife, one that wouldn't have any assistance with the household and whose main purpose is to get pregnant. The Handmaids are women assigned for two years to a Commander in hopes to get pregnant since the Commander's wife hasn't. Handmaids are specifically used for reproduction. If they don't have a child within three assignments, then you are exiled. Marthas are household maids that run Commanders' homes and take care of the children, if there are any.
Offred, is a Handmaid now, but she remembers the old ways. She had love before the takeover happened and she can't forget any of it. She longs for the love she had but she can't get any of that in the world she lives in now. Love is fluke though... She also remembers the freedom of being able to work and earn your own money. She remembers dressing how she wanted. She remembers everyone's names instead of being called the Wife of Fred or whomever they were assigned to.
The story starts with a flashback from Offred's training at the Red Center, where the Handmaids dressed in red from head to toe learn how to become fertile young woman sent to please in the name of the Lord.
As the story continues, you see Offred often flash back to her life and her attempted escape from the country when things started to get bad with the government. Luke and her daughter were her world before all of this happened. Luke wasn't her husband but rather a man who she had an affair with. She loved Luke and Luke loved her enough to leave his wife. They stayed together and had a baby but Luke could never divorce his wife with the new government. So when they tried to run, their passports weren't all in order and the Guardians caught them. Offred has no idea where Luke or her daughter is. She finds herself dreaming of them every chance she gets.
The inciting incident is when Offred is taken to her new posting and has her first ceremony with the Commander and his wife, Serena Joy. Serena lays behind her as she has sex with the Commander as a sign of connectedness. There is no attachment or romance. Everything is very detached.
The plot thickens as Offred starts breaking laws. The Commander actually lets Offred play Scrabble with him and eventually lets her start to read, which is completely forbidden for women. She begins to see more and more resistance within the Handmaids. Her grocery partner, Ofglenn, tells Offred of a resistance that is called Mayday. More and more people have began to join them, too.
With her time running out, Serena Joy even offers that she would set up a pregnancy for Offred, implying that the Commander is sterile, which is unheard of! She begins seeing Nick, one of their close guardians, to get her pregnant.
The Commander starts to get more and more comfortable with Offred, though. He gives her smuggled lingerie to wear out to a club. She has no idea what is going on. How could he break all these laws? As she walks into this forbidden club filled with woman in different kinds of lingerie from the time before, the Commander explains that they need a variety of women since the women wear the same long outfit everyday, he says that the woman can no longer become different women with every different outfit they put on. He takes her to one of the rooms in the club and tries to put romance into it as he sleeps with her. Offred feels no passion or connection to this man but fakes it because she knows the man means well.
Offred is appalled by the scandally-clad women but she recognizes one of them. Moira was one of her friends before everything had happened. Moira tells Offred she got to this "club" instead of being exiled to the Colonies because she was too much of a liability. Offred learns that there is like an underground railroad for women looking to escape the country.
The climax, however, is when Serena Joy finds lipstick on a robe of hers that Offred used on the night of the club. She can't believe that Offred would so such a thing to her but all Offred can think about is how Nick will be if Serena tells an Eye. Offred finally found love in her disconnected world with Nick, the guardian she tried getting pregnant with. Even after their first rendezvous, they continued to see each other to find some kind of closeness. Though Nick doesn't talk much, Offred still likes that she is able to talk to someone.
The next day, Nick opens the door to her chamber explaining that the men in the black van are from Mayday and are going to help her. The story ends with her putting her blind faith into this men as they take her from the home.
2. The theme of the novel is about hypocrisy in society. Throughout the novel, you see how men preach the sanctity of marriage and the absolute power of the government but they cheat on their wives and then break all the laws they preach. The Offred's Commander doesn't try to have a relationship with his wife but rather wanted one with Offred, someone who was dispensable.
3. The tone of the novel is sad but has some slight humor in it. Offred is very naive as she follows all the rules of the government but is paranoid as to not speak out against the government. She starts to realize that the government isn't as all-powerful and all-knowing as it claims to be.
"My hands are shaking. Why am I frightened? I've crossed no boundaries. I've given no trust, taken no risk, all is safe. It's the choice that terrifies me. A way out, a salvation." p.61
"I felt the Commander watching me as I turned the pages. I knew I was doing something I shouldn't ahve been doing, and that he found pleasure seeing me do it. I should have felt evil... But I didn't feel evil.. What was he going to give me next? A girdle?" p. 158
"I'm sorry there is so much pain in this story. I'm sorry it's in fragments, like a body caught in crossfire or pulled apart by force. But there is nothing I can do to change it. I've tried to put some of the good things in as well. Flowers, for instance, because where would we be without them?" p. 267
4.
Idiom-"Smells fishy, they used to say; or, I smell a rat. Misfit as odor." p. 18 Although, all slang is forbidden, Offred still remembers and thinks in slang.
Synesthesia-"...these two men who aren't yet permitted to touch women. They touch with their eyes instead..." p. 23 The men can't touch women or talk to women in anyway. This shows how much they long for women but even them looking at women is somewhat frowned upon if you seem like you are being flirtatious.
Connotation- "They wore blouses with buttons down the front that suggested the possibilities of the word
undone." p. 25 This shows how strict society is that women can not be undone and how frowned upon a promiscuous woman is.
Chiasmus- "Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it." p. 24 The government installs this type of brainwashing that they are better off from how they were before but you begin to see a resistance towards the end of the book.
Anachronisms- "These bodies hanging on the Wall are time travelers.." p. 33 The people who are hung on the wall for their crimes don't fit in with the new world because they still embrace the past. They don't fit in and rebel against the change so the government offs them since they refuse to conform.
Repetition- "But then what happens, but then what happens?" p.39 Offred constantly is worrying about what will happen if she goes agains the government. Her inner struggle with this is constant throughout the book.
Foreshadowing- "It's French, he said. From
m'aidez. Help me." p. 44 This becomes the codeword for the resistance. Ofglenn had to mention it to Offred to make sure she wasn't an Eye. Offred had to do the same for Ofglenn's replacement.
Metaphor- "We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of the print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories." p. 57 Offred is talking about how her and Moira were living before the takeover. They weren't well known and they lived day to day but they were able to live.
Allusion- "'Resettlement of the Children of Ham is continuing on schedule," says the reassuring pink face, back on the screen." p. 83 The Children of Ham are the African Americans that are not allowed in the country. It shows the racism in the new world as well as the emphasis on Biblical teaching.
Symbolism- "What I coveted was the shears." p. 153 The shears symbolize the possibility of suicide that Offred wants. She wishes she could kill herself in this horrible world where she has lost everything and everyone she loves.
Characterization-
1. Direct- "She was a malicious and vengeful woman, I knew that." p.162
"Her face is oval, pink, plump but not fat, her eyes roundish." p. 167
Indirect- "'You were always so stinking pious.' 'So were you,' I reply. I want to laugh, shout, hug her." p. 168
"I like the sensation, the soft cloth brushing my skin. It's like being in a cloud." p. 171
Margaret uses both direct and indirect characterization. To actually describe physical features she is more direct but to talk about personality she is more indirect.
I like how she characterizes women because they are realistic and strong willed. They aren't passive even though they are in a passive world.
2. Atwood doesn't switch her syntax or diction when she describes characters or goes into characterization.
3. Offred is a dynamic and round character. As she tells the story, she tells you more and more like she is letting you into the world and trusting you with her secrets. She doesn't give you all of her past at once and she even apologizes for all the sadness in the book.
4. "I wish this story were different. I wish it were more civilized. I wish it showed me in a better light, if not happier than at least more active, less hesitant, less distracted by trivia. I wish it were about love or about sudden realizations important to one's life, or even about sunsets, birds, rainstorms, or snow." p. 267 I feel like I could relate to Offred at this point in the book. I could see that the world she was living in was incredibly horrible but I could see how I would want to try to make it the best it could be. Or at least wish it to be happy... Offred did all she could with the life she was given. I just hope that her ending turns out well since Atwood never really gave us an ending.. So in that case, I can imagine my own happy ending for her!
