The Handmaid's Tale By Eudora Welty

So she creates new personas to survive. Offred used to be a usual woman with an average job, a lovey-dovey husband named Luke and a charming daughter. When Luke and she decided that they didn’t want to be a part of this regime, they tried to flee and got captured. After that day, Offred never saw Luke again. Now in her mind, Luke symbolizes love and lust. She is waiting for Luke to show up, although it is obvious that Luke is gone -maybe to atypical country, maybe to a different world-. Her optimistic view about Luke is hold in the independent personality she has. “When I can see the bodies, when I can guess from the sizes and shapes that none of them is Luke, I can believe also that he is still alive... I can’t shake the idea that he’s in there, behind the blank red bricks.” (Atwood, p.166). But from time to time, she falls into a state of depression, giving up on Luke and what he stands for. “Sometimes you can find things out, on Birth Days. But there would be no point in asking about Luke.” (Atwood, p.124). Offred says this on the Birth Day of Janine, where she faces the fact that Luke is no longer obtainable. As the forlorn personality in her arises and lays hold on her brain, the image of Luke that is engaged to passion and nostalgia drifts away. Correspondingly, she merely mentions Luke being alive after the Birth Day. In addition to Luke,

Throughout the course of world history on Earth, humans have always worked harder and harder in order to improve society and make it more perfect, although it still hasn’t been done quite yet, because it is merely impossible to achieve perfection in a world with close to seven billion people. There is a very distinct difference between a utopia, which can also be known as perfection, and a dystopia, which can also be known as a tragedy; and the outcomes normally generate from the people in charge or the authority that sets up the foundation, the rules, and the regulations for a society. In the Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Republic of Gilead is created by a powerful authority group called the Eyes after a huge government take over and the assassination of the US president. It’s very strict rules and goals are set up to protect women, to increase childbirth, and to keep all violence, men, and powerful social media under control. The novel is set in a first person point of view and the narrator, Offred, tells her story to us readers about her experiences as a handmaid and how her life was completely turned upside down. Throughout the course of the novel Offred reveals many sides of herself; although her thoughts do not remain consistent, her personality and opinion tends to change revealing, that she is hesitant and strong because she learns to make the best of what she has and silently overcome the system of the Republic of Gilead.

Past events can affect, positively or negatively, the present activities, attitudes, and values of a character. In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the main character, Offred, is approached by many past events that reveal the rules of the society versus the life she lost with her loved ones.

The literary masterpiece The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, is a story not unlike a cold fire; hope peeking through the miserable and meaningless world in which the protagonist gets trapped. The society depicts the discrimination towards femininity, blaming women for their low birth rate and taking away the right from the females to be educated ,forbidding them from reading or writing. These appear in Ethan Alter’s observations that:

In the first example of how a handmaid’s identity is erased is how by removing the handmaid’s name, their personal value as a person is reduced from people into objects. This is demonstrated when Offred says that her “... name isn’t Offred, she has another name, which nobody uses now because it is forbidden” (Atwood 84). The handmaids were stripped of one of the most important parts of their identities: their names. The connotation of the word forbidden, evoke a serious tone that causes the readers to see how much the society wants to do to strip these women of their own individuality. The handmaids are given new names based upon their commanders name: in Offred 's case she is “Of-Fred”. They have no identity without their commander.

In a “A Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, readers see a world go from what it once used to be to total totalitarianism. In this now cruel world called Gilead, we see people stripped from their original identities, and no longer free. Furthermore, they are brainwashed to believe and abide by new regulations and rules, and the ones that rebel or no longer are of any use for the government end up dead. Besides the narrator who is now named “Offred” in this new society, her past friend “Moira” from the pre-totalitarian world, is a central figure of hope in the story. Moira becomes a rebel and fights to win back her freedom, but ultimately that thirst to outsmart the government, leads to her ultimate destruction.

The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, explores the idea of physical and mental oppression through hierarchy, patriarchy, manipulation of history, surveillance and finally, community identity; hence the main character’s name “Offred” or ‘Of-Fred’ if you will. 1984, by George Orwell, covers this by including configuration of language; the characters have a new language called “Newspeak” and are also constantly watched by the government and the “Thought Police.”

In Margaret Atwood’s novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale, she narrates how women are abused mentally and physically by the hands of men. Also, women were forced to become prostitutes or sent to colonies. During the Republic of Gilead which is ruled by men and surrounded by corruption, lust, prostitution, and violence towards women who were punished by hanging or being sent to colonies for exile if they break the rules. According to the government, women, who cannot follow the rules or have babies, were considered worthless. Women were strongly identified by coded languages that were mainly hidden within their clothing and were manipulated to act within Gilead.

Offred’s real name was never mentioned in the novel; she was also married to Luke and had a daughter before the government collapsed and took her into the center. Additionally, Offred had a best friend named Moira who was rebellious, a lesbian, and a feminist. She was also held as a handmaid, but successfully escaped from the center; however, she was captured before leaving Gilead and was sentenced to be a prostitute in a club for the commanders. Eventually, Offred meets other handmaids named Ofglen and Offwarren. Offwarren’s original name is Janine and she is the only handmaid pregnant in the center; every woman envies her.

If Atwood had given her a strong personality such as Ofglen’s, readers would not be able to see the extent to which a person can gradually compromise to extreme regime would not be as clear as they are in the story with Offred as the narrator. Author, as well as the readers, witnessing Offred’s transformation, seeing her follows the flow and slowly drowning, but we couldn’t help her. Because you will never be able to save a hopeless, indulgent person, like you will never be able to wake up a person who pretends to be sleeping. Offred is portrayed in this manner in order to show the importance of criticizing the wrong in society, agitating for change and being politically aware. In her previous life, she had been unquestioning of the issues around her and took her freedom for granted.

In American society, people deem it unjust to hinder someone due to their gender, race, religion, and more. However, in the past and presently, there are societies that restrict people due to these same characteristics. Atwood criticizes the idea of having these restrictions through her work, The Handmaid’s Tale. With this work, Atwood establishes connections between disparate historic events, which share similarities. Atwood’s book explicitly relates to slavery due her commentary on the power dynamic through her character, Offred. Offred resembles a slave during the 19th century through her emotional, physical, and mental conditions, commenting on the disregard society has for its imperious control over people.

Feminism is described as “the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes” (Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary, 1999). This is a completely foreign concept in the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Throughout the story, Offred describes the extreme adversity and negligence of human rights by her peers and superiors in the totalitarian Republic of Gilead. She describes her lack of control of personal choices and opinions, and how she and the other Handmaid’s are seen as simply just sexual objects for the men to use at their disposal. Offred describes her struggles with her lack of freedom of clothing or choice, how the men perceive her as simply a uterus with two legs, and the social effects of being

Power: a simple five-letter word with numerous definitions. Power a noun. Power meaning the ability or right to control people or things (“Power”). Throughout the history of human existence it has been human nature to crave and want power. The feeling of being in control and not having to answer to anybody is an indescribable feeling. But being in power can also lead to undesirable decisions. In the 19th century, Lord Acton a British historian said “Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely”. In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, readers are exposed to a dystopic novel where individuals use the influence of their societal roles to manipulate others. There is no coincidence that Atwood’s novel can be considered a speculative fiction. Nor is it a coincidence that The Handmaid’s Tale is still relevant today. Abuse of power is relevant in not only Atwood’s novel, but also present in numerous societies today across the globe.

“On first days we are permitted front doors, but after that we're supposed to use the back. Things haven't settled down, it's too soon, everyone is unsure about our exact status. After awhile it will be either all front doors or back… Yours is a position of honor” (Atwood 18).

In literature, the color red symbolizes many things, each with its own emotional impact. Red can be associated with violence and bloodshed, or it can be associated with love and intense emotions. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred, chosen to be a “baby-maker” for a couple she was assigned to, desires to escape the dystopian society that she lives in. Thus, Margaret creates a fictional government that uses totalitarianism, violence, and the reoccurring pattern of the color red to illustrate the negative impact it has on women, especially the Handmaids.