How Does Margaret Atwood Use Language In The Handmaid's Tale

It reflects in the restrictions of language to only shows masculine as Offred tries to show her gratification to the Rita she says, “the Mathas are not supposed to fraternize with us” when the words should been “soronize” (18). After Offred lost her freedom by becoming a Handmaid, she realize being exposed to massive information and having the ability to read and write was power, which Atwood implicate that information and knowledge empower people. But the Gilead regime only allow men to be literate as compared to women As Offred walks the street with Ofglen, she points out the store that sells dresses for women “habits” in which “habits are hard to break” (34). [in fear that nothing has change in the future and history] As Gillam and Wood states, as long as we look at the media with a critical eye, people can decipher the purpose of large amount of images that appears in the media and decides at their own

The definition of a perfect society is where everyone lives in harmony and where everything is done for the good. However, Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, seems to unravel quite the opposite of the reason that not everyone knows the truth. The novel reveals that lack of knowledge leads to temptations as shown through the characterization of Offred, the way women are portrayed, and the major conflict of Gilead. The characterization of Offred seems to prosper within The Handmaid’s Tale. In the beginning of the novel, Offred’s character obeyed every rule.

In the book Handmaid’s Tale, each character develops and changes as the book goes on. As you read, you learn more about the character’s past and how they think and act in this new society. Offred, the narrator, is a great example of these changes. At the end of the book, Offred was willing to submit to her new culture.

This gives us a hint on the totalitarian society of Gilead that Offred lived through, where she had no control over her own life. She wishes she had control over what would have happened to her. Overall,

Offred is very limited in where she can go because of position in her society and the Eye. But she still has a choice to obey or disobey. Offred is very aware of the consequences of disobedience, so she does what she’s told. She obeys her Commander because to disobeying would be far too dangerous for her. However, it almost seems as if she’s accepted her fate and chooses to remain in her situation. As the novel goes on Offred is presented with more power. Her Commander wants to start an intimate forbidden relationship with her, treating her like a full-blown mistress and allowing her to do things that she would be reprimanded for, like playing scrabble, when the role of Handmaid is supposed to be centered around procreation and nothing else.

In the nineteenth century, US President James Madison was quoted as saying, “Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.” This quote is pertinent to Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. In it, it depicted a society in the future, with a conservative approach to government, favoring men, and very controlling. While it explored many topics that were relevant to the society at the time, the most important one was power and the power dynamics in the novel itself. The main areas of the novel that utilized this power the most are in the violence, the use of language, all surrounding the patriarchal society favoring men.

How does Atwood represent the absence of freedom in The Handmaid’s Tale? Bretons H. Literary Theory: (The Politics Of Class: Marxism) states, ‘Marxist Theory argues that the way we think … the way the economy is organised.’ Taking this statement to be true, then the social economic environment & background of a writer determines their perception of the world. Atwood’s dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, is a response to her own background and the social and economic events that were taking place around the time of writing the novel.

To Atwood, she is a sign that silence and acceptance should be feared. “Because [she has] been emptied”(282) by society and those around her, Atwood clarifies these hazards of ignorance, which are additionally expanded upon through Offred’s transformation. It may seem inconsequential at first, but one may become so deeply entangled in this new world, such as Iliad, that the line between truth and fiction, good and evil is blurred. An enemy is difficult to fight when one cannot see nor comprehend it, and Atwood’s characterizes Offred as a girl condemned to her reality because she is unable to see her foe. More than that, she is alone or feels like she is.

Offred does not retaliate against the republic being a role model for other women who are oppressed like her to follow, instead, she decides to obey and succumb to the rules that are set out. Another instance in which we can see the identity of women in the story being oppressed is shown in the quote, "My name isn't Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because it's forbidden." (Atwood 95). What’s being shown is that given names of the women, the names that separate the women from each other essentially with all the women having their names taken from them they've all been simplified and objectified into just women used for work. Women not having their own personality is the key to oppressing them and we can see that it is working because Offred has lost her identity.

Offred is a part of a society that leaves her deprived of any warm human relationship, and only conforms to the rules set on her because she wants to survive. Having such a lack of freedom makes her crave human affection, and she copes with this by trying to escape reality, while at the same time avoiding the memories of the freedom she once had.

The Silent Rebellion The critical essay, “A discussion of The Handmaid’s Tale,” by Wendy Perkins, explores Offred’s struggle to survive and preserve her identity while being oppressed by the totalitarian government of Gilead. Wendy Perkins compares Offred’s heroism to that of her mother, as well as her friend, Moira. The article describes the subtle nature of Offred’s rebellion; it depicts how Offred appears satisfied with the demands of the totalitarian state, while she is actually rebelling silently.

In the beginning, Offred adapts to and acknowledges the oppressive society and also her new part in it. As the book progresses she comes to the realization that it no more is a privilege but rather an inhumane society where women are abused of their gift given by god to bear a new human being. With the oppression Offred

In the novel “The Handmaid's Tale” the author Margaret Atwood uses language as a form of power and a means of escape. Margaret uses language to help readers understand themes such as identity, oppression, and representations of power. Offred in particular uses language as a tool to escape the plight of her existence. There are many different ways that Margaret Atwood used language in her book.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a novel based on about women in Gilead. They were treated unfairly controlled by men and women who took charge which was called the commanders. Throughout the novel Atwood uses different types languages to describe the role life in Gilead by authority, power and freedom . Offred and the others in the mayday resistance struggle to gain power and freedom through the uses of language. Offred also uses descriptive language to escape her binds in life. Atwood’s describe how language is used as a form of power and shows how the war in Gilead.

The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel by author Margaret Atwood. The novel focuses on the journey of Offred, a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian and theocratic state that has overthrown the United States government. Offred is of a class of women kept for reproductive purposes, known as handmaids, in an era of declining births due to sterility from pollution and diseases. Handmaids are assigned to bear children for elite couples that have trouble conceiving and Offred serves the Commander and his wife. Offred is not the narrator’s real name, but instead all handmaid’s names consist of the word “of” followed by the name of their Commander. Every month, when the handmaid is at the peak in their menstrual cycle, they must engage in a “marriage” ceremony where they have impersonal sex with the Commander while the elite wife watches. Offred’s freedom, like the freedom of all women in this novel, is completely controlled. The only time handmaids can leave the house is if they are shopping and in pairs, doors to their rooms cannot be completely shut, and the Eyes, Gilead’s secret police, surveillance everything. Throughout the novel, Offred describes Gilead's society, including the several different classes of women and how their lives have changed with this new theonomy. Atwood uses language to explore themes of power and identity, allowing readers to identify the ways in which language influences people. In order to effectively rule over class and gender the