Month: October 2020

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the system that is used to name the Handmaid’s carry symbolic power. The system removes the sense of individuality, as individuals are stripped of their real names and are given these new names instead. The narrator is quite clear that she doesn’t see herself as “Offred”. The name that she is assigned is one that makes her the property of a man and not one that she chooses herself. Names in The Handmaid’s Tale are described, from Offred’s point of view, as “like your telephone number, useful only to others”. Offred refuses her name, saying “My name isn’t Offred” which shows the lack of emotional attachment that she has to these names. The name that she is given has nothing to do with who she is as an individual. In fact, there have been other Offreds before her as Handmaids can be replaced with other ones. When she tells Nick her real name, she states that “I feel that therefore I am known” which shows that she values her sense of individuality.

In the article “Say her name: Breonna Taylor, black women and the invisibility of our pain” from New York Daily News, Breonna Taylors name is constantly referred to in full, which puts emphasis on making her name known. Other names, such as George Floyd are referred to as Floyd because people already know who he is, while on the other hand Breonna Taylor’s story is not as well known. The article also refers to her by her first name at one point which creates a sense of having a closer, more personal relationship with her.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, a dystopian fiction by author Margaret Atwood, Atwood creates a repressive atmosphere within the introductory chapters. Atwood achieves this by (1) using the theme of abandonment as well as (2) the use of imagery

Firstly, Atwood uses the theme of abandonment in order to create a repressive atmosphere. This can be seen in the quote “We had slept in what had once been the gymnasium”. This quote reflects the makeshift-feel of sleeping in a repurposed gymnasium which creates the sense of abandonment due to the reusing of facilities. Furthermore, Atwood uses the quote “for the games that were formerly played there” which further creates the sense of something existing in the past which doesn’t exist anymore. Atwood also uses the quote “the watching girls, felt-skirted as I knew from pictures”. This quote creates the sense that our protagonist only knows things from pictures rather than experience, and furthermore the choice of the word “knew” creates the sense that our protagonist is able to relate to the characters on a relatively personal level, creating the idea that there is nothing else that she is able to relate to. Atwood also uses the quotes “I remember that yearning” as well as “We yearned for the future” which create the idea that there was a sense of ambition in the past that used to exist, but because of the circumstances that our protagonist is now in as well as the repressive atmosphere, these ambitions no longer exist. Atwood also showcases the limited skillset that the people in the gymnasium have developed, such as the ability to “whisper almost without sound” and to “lip-read, [their] heads flat on the bends, turned sideways” which shows that the people in the gymnasium have had enough time in isolation to develop these niche skillsets

Secondly, Atwood uses imagery in order to create a repressive atmosphere. This can be seen in the visual imagery used to describe the “chain-link fence topped with barbed wire”. This quote creates a sense of enclosure because of imagery of the chain-link fence, as well as the barbed wire which further creates this sense of enclosure due to the fact that barbed wire is usually used to prevent people from being able to climb over the fence. This shows our protagonist is being limited in terms of accessibility to the outside world which helps to contribute to the repressive atmosphere. Atwood also uses imagery in order to describe some fairly trivial things, however this is important because it represents how limited our protagonist has been in terms of experiences such that she doesn’t have much else to describe other than trivial things that she can see.