A02

• the fragmented narrative could serve as a symbolic reflection of their defiance by breaking away from linear storytelling conventions
• flashbacks novel moves present/ past contrast life often triggered by sensory details such as smells, sounds, and sights, which can create vivid imagery and emotional resonance with the reader. first person narrative allows readers experience offred pereceptions direcetly , unreliable associations human traits more symapth
• structure

  • begins media res, fracturated narrative symbolic confused mental state 'im sorry its in fragments, like a body caught it crossfire or pulled apart by force' changes tenses
• commander Freds house

  microcosm womens envy lack of unity to one other.
• chap 34, to directly critique contemporary societal norms

  Commander Fred offers awkwardly compelling quasi-feminist critique of societals failure of gender equality pre Gillead of unrealistic norms of beauty imposed by mass culture ' The meat market... breasts full of silicone' + 'could be left with a kid,two kids, the husband might just get fed up and take off' : less risky but robbed of autonomy
• chap 1 "Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled; they had electric cattle prods slung on thongs from their leather belts"


  "Aunt" connotations of warmth + comfort "patrolling" verb monitoring .compliments military imagery "army cots" and "barbed wire" The metaphoric use of "cattle prods" implies that the handmaids are compared to cattle to be detained like animals. The use of zoomorphism exhibits their lack of identity as they have been reduced to farm animals- naive, submissive and vulnerable. "Leather belts" connote to objects of abuse enabling to induce a sense of fear
• chap 2 "Thinking can hurt your chances. I intend to last"

    strength foreshadows her rebellion. The possessive use of "I" suggests that she intends to rescue herself and come out victorious short sentence enforces her willingness to fight against without a single tone of doubt. but also a survival technique where she can escape her tormented reality practice the act of "thinking" subject to linguistic repression. she creates a potential reader through "you", intimate narrative style. +perserving own identity;
• chap 2 "Waste not. I am not being wasted"


  Offred's body made use of rather than ignored but here "wasted" takes on the twentieth century slang meaning of "killed". Offred's use of a pun is ironic as she often plays on words and embodies a cryptic way of communicating to the reader. divert the attention away from prohibition of literacy. communicating with the reader as she is fearful of Gilead being informed of her potential ideas of rebellion and retaliation. The assertive use of "I am not" informs us of unwillingness to be defeated by the regime. foreshadows rebellion. 
• "Gilead is within you"


  not just the physical place but ideology which is necessary for the state to run. dictatorship. engrained in its victims almost like a preaching and a biblical teaching. Gilead becomes a way of life, one which must be embedded within the deepest roots of your own values. It is through the imperative use of "is" that exhibits Gilead's sole purpose: to manipulate and indoctrinate its inhabitants. strip individuals from individuality and functions as a reminder that Gilead must now consume all sources of self-expression must be aligned with Gilead's rules.
• "I am a national resource" chap 12

  chremamorphism (opp personification) dehumanising herself as disposable object. possessive use of "I am" accepting new identity. Fear consumes/no hope. Ironically this foreshadows the little acts of rebellion she takes on symbolising how truly oppressed she is and the pleasure she grasps from the simple elements in life. parallel to the Aunts. The metaphorical use of "national resource" suggests that Offred is a tool and an instrument bodily functions. OR believes anonymous enable survive tells us little avoid caught if does escape.
• "You must be a worthy vessel" chap 12 


  imperative command "you must" social hierarchy the Handmaid's appear inferior to the Aunts. use of chremamorphism Handmaid's are disposable, almost instruments and tools used only for breeding "completely defines her." inability to separate both her mind and her body. outlet to support traditional values."worthy" when fertile Gilead is
• chap 12 "The small tattoo on my ankle...a passport in reverse"

  1. metaphorical "passport" Offred now chremamorphises herself. impact of indoctrination on own identity. becomes a possession imprinted onto Offred's body. regime completely owns her "tattoo" this provokes the idea of inescapability. Ironically, a "tattoo" is an enhancement of one's appearance and an expression of selfhood, something Gilead completely forbids. The allegorical use of "tattoo" may also foreshadow the little acts of rebellion she eventually commits.
• 'small tattoo on ankle A02 pt 2' chap 12

  atwood's belief that "nothing in the book hasn't already happened" Jews distinguishing badge of a yellow star. Nazi concentration camps victims are tattooed to identify
• "I don't want to see it. I don't want to look at something that determines me so completely" chap 12

  feminine response to the patriarchal regime. Offred cannabilises herself body constant reminder that she is owned "Victorian pump organ" for the Commander. hope for survival. ashamed body no longer controls, this is her only hope for escape from the cyclical nature of entrapment. object of gaze, the object of desire + materialised as an object. Juxtaposes to past perceptions of her body as an extension of herself, as something that gave her pleasure,
• chap 7 "Tell, rather than write, because I have nothing to write with and writing is in any case forbidden"


  Offred's ability to converse with the reader longing for the warmth of human relationship . The repetition of "write" reinforces the idea that knowledge power of literacy and writing that she is now deprived from. "Knowledge is temptation" and must be rationed to prevent Gilead's citizens from rebelling and criticising the regime. confiding in the reader.
• chap 6 "This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary"

  ironic. imperative command nature of "it will become ordinary" domineering nature Aunts. Ironically, the subverted meanings of the names Aunt Sara and Aunt Lydia symbolise that they are products of the Bible. They pertain biblical names connoting to that of motherhood yet the Aunts are nothing but cruel and aggressive in nature. scapegoat their own infertility envy.
• chap 5 "What you must be, girls, is impenetratable. She called us girls"

  opponents to feminism. imperative command "you must" hierarchy Ironically, the Aunts are also victims misogyny against women where the regime promotes the hatred of women against other women. Serena Joy are infertile desperation power. Aunts further reduce the Handmaid's to "girls" connoting that of immaturity and youthfulness. vulnerability and complacency towards the regime. She reduces them to innocent and easily manipulated children
• chap 3 "She doesn't speak to me, unless she can't avoid it. I am a reproach to her; and a necessity"

  Offred becomes a reminder of her infertility and the lack of power . The use of chremamorphism implies that to Offred uterus. Phyllis Schlafly- conservative activist opposed feminism, LGBTQ and abortion, she successfully campaigned against the Equal Rights Amendment, hypocrite
• chap 2 "A Sister, dipped in blood"- clothing


  suggests corruption. Blood paradoxically death and fertility. Dipped suggests it is unfinished, not fully indoctrinated,She hyperbolically enunciates that now all Handmaid's have been submerged into violence and are instruments of fertility. The red colour imagery connotes to both shame and with the ripeness of fertility. It echoes the colour of menstrual blood and failure.
• chap 13 "I sink down into my body as into a swamp, fenland, where only I know the footing."

  self-deprecating imagery no longer perceives body natural imagery enacts as a source of juxtaposition to her inescapability conflict between nature and society.paradoxical imagery further amplifies the thematic idea of hypocrisy. Offred exists passively in the novel. She now no longer is the only one who knows the footing of her body
• chap 13 "I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure'


  perception of her body as altered (use to juxtapose)
• "Butter he said, musing. That's very clever. Butter. He laughed" 25


  repetition of "butter" seems rather sardonic as though he belittles Offred without understanding the lack of individuality she faces in the regime he supports. Butter control her appearance. symbol social hierarchy, inequality and the lack of freedom in Gilead. The Commander's lack of consideration suggests understand what women deal with- or this may be an active choice because he can't deal with the guilt/ reality of what he has done.
• "My tongue felt thick with the effort of spelling, it was like using a language I'd once known but had nearly forgotten" 25


  metaphor Offred suppressed simplicity of words and language. She hyperbolically now becomes foreign+ passing of time. entrapment is inescapable which propels the reader to admire Offred's resilience to the fabrications of her role. The assonantal "t" sound enables to us to ensure the complexities that Offred faces with language.
• "Staring at the magazine, as he dangled it before me like fish bait, I wanted it" 25


  symbolic freedom of speech, intransitive verbs "staring" and "dangled" alluring of rebellion. Offred cannibalises herself as an animal hungry for "fish bait." animalistic imagery. simile solidifies Offred's yearning + desperation to escape from the rigidness of the regime. Through the comical use of the simile, this reflects the way in which she deals with this repression. Through satire and the creation of narratives and story-telling.
• "What I feel is relief. It wasn't me." 27


  short end-stopped lines depicts the impact of indoctrination. personal pronouns suggests that she savors her identity Her priority is survival Ironic as foreshadows to end of the novel where she is taken away from the Eyes into a van.
• "But I can't believe it; hope is rising in me, like sap in a tree. Blood in a wound. We have made an opening" 28


  garden image renewed life. Perhaps it is within these optimistic symbols that Offred is able to condense all her hope of escaping this oppressive regime onto. comical simile deviates from her self-deprecating tendencies and now finally "intends to last." Despite this renewed faith violent imagery of "blood in a wound" vocabulary tainted Gilead is within her. paradoxical imagery of both the "tree" and "blood" signifies Offred's doomed fate.