The Handmaid's Tale- Analysis & Thoughts

One of the most prominent themes in The Handmaid's Tale is the use of language for power. Men are viewed as the most important, and so are classified by their military rank. They each have their own names and so keep their identity. As for women, their names are stripped from them. Women are classified by their gender roles like Wife, Martha, and Handmaid. This erasing of names serves one purpose, to take away ones individuality.

Some women are also unfortunate enough to be dubbed 'Unwomen' and deformed children become 'Unbabies'. These people are seen as unclean and evil, less than those around them. Language has set them apart from the rest of society.

Women are also forbidden to read. This puts them at a disadvantage and makes them less then men. Men suddenly become more intelligent and more powerful then women because of this one thing. In the world of the Handmaids, they are not even allowed to have a constant name like the Marthas and Wives. Handmaids are made to take on the names of the Men they are stationed with. Their names show the Man's possession being Of___ the man's first name. This takes away their identity and makes them not a person but an object, and with each new station they loose their old name and become someone else's name, someone else's property.

Greetings are also predetermined, you must say the correct greeting or you will me seen as disloyal. African-Americans and Jewish people are also refereed to differently, which singles them out and allows them to be further persecuted for who hey are. Gilead has complete control over all its subjects, especially the women, because they have control over their names.

In one scene Offred is able to overcome the system and play scrabble with her commander. She is able to use language, and so has the upper hand. Through the words she spells you can see how she really feels and what she is thinking. These words give her power that she normally doesn't have. This is a perfect scene to see how language really does control this society.



This book was one of my favorites. It was right up there with Anthem. I found it easy to relate to and more believable than most of the other books that we have read. Atwood successfully got her message across to the readers. Her views on feminism are quite apparent throughout the novel and her biblical allusions justify her stance. Though Atwood's details and descriptions she is able to convey a picture of a corrupt society that has very little morals. She is able to show us what can happen, even if it is just a tad far fetched. Although the ending of the novel is not what I had expected ( I wanted her to get out) it served its purpose and i found the historical notes at the end to be very interesting, they might have been one of my favorite parts. The historical notes really showed how we could be viewing events that happened years ago completely wrong, and that we should show more respect for the people that had to endure different events. We should respect those hurt in the past and being to learn from their mistakes. This book also make me want to say that women should stand up for themselves more, because we are just as good as men, we should not be degraded just because we are not like them. We should fight for the rights we deserve.