Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale displays Gilead, a depressed dystopian society, which is seen from the congested mind of the main character, Offred. Through Offred’s mind readers can see there is an obvious societal divide by gender and the caste system created in hopes to restore the society from the fall of the old world. Offred is a handmaid in Gilead. In Gileadean society, handmaid’s are essentially sex slaves forced to once a month engage in a ceremony with their house commander and his wife in hopes to have a child for their family since many women in this society are unable to produce children. Offred is a handmaid to Commander Fred and his wife, Serena Joy. The tone of the handmaid/wife relationship purpose if evident even in the epigraph. . The style of writing which Atwood chose exhibits a depressing tone through the use of biblical allusions, metaphor and flashbacks.
Biblical allusions are present in Gilead from the name itself to the names of the shops. The
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It can be argued that the novel itself was a metaphor to the mindset society has toward women. An obvious metaphor seen throughout the book is the use of color, especially red. Red generally symbolizes love, blood and anger. For the handmaids red symbolizes the blood that comes of their fertility. There is irony that there is use of a color meant to describe love in a society where love is overlooked as Offred states to the Commander, “ What did we overlook…?”. Another major metaphor throughout the novel is the use of flowers all around the city. Flowers are often used as a representation of beauty, fertility and growth. In Gilead, “"Many of the Wives have such gardens, it's something for them to order and maintain and care for...” Since many of the wives also are unable to have children and this is why the use of flowers amongst the wives can symbolize the need to take care of a child and watch it