The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

Adrianne Bunch
Ms. Steuer
English IV
18 February 2023
A Man’s World
It is a man’s world, but that is nothing without a woman. Margaret Atwood, a feminist author, believes it is truly a woman’s world. In a society where names have vanished, families are separated, and women are brainwashed, main character Offred tries to find a way back to reality from the oppressionist leaders that have captured her. Often times when utopian societies are sought after, oppression is a main side effect because perfect is unattainable and not the same for everyone. In the dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood creates neologisms, chauvinistic metaphors, and symbolism of cigarettes, Luke, and the color red in order to convey that misogynistic authority

By allowing the main character to take a small taste of the cigarette, Atwood is revealing another moment of hope for a better future. When Offred got the chance of smoking again, she said the smoke “makes [her] dizzy” because she has not had it in a long time (Atwood 272). This small taste of freedom is used as a motivation to relieve herself of the dystopian society. Atwood characterizes Offred and Moira as having “recollections of the freedom and happiness” when cigarettes are grasped to help them “maintain crucial ties to her past life and thus to a sense of identity" (“The Handmaid’s Tale” [Napierkowski] 129). Atwood correlates cigarettes as a personal boost to Offred to help her find her identity and push for what she deserves. The purpose of this is to explain to readers that oppression can be overcome, and patriarchal societies can be manipulated into an equal society. In another occurrence in the novel, Atwood strategically correlates how Offred is with a man that “saw the look on [her] face” and “mistook it for something else,” when in reality, she only “really… wanted was the cigarette" showing a current day issue with women and men. Atwood is attempting to explain to readers that men often assume something based on the look of something, and instead of asking they decide to make their own solution. This can be relative to

Atwood organizes the novel to follow the challenges the protagonist faces as a women in a misogynistic society and dedicates Luke to be her savior. By Atwood providing him, readers can infer that Offred sees him as a piece of hope for a better future. For example, as more time passes by without him in her life, her memory of him “recedes, and [she] become[s] more faithless" (Atwood 281). Atwood integrates the word faithless as a key point to symbolize that Luke is a character for faith. Recognizing circumstances, Atwood provides a symbol of hope to allude that even though women are oppressed, they will continue to motivate themselves so that they can fight back. Atwood’s “heroine constantly yearns” for Luke to conclude that he is Offred’s support system (“The Handmaid’s Tale” [Napierkowski] 134). Atwood implements this into the story by criticizing oppression from men, which shows she is emphasizing that men are needed. Atwood indicates the focus of the story on oppression towards women, rather than the people who are doing the oppression. By doing this, Atwood’s inclusion makes it slightly ironic because men are the reason women are oppressed in the novel. Another way Atwood organizes Offred to need Luke is because she wants to be “told her name…valued” and “be more than valuable” (Atwood 97). Atwood writes this novel to remove names from