Like the setting, a dystopian republic similar to that of Puritan New England, the storytelling is a mix between past and future. Rather than having the events occur in chronological order, Atwood’s treatment of time in The Handmaid’s Tale adds to the storytelling by providing Offred a means of escape from reality. Atwood uses flashback, historical notes, and imagining others’ present as narrative techniques. Offred attempts to go through present events from others’ points of views. This helps her to not feel as alone, creates a sense of unity between people silenced by the government. It is used as a narrative technique to show the struggles faced by others who cannot publicly voice their opinions. There are provisions put in place so that they cannot …show more content…
Offred thinks about old memories since there is no entertainment to distract her current world. Her flashbacks, easily triggered, provides her with a sense of escape, of a better time. The knock would come at the door; I’d open, with relief, desire. He was so momentary, so condensed. And yet there seemed no end to him. We would lie in those afternoon beds, afterwords, hands on each other…” (51). Some memories are in the past tense while some are in the present tense. They encompass the time before Gilead, the Rachel and Leah Center, Aunt Lydia’s lessons. Many of the flashbacks reveal a world eerily similar to today. Sometimes she flashes back to a happier time in contrast to her current society. They emphasis a loss of freedom, morality, and choice. “All those women having jobs: hard to imagine, now, but thousands of them had jobs, millions,”