The Handmaid's Tale By Offred

In the Handmaid’s Tale culture is seen through the handmaid’s religious actions, status, and norms. Having to learn different rights as a human can be difficult and these women have to adapt to the certain norms of being a handmaid. They have to get use to wearing the same outfit every day and sleeping in a bed that’s not theirs. Offred explains how everything she has to wear is red (1998:8) She doesn’t get to pick what color she wants to wear each day. They are being forced to wear long skirts with wings around their head in order to prevent them from being seen or from looking at things they are restricted from. Offred explains to us that she doesn’t call her room hers because it’s not hers, showing us how these women have no ownership of

one single religion dominates and controls all aspects of these women’s life. Offred doesn’t know many things about religion, only what they teach her. Sometimes she prays: “Nolite te bastards carbonadom” not knowing what she is saying as reported by Atwood (1998:90). Her and Oflgen say “Praise be” after one another makes a statement to show that they were true believers (1998:19). The status persuaded throughout this episode and entire book is known to be men over women. The commander can do whatever he wants with a handmaid. Atwood provides us with an example of this later on in the book when he dresses her up and takes her out because he wants to have sex with her. (1998:230). This issue goes beyond the commander when Atwood encounters Offred with a doctor who claims he is trying to “help” her by having sex with her. (1998:59). This becomes an issue when these men outside of the commander think they have some type of control over the women. The status of men being over women is also seen through the government issues. In this episode, for example when the government forced employers to lay off all women from their jobs (Atwood

She is an in group to Offred because they are a part of the same group with the same values. Atwood explains that Offred sometimes refers to her as her own reflection. When she says “under his eye”, Ofglen replies with “under his eye” (1998:126). They are spitting images of each other. Likewise, the other handmaid’s that are also learning and experiencing right from wrong are a reference group to Offred. In the beginning of the book, Offred says that they learned to whisper without sound and read each other’s lips in order to learn everyone’s name (1998:4). In contrast, the wives and commander are outgroups from Offred because they are seen as in control and are valued more than the handmaids. Atwood describes to us that the women in the house are separated by their colors. Handmaids wear red; Martha’s wear green and the wives wear blue. (1998:9). Also in this episode the men who were able to keep their bank accounts and jobs were seen as “better” than the women (Atwood 2017). These people who are an out group to Offred don’t realize how these less valued women actually experience