Handmaids Tale Analysis

In a messed up world where gender inequality plays a role there is a women named Offred.

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. Due to the fact that in this time not a lot of

women could have babies, Handmaids were the ones who had to reproduce babies. In this story

women were divided into categories. There were the Handmaids which were the young ones and

The Marthas, which were the cooks and they were the old ones and they couldn’t have babies.

Both groups wore a certain color representing them. The Handmaid’s wear red and the Marthas

wear green. The wives wear blue. These women worked in the commander’s home. These

women had very little freedom and were forbidden to do almost everything. In this novel

Atwood uses a type
Atwood

uses these words so the readers can understand the themes, representations of power, identity and

what the women were feeling. It’s basically a guide for us readers. Atwood also uses this

language to illustrate the control of women. In Gilead they lower women’s importance by their

gender as wives, Handmaids, Econowives or Marthas. Gilead sucks the freedom out of these

women and they take away the fact that they can just be women and just leaves them thinking

they’re just factories, just reproducing babies. It makes them think that’s all their good for. The

fact that they take away women being allowed to get girly and dress up is sad. “The smell of nail

polish has made me hungry.” This was said by offred in chapter 5. This was one of my favorite

scenes, this was where Ofglen and Offred seen Japanese tourist after they had just gone food

shopping. Offred was looking at a woman’s toes and the women’s toes were painted pink.

Ofglen and Offred were so fascinated. Offred said she can feel the women’s shoes on her own

feet. Offred is hungry for freedom. She misses what she use to have. She isn’t allowed to wear