How Appropriate to the Narrative Structure of ‘the Handmaid’s Tale’ Is Offred’s Description of Her Story as “Limping and Mutilated”?

The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel which follows the story of Offred who has been involved in a sudden change in society, resulting to her being a handmaid. The story has been told from her own perspective which enables the reader to visualize the proceedings from Offred’s shoes. On the contrary, Atwood had written this novel from Offred’s point of view and only hers which restricts the reader to see the bigger picture and only trail Offred’s memories and her opinions, ultimately allowing one to see the narrative structure being “limping and mutilated”.

The novel begins in an irregular fashion as it seems that Atwood had jumped into the story. The first sentence states ‘We slept in what had once been the gymnasium’. This one sentence alone raises confusion amongst the readers mind resulting to them having more questions than answers. The significance of this is that it leads the reader to wonder; why are they sleeping in the gymnasium? Who is ‘we’? And what has happened to the gymnasium? The effect of Atwood using the technique of jumping into the story would initially force the reader to fit the pieces together, as some readers may be pessimistic which supports the argument that the narrative structure of this story is limping and mutilated. Nonetheless, others would initially see this from a different perspective as some may assume that the individuals involved in the story are in safe surroundings. Consequently, Atwood has cleverly caught the attention of the reader as one would wonder what is going to happen next in the story.

As the novel continues, Atwood begins to engage with the reader by using the senses, effectively portraying an image in the readers mind. ‘I thought I could smell, faintly like an afterimage, the pungent scent of sweat’. The effect of this is that everyone is able to comprehend the smell, which allows one to engage with Offred, the narrator, and fall in her place. This expertly paints an image of the surroundings as various readers would associate the smell of sweat negatively, ultimately supporting the claim of the narrative structure being limping and mutilated. With the use of the senses, Atwood persuades the reader to read onwards being that they are now in the position of Offred.

Continuing onwards, Offred begins to reveal her dissatisfaction of the situation that she is under. She mentioned that ‘We yearned for the future’ which implies to the reader of how she is feeling during this moment of time. The significance of this is that one may ask when reading this why were they yearning for the future? Subsequently, some readers are made wonder as to what has happened and why has it happened, while various other readers would already make an assumption as to what is happening and the reason as to why. This provides evidence of ‘limping and mutilated’ narration as the implication of her yearning for the future could be that they under a negative situation. Additionally, Attwood used the term ‘yearned’ which is in the past tense; the use of this is that it would plant a question in the readers mind asking what happened next? With one wondering as to what has happened now, certain readers would believe that Offred has overcome the situation that she is, since she is able to tell the story, however, others may believe otherwise; which supports the idea of the limping and mutilated structure.

Proceeding through the novel, further examples of limping and mutilated narration have been implemented. For instance, Offred quotes that in the current predicament ‘Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled; they had electric cattle prods slung on thongs from their leather belts’. This implants a disturbing image in the mind of the reader as the description of the situation illustrates a comparison of the treatment that they are receiving to the treatment of animals. The reader is now able to make an assumption that Offred is currently in a troublesome situation due to the limping and mutilated narration.

Being that this novel has been written from Offred’s perspective, it would be considered to be biased therefore being unreliable. Some readers may consider Offred to be a feminist being that her mother was a feminist as well, and it is common in society for a child to be raised thinking a certain way. Thus, the limping and mutilated narration may be over exaggerated. Moreover, the biased opinion would result to contradictory opinions from the readers. Example being that since Atwood has used incidents that already happen; certain female readers may understand what Offred is going through, whereas others who do not understand may just see this as limping and mutilated narration used.

In addition to this, the structure of the novel would support the description of the narration being limping and mutilated. Reason being that the chapter which is labelled ‘Night’ only includes the incidents of when Offred is reflecting on her thoughts. This implicates that Offred is only able to be independent and free during the night time, however, she does have some restriction. This falls on the limping and mutilated narration technique as the reader would feel that Offred is against her own will being that she is only alone at night.

The most notable part of the novel which supports the claim that the description of the narration is limping and mutilated is the sex scene between Offred and The Commander. Reason being that the procedure was described to be disturbing as Offred has been taken against her own will. ‘Below it the Commander is fucking. What he is fucking is the lower part of my body. I do not say making love, because this is not what he’s doing’. The quote here shows how Offred feels about the procedure being that she only treats it as a duty. Therefore, she is unappreciative of what she is made to do which results to her limping and mutilated description. In addition to this, while this is happening, Offred mentioned that Serena gripped her hand hard and Serena’s ring cut her hand. This is reflective on the relationship between Serena and Offred as Serena is jealous at the fact that Offred is fertile, being that Serena wishes she was the one that carried the child. For this reason, Atwood uses limping and mutilated narration.

The context of this novel is that it was released in the 1980’s which around this time, a fear of infertility was spreading. Reason being that due to nuclear wars, certain children were born mutant and this rose fear amongst the public. Additionally, despite Margaret Thatcher’s rise to power, women were still being undermined which is reflective of what Atwood is saying in her novel.

To conclude, the description of Offred’s narration being limping and mutilated is highly appropriate being that Atwood has used various techniques to engage with the reader and allow the reader to predict outcomes in ones mind, examples being the use of senses and the comparisons. Furthermore, Offred also chose a biased narrator in order to create contradictory opinions and force the reader to evaluate the situation, which is a reason as to why she had used limping and mutilated narration.