Offred's Journey in the Handmaid's Tale

A novel usually depicts the journey of a character or characters. Respond closely to the text.

In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the author used characterization and specific incidents to depict the journey of Offred, the novel’s main protagonist. By allowing the readers to know what she was like and how she lived before the events in the novel took place and during her stay in the Commander’s house as a handmaid, the audience and myself are given the opportunity to follow her journey as she changes for better and for worst.

Through a series of flashbacks and Offred’s own stream of consciousness, Atwood shows the readers that Offred’s journey started even before Gilead was established and the Sons of Jacobs took control. By Offred’s own words we find out right from the start that she remembers the ‘time before,’ where women had freedom and rights, and where they were regarded as human beings not just as ‘two-legged wombs.’ Then, as she changes her perspective, we see how she had changed from the ‘time before’ to when she was assigned as Commander Fred’s handmaid.

Atwood used flashback to depict a significant change in Offred’s appearance. Before the regime took control, there were no restrictions on the clothes that women are allowed to wear. Offred remembers that she could wear anything she wants, from pants to make-up. But in present day, where she was merely a handmaid to a Commander, she was garbed in red: sleeved, ankle-length and even gloved with winged wimple, red stockings and white bloomers. She wore no make-up and only hides butter in her shoe to keep her face moisturized. Atwood used this change to show the readers how women have no control over their bodies in the futuristic Republic of Gilead. Their bodies are property of the State, and their sole purpose is to reproduce and fulfill their social obligations.

Though the Gilead society is clearly based on Christianity, it is noticeable how similar the conditions of handmaids are to those of Muslim women. Their clothes are like a Muslim dress which covers their body from head to toe and they, like Muslim women, were not allowed to reveal sexual attractions using their body. They were also subjected to similar rules and were as controlled as the women are in