Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Literary Elements in The Handmaid's Tale Chart - Coggle Diagram
Literary Elements in
The Handmaid's Tale Chart
Women's Bodies as Political Instruments
“The greater the risk the greater the glory” - page 113
Paradox / Euphemism → Women did not know what they were giving birth to. Their bodies are not their own, they are political instruments. They are risking death
"We didn't know exactly what would happen to the babies that didn't get passed, they were declared Unbabies. But we knew they were put somewhere, quickly, away." - page 113
How the government only uses women for them to reproduce. They would keep information from the mothers of the babies. It also indicates that they kill the unbabies in a harsh and horrible method, which would explain why they don't want the public to know about it. They want their population to believe that they are a good, pure, and "holy" government so that they will trust them and not rebel or complain.
“From each, says the slogan, according to her ability; to each according to his needs. We recited that, three times, after dessert. It was from the Bible, or so they said” - page 117
Women were only used for their fertility to please men by having children. It demonstrates how they were servants to men, to fulfill their “needs”. This is simply another sort of propaganda utilized by Gilead to weaken the handmaids and make them more subject to Gilead's demands, but it is once again camouflaged in the appearance of religion. Talking about the difference between from each and to each → difference of women to men
The Causes and Consequences of Complacency
"I'm dreaming that I'm awake... she's running towards me, in her small green nightgown with the sunflower on the front... I pick her up... and I begin to cry, because I know that I'm not awake..." - page 109
Offred clearly thinks about her daughter often, she even dreams about her. This shows how much she cares and misses her, however, there is nothing she can do about it, instead, just accept the situation
"The egg is glowing now, as if it had an energy of its own. To look at the egg gives me intense pleasure. The sun goes and the egg fades... The minimalist life. Pleasure is an egg." - page 110
From this quote, the audience can see how boring Offred’s life was. IT reaches a point where it is so tedious that she gets joy from a simple egg. The sentence "the sun goes down and the egg fades" has an unpleasant tone to it, and it may even represent Offred's hopes and joys fading away.
Language as a Tool of Power and Oppression
“I sit in the chair and think about the word chair. It can also mean the leader of a meeting. It can also mean a mode of execution” - page 110
"Litanies" refers to a series of events, and Offred is referring to the way she fantasizes over language in this way, and how she uses it to "compose" herself... This is one basic thing she has control over, one small power she has discovered for herself...
“I dress, not looking down” - page 110
Offred is ashamed of her naked body. This shows how she has been affected by the degradation from the Aunts at the Red center, and even general propaganda and society
"In reduced circumstances, the desire to live attaches itself to strange objects. I would like a pet: a bird, say, or a cat. A rat would do, in a pinch, but there's no chance of that. This house is too clean." - page 111
This quote shows how boring and tedious her life is. It clearly shows oppression and the fact that they do not have access to practically anything. Offred is so desperate that she would even accept a rat or a bird as a pet, just to reduce the boredom and loneliness she feels