Handmaid's Tale Allusions

In literature, a majority of famous works have come upon social and political issues. In the novel, “Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, the author uses literary elements to explore the social and political issues of the Republic of Gilead. Some of the elements used throughout the novel are imagery, foreshadowing, and allusions. One of the literary elements used in the novel is allusion. An allusion is an indirect reference. A large amount of the story has brought back the allusion of the Hitler era. Hitler, of all other Nazi’s, was a dictator who used all the power he had to abuse and detach the power of trust, belief, and free will. This goes for Gilead as well. The Republic of Gilead was once the U.S. It had no dictator. However, it all …show more content…
Imagery is visually descriptive or figurative language.The narrator Offred explains how Gilead is a society that was founded on a “return to traditional values” (christianity beliefs). The new laws prohibits abortions, and women voting. Atwood, images a place where everything is mainly a totalitarian. Many handmaids are forced to have sex, for reproductive purposes, and to improve human life in Gilead. Furthermore, many of these handmaid's were 2nd class citizens. They wore the color red to signify that they were handmaid’s and that there purpose was to produce. Other classes include black for commander, blue for wives, and green for marthas.”There are other women with baskets, some in red, some in the dull green of the Marthas, some in the striped dresses, red and blue and green and cheap and skimp, that mark the women of the poorer men”(ch.5 par. 4). Overall, this example of imagery creates a social and political issue where, the handmaid's (women in general) don’t have freedom to wear what they want but, instead they are forced into color outfits based on their roles in Gilead. In all, the author uses imagery to address the issue of theocracy and women’s rights, both political and social(poverty/lower class