“Historical Notes” in The Handmaid’s Tale
The ideas of politics, gender roles, human rights and religion are all discussed in Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. The novel follows the story of Offred, a handmaid forced to serve the Commander by bearing his children. The story concludes with “Historical Notes” about a symposium being held discussing the practices that occurred and how they discovered the evidence of this dystopia. The “Historical Notes” in the book are necessary to the narrative of The Handmaid’s Tale in that it is warning the readers of the dangers that could occur and have occurred, it provides new insight in the story, and it gives the story closure. Although some readers argue that the historical shouldn’t …show more content…
When questioned, “Atwood insists that Gilead evolves from an understanding of US history” (Rule). In the very early roots of the United States, the country was wholesomely believing in the practices of Puritanism. The Puritans had very strict beliefs and they were a male- centric society. This is just one of the examples that are reflective of the society that was set up in Gilead as there are many parallels between the strict societies. Atwood even goes as far as to clearly denote that “The thing to remember is that there is nothing new about the society depicted in The Handmaid's Tale except the time and place. All of the things I have written about have been done before, more than once.” The “Historical Notes” serve as a way to prove this in that they are describing a time in the past but to go even as far as to liken the way people were living in Gilead to “German prisoners of war in Canadian “POW” camps of the Second World War” (Atwood 307). Atwood draws connections from unfortunate times that people can relate to and understand in the past to show how what people were going through stems from real …show more content…
The “Historical Notes” also serve as a way to give the story new meaning. The information from the “Historical Notes” “provides readers with an example of how not to read Atwood's novel and thereby directs readers toward a proper reading of both the novel and Offred's narrative” (Hogsette). The “Historical Notes” makes the reader look at the story as if they were with Offred throughout the whole story and are now looking back at it at . The inclusion of the “Historical Notes” proves that Atwood was able to craft the story two ways, once with the original reading which lead to confusion of the how was the story being told and why didn’t always make logical sense to write it as such. This way makes the reader have to stop and question the novel, but upon the rereading of the book it is clear that we were with Offred and these are her thoughts from a later time which is why they are a bit jumbled. This makes the reader able to trust the novel in that it is accurate, firsthand information about the society. The “Historical Notes” allow the reader to take a new perspective on the novel and focus on the information now that they know it is Offred telling the story.
The “Historical Notes” in The Handmaid’s Tale continually prove to be an essential part of the novel because it proves that Gilead was based on past events, warns that if not handled
The ideas of politics, gender roles, human rights and religion are all discussed in Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. The novel follows the story of Offred, a handmaid forced to serve the Commander by bearing his children. The story concludes with “Historical Notes” about a symposium being held discussing the practices that occurred and how they discovered the evidence of this dystopia. The “Historical Notes” in the book are necessary to the narrative of The Handmaid’s Tale in that it is warning the readers of the dangers that could occur and have occurred, it provides new insight in the story, and it gives the story closure. Although some readers argue that the historical shouldn’t …show more content…
When questioned, “Atwood insists that Gilead evolves from an understanding of US history” (Rule). In the very early roots of the United States, the country was wholesomely believing in the practices of Puritanism. The Puritans had very strict beliefs and they were a male- centric society. This is just one of the examples that are reflective of the society that was set up in Gilead as there are many parallels between the strict societies. Atwood even goes as far as to clearly denote that “The thing to remember is that there is nothing new about the society depicted in The Handmaid's Tale except the time and place. All of the things I have written about have been done before, more than once.” The “Historical Notes” serve as a way to prove this in that they are describing a time in the past but to go even as far as to liken the way people were living in Gilead to “German prisoners of war in Canadian “POW” camps of the Second World War” (Atwood 307). Atwood draws connections from unfortunate times that people can relate to and understand in the past to show how what people were going through stems from real …show more content…
The “Historical Notes” also serve as a way to give the story new meaning. The information from the “Historical Notes” “provides readers with an example of how not to read Atwood's novel and thereby directs readers toward a proper reading of both the novel and Offred's narrative” (Hogsette). The “Historical Notes” makes the reader look at the story as if they were with Offred throughout the whole story and are now looking back at it at . The inclusion of the “Historical Notes” proves that Atwood was able to craft the story two ways, once with the original reading which lead to confusion of the how was the story being told and why didn’t always make logical sense to write it as such. This way makes the reader have to stop and question the novel, but upon the rereading of the book it is clear that we were with Offred and these are her thoughts from a later time which is why they are a bit jumbled. This makes the reader able to trust the novel in that it is accurate, firsthand information about the society. The “Historical Notes” allow the reader to take a new perspective on the novel and focus on the information now that they know it is Offred telling the story.
The “Historical Notes” in The Handmaid’s Tale continually prove to be an essential part of the novel because it proves that Gilead was based on past events, warns that if not handled