Symbolism In Handmaid's Tale

Rhetorical devices such as diction, satire, and sarcasm are heavily scattered throughout the Handmaid’s Tale, however, the paramount device present in the book the extreme use of symbolism. Margaret Atwood has made most everything in the story, whether on purpose or happy accident, into a symbol for some item of the past. In the story, the narrator, Offred, spends her life in a civilization known as The Republic of Gilead. While there, she discusses the trials and tribulations of all women to conceive a child and how few children, who are now called “national resources,” there are present. She also brings to light the rigidity of the government and how few liberties anyone, man or woman, has in the present days. Atwood touches on the ideas …show more content…
Sex is an important topic in the book, despite the fact that it is only really mentioned a few times. Each month, the Handmaids undergo what is known as “the Ceremony.” It is basically an attempt, once a month, to get the Handmaid pregnant. “It has nothing to do with passion or love or romance...arousal and orgasm are no longer thought necessary…” (Atwood 94). It seems as though this ceremony is strictly business; there is no longer a meaning to sex, other than reproduction. There are numerous symbols of fertility in the Handmaid’s Tale, such as the extreme amount of flowers decorating Offred’s dwelling. It seems as though the wife of Offred’s Commander has filled the house from floor to ceiling with floral decor, as well as religiously tending a garden filled with beautiful flowers of every kind. Even in life outside of this book, flowers are universally seen as a symbol of beauty and fertility. “From a technical standpoint, flowers are also the part of a plant that hold the reproductive organs” (Fox, Morgan). They are given special attention as an organism that can bloom and grow when few women can. Flowers can also disguise something ugly, such as the hanged man’s bloody mouth. “The red of the smile is the same as the red of the tulips in Serena Joy’s garden” (Atwood 33). This quote is a bit of vulgar shock from the previous few …show more content…
Children were extremely important, as they were the future. Unfortunately, they were scarce due to a war which leads to diseases that in turn leads to infertility in men and women. The biblical quote from Genesis located in the epigraph of the Handmaid’s Tale gives an immediate reference to religion, leading the reader to infer that religion will be important to the plot. Oddly enough though, the laws of Gilead are seemingly hand-picked from the bible; only certain passages are acknowledged and put into action. There are laws against homosexuality; the punishment if caught is death. Men in this society are absolved from adultery for the sake of childbearing, as in the case of the Handmaids, when women are not. Unusual, small pieces of biblical text show up frequently throughout the book. This is especially prevalent in propaganda and the names of places. The name Gilead in itself is a biblical reference. Each store shopped at by the Handmaids has a biblical name: Loaves and Fishes, Milk and Honey, All Flesh, Lilies. Whenever Offred has a flashback, it will generally include some sort of biblical text. “These references, though, have been bastardized or altered in some cases to further the goals of the Republic” (Fox, Morgan). What Fox and Morgan are implying here is that this terrible Republic of Gilead is even changing the bible, interpreting it differently to suit their own