In the novel The Handmaid's Tale by Margeret Atwood, the narrator, Offred, lives in a dystopian government which uses violence and totalitarianism to control the people. She is chosen to be a handmaid, a "baby -maker", for the Commander and his wife. In the the novel Offred expresses her emotional state and her deep desires to escape the society she lives in. She does so by mentioning the color red multiple times throughout the novel. In literature the color red is often associated to many things including blood, passion, bloodshed, and love. In the novel, this bold, dominant color is the color of the handmaids. The handmaids always wear long red habits that cover their bodies, “The skirt is ankle-length, full, gathered to a flat yoke that
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The type of flower that she uses is a tulip and she does so by describing tulips in particular ways, which helps the reader understand her. For instance, " the daffodils are now fading and the tulips are opening their cups, spilling out color. The tulips are red, a darker crimson towards the stem, as if they have been cut and are beginning to heal there. (p.12)”. The color described by Offred suggests her own feelings of being hurt, and finding her place in her new lifestyle, and she too, may be beginning to heal. Offred not only uses tulips to describe her emotional state but also the society she lives in describing it as, "The tulips along the border are redder than ever, opening, no longer wine cups, but chalices; thrusting themselves up, to what end? They are, after all, empty. When they are old they turn themselves inside out, and then explode slowly, the petals thrown out like shards. (p. 45)” This is a foreshadowing to what happens to handmaids after they perform their duties with their appointed families. The handmaids are like the tulips mentioned above; they are empty, waiting to be filled (impregnated). After the women have children they are discarded just like the petals and they are turned inside out and exploded, their petals,
The type of flower that she uses is a tulip and she does so by describing tulips in particular ways, which helps the reader understand her. For instance, " the daffodils are now fading and the tulips are opening their cups, spilling out color. The tulips are red, a darker crimson towards the stem, as if they have been cut and are beginning to heal there. (p.12)”. The color described by Offred suggests her own feelings of being hurt, and finding her place in her new lifestyle, and she too, may be beginning to heal. Offred not only uses tulips to describe her emotional state but also the society she lives in describing it as, "The tulips along the border are redder than ever, opening, no longer wine cups, but chalices; thrusting themselves up, to what end? They are, after all, empty. When they are old they turn themselves inside out, and then explode slowly, the petals thrown out like shards. (p. 45)” This is a foreshadowing to what happens to handmaids after they perform their duties with their appointed families. The handmaids are like the tulips mentioned above; they are empty, waiting to be filled (impregnated). After the women have children they are discarded just like the petals and they are turned inside out and exploded, their petals,