In Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, there are drastic changes that have occurred in modern society due to the government’s plan to save resources during a war. This presented a surreal flip to society which defined how citizens will live in order to succeed in the war. Offred, the narrator of this novel, constantly used or refused to use certain words in order to have control over the power that ran in the society and escape the clutches of it in her thoughts. This can be found through Atwood’s description, punctuation and time organization that is presented in the novel though Offred’s point of view. In Gilead, the roles of women have been altered to bring order to the society. Offred seems to introduce a few of these roles using unpleasant
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Throughout the novel, there are repeated segments titled ‘Night’. When Offred explained the night, she stated that, “The night is mine, my own time, to do with as I will, as long as I am quiet.”(72). This explanation is possibly why there are repeated parts named ‘Night’ as opposed to activities or items like the other segments. Offred uses the night to remember her true self instead of the Handmaid she was instructed to become. She does this by recounting parts of her past as a story during these segments and also organizing her thoughts of what has happened in the day. This can be proven by the fact that she has repeated the phrase “context” (263) in a few of the ‘Night’ segments and has usually recounted a story aswell, such as the one with Moira when they were in college after she stated, “But the night is my time out. Where should I go? Somewhere good.”(72). In addition, Offred stated, “Live in the present, make the most of it, it’s all you’ve got”(262), this statement offered the truth behind Offred’s time management. She uses time to reason with her situation but stating that “[The present] it’s all you’ve got”, meaning that time is the one of the only things that belonged to her. Her way of manipulating the time that is offered to her helps escape the truths of what became of her life by remembering who she was before the red
Throughout the novel, there are repeated segments titled ‘Night’. When Offred explained the night, she stated that, “The night is mine, my own time, to do with as I will, as long as I am quiet.”(72). This explanation is possibly why there are repeated parts named ‘Night’ as opposed to activities or items like the other segments. Offred uses the night to remember her true self instead of the Handmaid she was instructed to become. She does this by recounting parts of her past as a story during these segments and also organizing her thoughts of what has happened in the day. This can be proven by the fact that she has repeated the phrase “context” (263) in a few of the ‘Night’ segments and has usually recounted a story aswell, such as the one with Moira when they were in college after she stated, “But the night is my time out. Where should I go? Somewhere good.”(72). In addition, Offred stated, “Live in the present, make the most of it, it’s all you’ve got”(262), this statement offered the truth behind Offred’s time management. She uses time to reason with her situation but stating that “[The present] it’s all you’ve got”, meaning that time is the one of the only things that belonged to her. Her way of manipulating the time that is offered to her helps escape the truths of what became of her life by remembering who she was before the red