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Literary devices in the handmaids tale
Literary devices in the handmaids tale
Literary devices in the handmaids tale
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On August 13, 1961, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) constructed the Berlin Wall to prevent its citizen from leaving the country (Frederick Taylor, US News.com). For twenty-eight years, the Berlin Wall completely detached West Berlin, isolating its population from the remaining human race. Margaret Atwood represents this real experience in the novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Instead of dividing a large population, Atwood conveys the Harvard University perimeter wall as a divider between oneself and the people around them. Through this, Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaids Tale demonstrates how the author uses physiological object of the wall to reveal the barriers between the characters, physically and emotionally.
Atwood’s description of the Harvard Wall presents a setting that is intimidating, daunting, and rigidly regulated. We can identify with the fearsome image Atwood describes because we can all picture a common jail cell. The cold brick walls “and barbed wire along the bottom… they are ugly” (31). The walls themselves create and image of fear within the human mind however, it is what is in or on these walls that frightens the mind the most. In prisons we commonly think of the punishment is a hidden form of isolation, humiliation and/or torture, for the misbehaved. The Harvard wall publicly displays these methods of punishment through the form of lynching. This is a method used by Atwood to convey the significance of the wall and the use of fear produced by the Gilead society to create a barrier. “But on one bag there's blood, which has seeped through the white cloth. . . This smile of blood is what fixes the attention finally” (32). As Atwood clearly states, the men who are hanging on the wall are meant to frighten peop...
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...hysical object of the wall and the clothing connect to the emotional separation of the multiple characters by the fear and barriers set by the Gilead government. The fear and barriers come from the Harvard wall an image depicted by Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid’s Tale. The Novel additionally utilizes the image of the wall to show the physical and emotional boundaries it creates within its characters. Borders are created throughout the novel, through clothing, through fear and through people.
Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986. Print.
Collins English Dictionary. London: Collins, 2009. Print.
Taylor, Frederick. "The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall." US News. U.S.News & World Report, 13 Nov. 2008. Web. 02 Apr. 2012.
Berlin Wall gives a brief over-view of the Berlin Wall, its history and its fall. Provides many useful links to several other sites which offer a more in depth exploration of the circumstances surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall. This is a vital link for gaining a more comprehensive understanding of the role of the seperation of East and West Germany and the Berlin Wall itself during the Cold War era.
The two texts Harrison Bergeron, written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and The Handmaid’s Tale by Reed Morano explore the idea of individuality loss due to complete government control through similar and varied techniques. Both texts enable the audience to obtain an understanding that a society where there is no ability to express one’s own self, is ultimately dangerous in both execution and outcome. Throughout the two texts the authors explore individuality suppression through government control by utilising varied techniques such as motifs, similes as well the ideas of handicaps which are a result of the need for constant surveillance. The dystopian texts of futuristic, imagined universes display the illusion of perfect societies that are being created,
In the Handmaid’s Tale they have a wall made of red bricks which have sentries, floodlights mounted on metal posts, barbed wire along the bottom, and glass set in the concrete along the top of the wall. The wall is supposed to show fear or give a warning to those who get thoughts of trying to rebel against the nation. The wall also has hooks on it to place the bodies of those who have committed crimes against Gilead. This is another symbol of fear, warning, and a reminder to the citizens of Gilead of what could happen if you don't follow the rules of Gilead. “It makes the men like dolls on which the faces have not yet been painted; like scarecrows, which in a way is what they are, since they are meant to scare (Atwood 32).” The doctors on
Answer: When I hear the word fence I imagine a farm gridded using white wooden fences. The fences are separating the animals that inhabit the farm. In literature, a fence reminds me of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Similarly to a fence on a farm, the fence surrounding the concentration camp separates things - people this time, not animals. What’s the writer doing with this object? I believe she's using it to show the difference between the fortunate and unfortunate. A fence in literature is a barrier between things. It symbolizes differences and enhances the meaning of the things on either side of the fence. Bruno, the free boy, is used to show the ignorant and lucky. The other boy, Shmuel, is used to show the minority and less fortunate. Their parts in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas are only enhanced by the presence of a
Often in life, people take their freedoms, a gift that allows them to express their individuality, for granted. However, in the dystopian societies of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, people are reminded of just how easily their freedoms and humanity can be stripped away. Attwood and Ishiguro urge people to never lose sight of the core values that define who they are. The compelling novels chronicle the life journey of two protagonists as they fight to define their own existence and worth in life. Offred, the central character in The Handmaid’s Tale is exploited as a baby making machine, while Kathy, the leading role in Never Let Me Go, is degraded as a lifeless android in a sea of clones. From Atwood and Ishiguro’s provocative coming-of-age novels emerge two beautiful and inspiring heroines. Whether it is through their remembrance of the past, their loss of innocence, their capability to hope, or their ability to establish relationships, Offred and Kathy prove that they are every bit as human as the rest of society. Ultimately, despite the many differences in their distinct masterpieces, Atwood and Ishiguro share the same intent in their haunting portrayal of the protagonists’ dehumanizabtion—to shed light on the true essence of what it is to be human.
A description of the wall is necessary in order to provide a base for comparison with the rest of the story. Because we only get the narrator s point of view, descriptions of the wall become more important as a way of judging her deteriorating mental state. When first mentioned, she sees the wall as a sprawling, flamboyant pattern committing every artistic sin, (Gilman 693) once again emphasizing her present intellectual capacity. Additionally, the w...
Taylor, Frederick. "The Berlin Wall: A Secret History." History Today Feb. 2007: 43-49.SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 20 Feb. 2012.
Pei-ning Lee, Valeria. “Subverting the Time and Space in Gilead: Exploration of Spatial Practices in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale”. Interdisciplinary.net. n.p. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.
Walls are built up all over the world. They have many purposes and uses. The most common use of a wall is to divide a region. One of these famous walls is the Berlin Wall, which was constructed in 1961. This Wall was erected to keep East Berlin out of West Berlin, and even America had its own wall well before this one. There were a few major differences though. America’s wall, in contrast, was not a physical one that kept capitalism from communism. America’s wall was of a psychological variety, and it spread across most of the nation. America’s wall was more of a curtain in the fact that one could easily pull it aside to see what behind it, but if one didn’t want to they didn’t. This curtain was what separated whites and blacks in America, and one famous writer, James Baldwin, felt there was a need to bring it down. He felt that one should bring it down while controlling his or her emotions caused by the division. One of the best places to see the bringing down of the curtain and the effects that it had on the nation is where the curtain was its strongest, in Birmingham, Alabama.
Near the beginning of section 6 in The Handmaid’s Tale, the author describes something called the “Wall”. The wall perceives to made of red bricks and a heavy defence system; such as, barbed wire along the bottom of the fence, glass embedded in concrete on the top and an electronic alarm system. The wall was meant to keep individuals in; for instance, Offred states “No one goes through those gates willingly. The precautions are for those trying to get out”( Atwood 31). Moreover, on the wall contained individuals with white bags over their heads and were hanged;some hung from hooks because they were armless. For example, they portrayed as “ men like dolls on which the faces have not yet been painted; like scarecrows”(Atwood 32). Furthermore,
Wilson, August. “Fences.” Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Compact 7th ed. Eds. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Wadsworth CENGAGE, 2010. 1572-1625. Print.
"The fall of the Berlin Wall: 1989." Global Events, 2013. N.p.: n.p., 2013. N. pag. Gale Student Resources. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
The author, Fredrick Taylor did an outstanding job of collecting official history, archives and personal accounts that tell the complete story of the rise and fall of The Wall. Taylor sets the scene with the defeat of the Nazis in 1945. The Soviets occupying the east of Berlin, and American, French and British forces in the west, Berlin was suddenly the embodiment of the post-war world’s great divide. Before long, thousands of young East Berliners were crossing the open border to take up better education and employment opportunities in West Germany. The leader of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Walter Ulbricht noticed this and turned to Moscow for help. By 1961, two million East Germans had deserted their country and radical action was required. Then officially on the morning August 13th, 1961, the first barbed wire and then concrete barriers appeared, prompting a wave of desperate escape attempts. Taylor does a great job of narrating the desperate bids for freedom. The desperation of people and the things that they did were shocking. Some swam through the icy waters of the river Spree, some went through sewer pipes, and some were crazy enough to try going through the frontier with fo...
Features of Dystopian and Speculative Fiction in The Handmaid’s Tale and Never Let Me Go
...st Mending Wall is neither right nor wrong, pro nor con. The reader can understand after reading the poem that Mending Wall was intended to be neither right nor wrong. Society understands the practical approach of the youth, "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know what I was walling in or walling out" (Frost 1178). Part of humanity, though, also understands the safeness of the old man's belief, "Good fences make good neighbors" (Frost 1178). An understanding can be reached by the reader on both ends of the pole. That is only due to the fact that Robert Frost wrote so simply in a vernacular form that the common man could understand. His way of communicating the ideals of both of his characters was not only easily readable but also easily relatable. This fact gives Robert Frost the unique feature of writing a story without a conclusion and having his reader accept that.