Examples Of Individuality In The Handmaid's Tale

Damon Climer
Ms. Milliner
EES21QH03
10/18/16
Handmaid’s Tale and Individuality

Language, the way we speak and in what situations, is what gives us individuality, even if we’re from the same country. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, we’re presented with a character who’s supposed to be stripped of her individuality in order to serve her purpose with her only way of coping with the world her being the way she uses language to keep herself composed. This is highlighted by the world Atwood crafts around our main character Offred, a world devoid of any actual human interaction and and communication and actively frowns upon and punishes its people for ever thinking they could. It has been made clear time and time again throughout the narrative

They retreat to the safety of their minds. Throughout the book, Atwood portrays Offred as a cerebral woman who expresses herself more often than not in her head, the one place nobody can put a restriction on. It doesn’t matter what order she is given. Man cannot speak their mind when or wherever they please at all times, such as the workplace, school, or in this case, anywhere at all. But for somebody to speak their mind, they have to have their own understanding of the world around them, even if they can’t say it out loud. And in nearly every case imaginable, Offred is only allowed the freedom to speak her mind to herself. That’s just how she lives. That’s just how she

Constantly, Offred has been telling herself that one day maybe her husband Luke will turn up and she can go back to the way things were before the war. Constantly, Offred has been reminded herself of what it’s like to want something for herself and her own sake like stealing butter as a replacement for lotion, or taking something as petty as a flower. Most important of all, Offred has repeated a phrase in entirely different language time and time again, “Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.” It wasn’t until the Commander translated into “Don’t let the bastards grind you down,” that she actually understood what it meant. Yet up until that point and well after, Offred has repeated it word for word in latin as if it were some sort of prayer or a ray of hope that she could cling onto. Her grasp of language and using it to describe everything around her isn’t just a way to make her seem individual or special from those around her, if it was she’d be long gone. Telling her story, repeating that phrase over and over again, describing what she sees and experiences, those things are all she has left to get her through the her time as a Handmaid. When her family has been stripped away from her and contact with other people is limited, language is all Offred really has left to keep herself busy, to keep herself occupied between the long stretches of silence. Language is the only thing