The Handmaids Tale Essay

Description:
Examine how Offred changes as a result of her experience in Gilead. How is this development integral to Atwood’s message to the reader? In other words, what is she getting at?
“Pleasure is an egg. Blessings that can be counted, on the fingers of one hand. But possibly this is how I am expected to react. If I have an egg, what more can I want?” (111). Do small pleasures in the narrator’s life make things better or worse? Look at several examples.
“All around us we see evidence of the way in which belief is institutionalized and abused.” Make an argument about Atwood"s portrayal of religion in Gilead.
“Ordinary,” said Aunt Lydia, “is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary.” What does this scene and others in the novel suggest about the dangers of staying passive?
“The pen between my fingers is sensuous, alive almost, I can feel its power, the power of the words it contains.” Discuss the power of language in A Handmaid’s Tale. What is Atwood suggesting about the power of reading, writing, speaking, etc.? (Try to articulate something more specific than just "language is powerful.")
“I keep the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure I’ll come back to dig up, one day” (84). Explore the importance of names and naming in A Handmaid’s Tale.
Is this novel ultimately a feminist work, or is it a critique of feminism? Or something more complex? Support your argument with specific examples.
Margaret Atwood describes this novel as "a study of power, and how it operates and how it deforms or shapes the people who are living within that kind of regime." In what ways does power deform or shape characters in The Handmaid"s Tale?
On the flip side, this is also a story about agency. How do characters (especially Offred) subvert the system, in large and small ways? What is Atwood suggesting about life in a totalitarian regime?
In Gilead, women are categorized as wives, handmaids, Marthas, or Aunts, but Moira refuses to fit into a niche. Make an argument about Moira"s role throughout the tale and what she represents for Offred (or readers).