LITERATURE ANALYSIS #1

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
1. Exposition: The story begins with the narrator's descriptive imagery of the conditions in which she lives in. The room (she forbids to call it her room because of her constantly moving nature) has almost prison like features: a dark room with a small window, chair, lamp, and a table, very basic feature. Offred is a handmaid whose primary role is to give birth to a healthy baby of a commander. She is part of the patriarchal, religious, totalitarian society of Gilead. The society consists of a hierarchy with commanders (rich government officials who are men), eyes (spies of the government), angels (soldiers), guardians (soldiers who are too young or too old), wives, handmaids, marthas (servants), econwives (wives of the poor), and the rest are labeled "un..." who are "infertile" handmaids, and handicapped citizen. Offred performs her duties as a handmaid going to the market on behalf of the wife, and having sex with the commander on the day of Ceremony.
Rising Action: Offred has had sex with the commander twice now and she does not feel any signs of pregnancy as her menstrual cycle continues. She does, however, begin to form a relationship with the commander, a rather odd one. Interaction with a commander and handmaid, other than a sexual one on the day of ceremony, is rare and actually forbidden in the eyes of the wives. He invites her to his study and never makes a move on her but let's her play games and look at magazines; it is forbidden for women to read. The wife, Serena Joy, oddly offers Offred a chance to be impregnated by Nick, a guardian assigned to the household who Offred encountered many times and even kissed, in order to avoid being sent to the colonies which she accepts.
Climax: She is taken away by the eyes in which she does not know if it leads "into the darkness within; or else the light. Beforehand, Nick assures her that "the eyes" were the Mayday, insurgents against the totalitarian government, coming to rescue her. The ultimately fear of a handmaid, or any citizen in general, is being taken away by the eyes which leads to ultimate death. She does not know if this act leads her to darkness or light.
The story ends on the climax for readers to question the outcome by the given clues throughout the book.
2. There is an end to a road, but the road there may take unexpected turns. At one point, Offred contemplates committing suicide thinking of her wicked life when she had once lived with her husband and a beautiful daughters long with having a stable job. That distant society changed when the totalitarian government took over. She has been morally shamed with her "duty" as a handmaid and finds it beyond frustrating that she cannot control her own destiny let alone her own body. She does reach an end. Her capture by the eyes symbolize her end, but it is not known if the end continues to freedom or is forever put to an end.
3. The author's tone is dark and hopeless like the nature of her job as a handmaids with a hint of humor. 
"Nothing changes instantaneously: in a gradually heating bathtub you'd be boiled to death before you knew it." pg. 56 (dark)
"I'am like a room where things once happened and now nothing does, except the pollen of the weeds that grow up outside the window, blowing in as dust across the floor." pg. 104 (hopeless)
"At least he's an improvement on the previous one, who smelled like a church cloakroom in the rain; like your mouth when the dentist starts picking at your teeth; like a nostril. The Commander, instead, smells of mothballs, or is this odor some punitive form of aftershave?" pg. 95 (humor)
4. Inference: "They've removed anything you could tie a rope to." Pg. 7 This infers that the authority is trying to avoid handmaids committing suicide.
Symbolism: "...black, for the commander, blue, for the commander's wife, and the one assigned to me, which is red." pg. 9 The different colors that the citizens wear symbolize their different ranks.
Flashback: "Is that how we lived then? But we lived as usual. pg. 56
Imagery: "A chair, a table, a lamp. Above, on the ceiling, a relief ornament in the shape of a wreath, and in the center of it a blank space, plastered over, like in a face where the eye has been taken out." pg. 7
Anaphora: "It must be just fine. It must be hell. It must be very silent." pg. 88
Foreshadowing: "I freeze, cold travels through me, down to my feet. There must have been microphones, they've heard us after all. Right in front of us the van pulls up. Two Eyes, in gray suits, leap from the opening double doors at the back. They got the man was walking along, a man with the briefcase, an ordinary looking man, slam him back against the black side of the van." pg, 169 This foreshadows Offred's soon coming capture.
Tone: "This is what I feel like: this sound of glass. I feel like the word shatter." pg. 103
Imagery: The suns coming weakly through the clouds, the smell of wet grass warming up is in the air." pg. 128
Bibliomancy: "Blessed be those that mourn, for they shall be comforted." pg. 89
Personification: "July, it's breathless days and santa nights, hard to sleep." pg. 199

Characterization:
1. Direct characterization: "My hair is long now, untrimmed." "I'm thirty three years old. I have brown hair. I stand five seven without shoes." 
Indirect characterization: "I am alive, I live, I breathe, I out my hand out, unfolded, into the sunlight. Where I am is not a prison but a privilege." This reveals her grateful  character even though the setting she just described was synonymous to a prison. "I could scream. I could run away. I could turn form her silently, to show her i won't tolerate this kind of talk in my presence. Subversion, sedition, blasphemy, heresy, all rolled into one. I steel myself. "No," I say." This shows her complicated feelings on the controlling society and also reveals her comfortableness and trustworthiness with Ofglen to be able to talk "blasphemy" with her.
By using both indirect and direct characterization, the author is able to fully develop the character for readers to really understand and be able to define the leading figure. Atwood wants the readers to not necessarily sympathize for Offred but to understand the cruel nature in which she lives in and how she as an individual reacts to these unnatural settings.
2. Since the story is told in the first person narrative, when the narrator begins to describe herself or her thoughts/actions, her diction is more personal and less formal. "Merely to lift off the heavy white wings and the veil, merely to feel my own hair again, with my hands, is a luxury." 
3. Offred is a dynamic, round character. She begins to describe herself as one who follows the rules by not smoking, drinking alcohol, or conversing in gossip but overtime she becomes rebellious by visiting the commander outside of the Ceremony, talking "treacherous" schemes with Ofglen, and having sex with Nick. As the main character and protagonist of the book, Offred is a round character who is fully developed through her descriptive thoughts. Although, her exact physical appearance is not revealed.
4. I feel like I've met a person because the narrator shares her raw, innermost thoughts. Since the point of view is first person narrative, Offred shared any events and thoughts that surround her. "Every night when I go to bed I think, In the morning I will wake up in my own house and things will be back the way they were." She's so honest with her feelings, that I, as a reader, have sympathy for her and can understand and try to relate to her.

When I first started reading this book, I thought that it was really weird and wrong in so many ways. After having read the book, the complexity and depth of the book with the cycling connections was awesome to put together. There are many elements to this book that I don't think I successfully put down everything for it to make sense. This book is "sick" in a way because of the wicked patriarchal system, but it was definitely a different type of book that I usually wouldn't have read, which I find as a good experience.