The main character of the story is Offred, who is a handmaid. She swears to never say her former name, as that is something that doesn’t matter anymore. She’s lost her husband, Luke, as well as her daughter, who we don’t know the name of. Offred has been assigned to a new commander, because the last one didn’t work out. She seems to always follow the codes set into place, but she starts to realize that everything is completely disastorious and she speaks out against it. Her only real job is to bear children to the commander, as all the children were affected by the nuclear gas during the war.
Costumes are a symbol in the novel, as they have returned to colonial period clothing. They all wear different colors. The commanders wear black, their wives a blue …show more content…
It’s also used to show violence, since blood is the color red. We see it when Offred and Ofglen walk past the wall, where bodies are hanging off hooks because they were traitorous. Also, when Offred is looking at them, she tells us that blood has seeped through the cloth where the mouth would be. Which is what happens to a body when its strung up or impaled like that. Religious terms are used for the names of political figures, such as the soldiers being called “Angels”. Its to show their ranks in the community.
A major theme in this novel is Women are just vessels that need to be filled. This novel takes place in the future, where a war has broken out which in turn made the population fall. Since women are the only ones that can have children, that’s really their only use. These handmaids aren’t allowed to speak to anyone, and they don’t have jobs but rather chores that they have to take care of. Offred’s being to buy eggs, and even with this job she’s not allowed to go alone so she has to take another handmaid with her. They have gone back to a time where women don’t have any