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Offred's Struggle to Balance Hope

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Submitted By rhunjan
Words 1205
Pages 5
Rhea Hunjan
English
Oct 10th 2013

How does Offred change her way of coping while under different circumstances?

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood shows a women’s life within a totalitarian society. Offred, the protagonist and narrator, struggles to remain sane within herself, this is express through her internal battle of balance of hope between her past, and the present she is in. As she tries to handle the different situations, her coping methods vary with her state of mind within the circumstance. Offred’s struggle is manifested in two different occasions through the book. Her hope to stay sane in one situation is done by her reminiscing the past she had and telling us that her past life identity must be hidden from others, while under different circumstances she copes by convincing herself that the present is where all her attention should be, and who she is now is who she must remain to survive.

As Offred struggles to keep her sanity, she uses different methods to cope with her situations. Towards the beginning of the book, in Chapter 14, Offred tells us that she has “another name” however using it is forbidden. She also says “ I keep the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure. I’ll come back to dig up, one day. I think of this name as buried”. This statement shows how she want to keep her identity hidden from this world, so one day if free to go from this situation she can come back for her name, as she connotes her name with a treasure. The whole passage from this extract about her name, is told in a very secretive manner by using words like treasure, forbidden, hidden, and charm. She also describes her identity as buried, which suggest how she feels under the pressure of this society. She feel buried and piled to the top with burdens of having a child, and or she feels worthless like something buried inside the ground,

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