The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood, is a dystopian text which reflects on the perils of a monotheocratic fundamentalist society. This can be seen through the narrative and language structures of the text. Atwood has used these structures to better define the themes of the text. She uses a technique known as stream of consciousness to allow readers to view the story and its messages from the main character Offred`s point of view. This allows readers to experience events and memories as vividly as she does, she shows us the travels of her mind through asides, flashbacks, and digressions By using this form of narrative structure Atwood has positioned the reader to see the oppressive and despotic atmosphere of the society in which the story is set. Offred’s frequent digressions into the past help to parallel her past experiences to her present state of mind. Much of her narration is concerned not with events, but with her emotional state, which is often affected by memories from her happier past. This is part of the exposition used by Atwood in order to help the reader understand

Another part of the language structure that contributes to the readers understanding and interpretation of the text is the discourse of Gilead, or, the language forced upon the society by its architects The introduction of words with new meanings helps to demonstrate the extent to which the Gileadean Regime has control over is people and demonstrates how much they have censored the original society. For example, the use of the word ‘Particicution.’ This word is introduced on 290 of the text in chapter forty-three in the section termed Salvaging. This term is a combination of the words participation and execution. It’s a fitting term for the situation in which the handmaids, of whom Offred is one, participate in the execution of an innocent man charged with rape. The handmaids are the group subjugated by society to the stage where they are lent out to-ranking Gilead officials in the hope that they will act as surrogate mothers and produce offspring. In this section they are allowed to judge others and select their form of punishment. This reflects on the aspects of human nature and causes readers to do some self-reflection.

how Offred came to be where she is and to provide us with a context for the plot.

This last section is a strange summation of the text, being told from a totally different point of view and a long time after the fact. Atwood uses this section to convey the idea that society is ever changing according to the whims of those in power and that the thing that allowed these changes was the complacency of society. She warns against trusting and giving too mush power to those who supposedly represent us because human nature is fickle and people often have their own ideas of how things should be. The last line of the text, “Are there any questions?” is full of irony and leaves readers with many things unanswered. The whole purpose of the text is to caution society against complacency, Gilead would never have worked if the society that it was forced upon hadn’t of been so complacent. Atwood’s use of the language and narrative structures within the text positions readers to correctly interpret the underlying themes and motifs conveyed in the text. Readers feel shocked and end up contemplating the fate of a society in which not everyone is equal and objectification and subjugation of people, women especially is a common practice.

The Historical Notes at the end of the text are also a significant part of the language and narrative structure. They can be paralleled to the rest of the text. They are told from a totally different and analytical point of view. The epilogue is a transcript of a symposium held in 2195, in a university in the Arctic. Gilead is long gone, and Offred's story been published as a manuscript titled The Handmaid's Tale. Her story was found recorded on a set of cassette tapes locked in an army foot locker in Bangor, Maine. The main part of the epilogue is a speech by an expert on Gilead named Professor Pieixoto. Pieixoto warns his audience against judging Gilead too harshly, because such judgments are culturally biased, and he points out that the Gilead regime was under a good deal of pressure from the falling birthrate and environmental degradation. He explains that Gilead, using the Bible as justification, replaced what he calls “serial polygamy” with “simultaneous polygamy.” He explains that like all new systems, Gilead drew on the past in creating its ideology. In particular, he mentions the racial tensions that plagued pre-Gilead, which Gilead incorporated in its doctrine.

Some topics in this essay:
Gileadean Regime, Margaret Atwood, United America, Offred Pieixoto, Rachel Bilhah, American Government, Pieixoto Pieixoto, Chariot Atwood’s, Offred Gileadean, Moira Aunts, language narrative, narrative structure, language narrative structure, architects gilead, society gilead, structures text, text told totally, told totally, based religion, language structure, offred's story, rachel bilhah, narrative structures text, language narrative structures,