How does Atwood use narration to create effects?

 

In Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood uses non-chronological time sequences, Offred’s ambiguous reconstructed narration, as well as the Historical Notes to create a sense of confusion and suspense.

 

a)”I lie in bed, still trembling. You can wet the rim of a glass and run your finger around the rim and it will make a sound. This is what I feel like: this sound of glass. I feel like the word shatter. I want to be with someone. Lying in bed, with Luke, his hand on my rounded belly. The three of us, in bed, she kicking, turning over within me.”

b) “It’s impossible to say a thing exactly the way it was, because what you say can never be exact, you always have to leave something out, there are too many parts, sights, crosscurrents, nuances”

c) “Are there any questions?”