| Louise et Shaïneze | Atwood uses chocking similes to show the violence of Gilead. For example, as Offred walks by the wall, Atwood illustrates her reaction thinking: « It makes the men look like dolls on wich faces have not yet been painted, like scarecrows, wich in a way is what they are, since they are meant to scare ». In this quote, Atwood shows us Offred’s reaction to the people changed on the wall like scarecrows. She compares the bodies to scarecrows because they are examples to scare people who would want to rebel against the government.
Then, Atwood shows how Offred pictures herself after the shower: « I wait, washed, brushed like a price pig ». She compares Offred to a pig, an animal, because this is how the handmaids are treated, like animals. Atwood shows that in Gilead society, handmaids don’t have human clays many more and are used against their rights. Finally, as a last example, Atwood illustrates Offred’s mind after she put butter on her face like lotion « we are containers, it’s only the inside of our bodies that are important. The outside can become hard and wrinkled, for all they care, like the shell of a nut ». Again Atwood shows how handmaids are dehumanized for Gilead, handmaids condition does not matter. They are just containers for babies, so here handmaids are objectified. To conclude, the simile shows how violent the Gilead society is toward women. It doesn’t let them any liberty of speech or just simple freedom. |
| Esther, Irenee, Victor | Atwood uses shocking and similes to show the violence of Gilead.
First of all, in chapter 6, as Offred is looking at the wall and sees the hand man/women, she says: “ it makes the men look like dolls on which faces have not yet been painted […] like scarecrows, which in a way is what they are, since they are meant to scare.” There Atwood creates a really long sentence that creates an impact on the reader as he is used to short and descriptive phrases. The repetition of the word “fear” is also a shocking image that shares an emotion and creates an atmosphere. Second of all at the very beginning of the tale Offred compares The handmaid’s life to the army: “ Think of it as being in the army, said aunt Lydia.” This quote is proof for the violence of the Gilead Society (how they have no possessions and lost their identity for violent reasons). It also shows the strictness of this new society and the difficulty to accept it. Lastly, in chapter 13, Offred is comparing herself to a pig which is a degrading image: “ I wait, washed, brushed, fed like a prize pig.” This is shocking because it proves that she has some values to others (prize) but she still is a pig. It is vital in the way the society considers its members and how she just is the property of someone. To conclude this all, The author utilizes lots of similes to create a sense of shock from the reader and to enhance how violent the Gilead society is. |
| Cesar and Pablo | Atwood uses simile to illustrate the loss of identity. Take as an example when she describes the mirror when walking downstairs “like the eye of a fish, and myself in it like a distorted shadow.” From this quote we can deduce that the author is trying to outline how her personality is vanishing. It also resembles the little red riding hood tale in the way that she feels like a prey and that she is being watched. For the second quotation the writer depersonalizes the snowmen hanging on the wall by commenting how they all wear the same garments which were used to be worn by doctors and scientists and how the men cannot be distinguished from each other. Not only that but it also exemplifies how in Gilead people are differentiated by colours“The men wear white coats like those worn by doctors or scientists.”(pg.38) This leads to the next quotation which also talks about the snowmen and their lack of personality. In this case Atwood talks about the bags they wear resembling dolls in mid-production. “It makes the men look like dolls on which faces have not yet been painted; like scarecrows, which in a way it’s what they are, since they are meant to scare.” In this first simile she wipes out their personality by insinuating that they look like objects, ones which can’t be differed from each other. In the second simile Margaret compares the snowmen with scarecrows and their role which in this case is to scare rebels from revolting against Gilead’s norms. |
| Gatien, Holali | Atwood uses simile to illustrate the loss of identity. First of all, Margaret Atwood established the concept of name and how they are erased. As for example in the quote:”I want to be held, and be told my name”. The Author explains how Offred wishes to recover a little bit of her identity. Just her name that hasn’t been said in years. It particularly shows how the Gilead Republic has dehumanized her. In addition, the sound -old which is a comforting and soft sound shows that she longs for the affection of others. In order to regain her identity. Another example is when Offred says:”I wait, washed, brushed, fed like a prize pig”. This simile is very important as it shows how the handmaid’s, and particularly Offred, feels about their place in the society. It is one of the first time that she is clearly considers her place as a very degrading state for a human being. Her loss of identity is even going further as she identifies herself as a pig, an animal that has no identity and no other purpose than to be held or offered as a gift. But at same time she is in the consideration of being a prize and is happy to be considered valuable. Finally for the last example, Atwood writes:”The men wear white coats like those wore by doctors or scientists”. In this example, the roles and identity of people are reduced to the color they wear. It shows how in the Gilead society people have social roles determined by their most basic condition and depending on that your “identity is decided among 5 or 6 choices |
| Amandine & Clémence | Atwood uses shocking simile to show the violence of Gilead. For example, Atwood writes:
« I wait, washed, brushed, like a prize pig. » (p. 75) This quote shows how the handmaids are treated like animals. They are used by society just for their body, Gilead does not care about their feelings. The fact that the author utilizes the expression “prize pig” also highlights that Offred has a kind of importance. This is ironic because the society tells her that she has value, but they treat her like an animal, even an object. Secondly, this other citation reveals an even more violent side of Gilead: « It makes the men look like dolls on which faces have not yet been painted, like scarecrows, which in a way is what they are, since they are meant to scare. » (p. 75) This sentence demonstrates that this society does not hesitate to sacrifice people to show others the example. Each person who does not follow all the rules will be killed. The executions are public, everyone can assist to it. Then the dead bodies are hanged on the Wall, so that everyone can see them. This is meant to discourage people from breaking the rules. Finally, in this example, the writer illustrates the brutality of the “arrest” of Offred and her family: « It was like being in an elevator cut loose at the top. Falling, falling, and not knowing when you will hit. » (p. 199) Here, the author uses this simile to show that the people who caught them were very hard, aggressive. Once more, they are treated like objects by the Gilead society, who does not pay any attention to what these people can feel, they just do what they are told to do. This is really shocking because Offred, her husband Luke and their daughter are just trying to escape from a world that wants to separate them and to take all their liberties, and they are arrested like criminals. The Gilead society is violent by its way of acting, but also by its ideas and its foundations. |
| Lola et Owen | In The Handmaid’s tale, Atwood uses simile to illustrate the loss of identity. Firstly, in Gilead government, Atwood uses the “taking-away names” technique to illustrate a loss of identity. For instance, in chapter fourteen “Your name is like a telephone number.” In this quote, the Handmaids are named with numbers, taking example on the Second World War where humans beings were considered like objects or slaves. That gives a slave dimension to the handmaids, who lost their identity as slaves.
Secondly, Atwood compares Offred to a piece of toast : “buttered, I lie on my single bed, flat like a piece of toast.” She has such a lack of freedom that she uses butter for facial products. She compares herself to a piece of toast on which we spread butter. Lastly, in page seventy five it is said that Offred compares herself as an animal : “I wait, washed, brushed like a prize pig.” Here, it is clear that Offred compares herself to a pig and dehumanizes herself. Animals and slaves have the same status : they are not human, which shows that Offred loses her human identity. |