Category Archives: PREM

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Outline of Paragraph on narration

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?”

 

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Thesis on Centrality of Human Relationships written in class

In Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood illustrates the essential human need for love through Offred’s seeking out relationships, her sensitivity to the exchange of ideas, feelings and touch, as well as her desperate desire to trust. All of these cravings depict that love is required to survive a totalitarian regime that undermines any signs of affection in order to dehumanize and control its people.

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Perfect Paragraph practice continued / student examples

Jimena

Martin

Capucine

Tanguy

 

Louis

 

Brune

————

 

Thelmina

In Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood creates a contrast between Offred’s colorful , emotional past and her dark, passive present. These shifts reveal her ability to alternate back and forth between a numb “survival mode” and her thriving interior identity. For example, while Offred is observing Serena outside, her memories come flooding back: “I once had a garden, I can remember the smell of the plump shapes of bulbs, held in the hands, coolness, the dry rustle of seeds through the fingers…time could past more swiftly that way.” The senses are active in this passage, through images such as the “smell of…bulbs” and the “dry rustle of seeds through the fingers.” It is as if her body remembers and longs for her past, which is brought to life through her detailed description of this flashback. Similarly, Offred creates a tone of nostalgia as she enters the kitchen: “The kitchen smells of yeast, a nostalgic smell. It reminds me of other kitchens, kitchens that were mine. It smells of mothers; although my own mother did not make bread. It smells of me, in former times, when I was a mother.” Once again, the sense of smell engages the past self she keeps inside, it even goes as far as helping her to realize that she once had a mother and once was a mother–something that should be obvious to her, but she has clearly kept hidden in her mind. Her longing for the past is reinforced by a diction of nostalgia that is present in words such as “nostalgic,” “reminds,” and “former times.” All of these elements contribute to an emotional, precise vision of her past, and her nostalgic description of each of these flashbacks illustrate the gap between the freedom of her past and the enslaving present.

Her enslaving present is, in fact, described in a totally different way than her past. It is described in an extremely nonemotional way which illustrates this “survival mode” she needs to be in as she lives with the Gilead Society. One of the characteristics of this “survival mode” is the way she lists every object surrounding her as if she needs to know what object she could use in case of emergency. For example, as she describes her bedroom she also enumerates every object she “possesses” ” A chair, a table, a lamp. Above on the white ceiling, a relief ornament in the shape of a wreath, and in the center of it a blank space, plastered over, like the place in the face where the eye had been taken out. There must have been a chandelier once. They removed anything you could tie a rope to.”. This very robotic way of speaking comes in a total opposition to her description of the past. The punctuation perfectly highlights that shift in her mood as she talks about the present which, coupled with the enumeration of objects, demonstrates how she has to act as she lives as a handmaid but also how she repeals all her feelings to be focused on what could happen around her. Even on her walks to go shopping, she still describes her surroundings in a very precise way which practically makes the reader feel like it’s a report : “The wall is hundreds of years old too; or over a hundred, at least. Like the sidewalks, it’s red brick, must have been plain but handsome. Now the gates have sentries and there are ugly new floodlights mounted on mental posts above it, and barred wire along the bottom and broken glass set in the concrete along the top.”. In this quote, Offred gives more historical indications on, for example, the age of the wall but also on the new constructions. This knowledge in every change that occured in her surroundings could be another characteristic of her “survival mode”. In fact, it shows how careful she needs to be with this society and how each detail could help her to escape her position and this society or at least stay alive and carry on her memories. 

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Perf paragraph outline: tone in The Handmaid’s Tale (written together in class)

Question: How does the tone of Margaret Atwood’s novel show Offred’s state of mind?

Thesis Statement:

In Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood creates a contrast between Offred’s colorful , emotional past and her dark, passive present. These shifts reveal her ability to alternate back and forth between a numb “survival mode” and her interior identity.

a) “I once had a garden, I can remember the smell of the plump shapes of bulbs, held in the hands, coolness, the dry rustle of seeds through the fingers…time could past more swiftly that way”

b)” The kitchen smells of yeast, a nostalgic smell. It reminds me of other kitchens, kitchens that were mine. It smells of mothers; although my own mother did not make bread. It smells of me, in former times, when I was a mother”

c) ” A chair, a table, a lamp. Above on the white ceiling, a relief ornament in the shape of a wreath, and in the center of it a blank space, plastered over, like the place in the face where the eye had been taken out. There must have been a chandelier once. They removed anything you could tie a rope to.”

d) “The wall is hundreds of years old too; or over a hundred, at least. Like the sidewalks, it’s red brick, must have been plain but handsome. Now the gates have sentries and there are ugly new floodlights mounted on mental posts above it, and barred wire along the bottom and broken glass set in the concrete along the top.”

 

 

Transformation of outline into a coherent paragraph:

In Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood creates a contrast between Offred’s colorful , emotional past and her dark, passive present. These shifts reveal her ability to alternate back and forth between a numb “survival mode” and her thriving interior identity. For example, while Offred is observing Serena outside, her memories come flooding back: “I once had a garden, I can remember the smell of the plump shapes of bulbs, held in the hands, coolness, the dry rustle of seeds through the fingers…time could past more swiftly that way.” The senses are active in this passage, through images such as the “smell of…bulbs” and the “dry rustle of seeds through the fingers.” It is as if her body remembers and longs for her past, which is brought to life through her detailed description of this flashback. Similarly, Offred creates a tone of nostalgia as she enters the kitchen: “The kitchen smells of yeast, a nostalgic smell. It reminds me of other kitchens, kitchens that were mine. It smells of mothers; although my own mother did not make bread. It smells of me, in former times, when I was a mother.” Once again, the sense of smell engages the past self she keeps inside, it even goes as far as helping her to realize that she once had a mother and once was a mother–something that should be obvious to her, but she has clearly kept hidden in her mind. Her longing for the past is reinforced by a diction of nostalgia that is present in words such as “nostalgic,” “reminds,” and “former times.” All of these elements contribute to an emotional, precise vision of her past, and her nostalgic description of each of these flashbacks illustrate the gap between the freedom of her past and the enslaving present.

c) ” A chair, a table, a lamp. Above on the white ceiling, a relief ornament in the shape of a wreath, and in the center of it a blank space, plastered over, like the place in the face where the eye had been taken out. There must have been a chandelier once. They removed anything you could tie a rope to.”

d) “The wall is hundreds of years old too; or over a hundred, at least. Like the sidewalks, it’s red brick, must have been plain but handsome. Now the gates have sentries and there are ugly new floodlights mounted on mental posts above it, and barred wire along the bottom and broken glass set in the concrete along the top.”

 

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Perfect Paragraph begun in class

 

In Margaret Atwood’s novel THE HANDMAID’S TALE, Atwood uses simile in the opening chapter to reveal Offred’s mourning for the loss of her identity and her attempts to keep some of her past alive. For example, when Offred observes the Marthas’ clothes, she recounts that it is : “dull green, like a surgeon’s gown from the time before.” The fact that this color green reminds her of a surgeon’s gown, firstly suggests that women can no longer hold important positions such as that of a surgeon, and secondly, shows that she is trying to keep such images of women alive in her spirit. She is nostalgic for the “time before”, the ambiguous time of freedom and equality. Another striking example occurs a few lines later when Offred focuses on her reflection : “I can see it as I go down the stairs, like a distorted shadow, a parody of something, a sister dipped in blood.” The use of “it” highlights the ambiguous disconnect between her self and her appearance. She then compares this “it” to a shadow, which further implies that her realness is cloaked or hidden. Furthermore, drawing a paralell to a “parody of something”, (the word “something” once again underlining the ambiguity of her person), indicates the surreal society that seems so far from reality it is even ridiculous to her.  Finally, Offred illustrates her descent down the stairs as being “Like a path through the forest, like a carpet for royalty, it shows me the way.” The image of the forest signifies the darkness of the “devil’s territory” and therefore the danger surrounding her. Moreover, the use of the word “path” signals the lack of individuality and freedom, which is replaced by a predefined existence, in other words, a way she is forced to follow like a lost animal in the woods. In conclusion, it is clear that Offred is searching for her sense of self, while also trying to survive and conform to this dystopia. Each of these comparisons reveals her struggle to see herself clearly, to recognize herself beneath the red handmaid’s clothes.

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Timed Essay Practice: June 26th

Choose ONE question below and write an essay response.

1. Regardless of whether a mother is present or absent in his child’s life, she has an impact and influence. Discuss how the influence of mothers is depicted in two of the OIB works you have studied.

2. Discuss how two writers on your OIB program use climactic moments to emphasize key ideas in their works.

3. Discuss the use of cycles and repetitions in two of the works you have studied on your OIB syallbus.

You will begin at 15H and you must send your essay back to me between 17h – 17h30 to my ENT email.

It is preferable that you type your essay in a google document (it is easier to give you comments–make sure to give me the right to modify your document and not just view it). You may also take photos of your handwritten essay.

In the title of your document + the subject of your email, write your name and label it clearly – ex : Charles EARDLEY OIB Comparative Essay May 15.

 

To prepare mentally, please review the essay rubric below (and, you could have a look at the comments I gave you on your last written comparative essay and the samples of other student writing given to you/uploaded to the blog):

You must compare/contrast two “works” studied so far. Possibilities of “works” are: The Handmaid’s Tale, Love in the Time of Cholera, Frost’s poems, Intimate Apparel, Stranger in the Village, Sweet Bird of Youth (wow, we’ve read quite a lot this year, you should be proud!).

Tip: Don’t forget to include “style” (devices, discussion of language) in your analysis for full credit.

Thesis: Make a specific thesis with a defined angle to the vague question. Remember, an anglophone thesis is the “conclusion,” not a question. You then will be like a lawyer who uses evidence to prove your already very specific conclusion.

Organization: There are no real rules but your organization has to be clear, persuasive, and easy to follow. You can write a thesis that includes both works and organize paragraphs that mix the two works together, or, write a two-sentence thesis and transition halfway through your essay to the second work. Comment on elements of style as you go along and highlight how they enhance your argument. Use your paragraphs to organize your points (start each paragraph with a mini-thesis to keep us oriented).

Focus on what the authors are doing, and be careful not to talk too much about the characters like they are real people, but more instruments that the authors use to create effects.

Notes: For now, you may use them, but keep in mind that the real exam will be without notes. To use them efficiently and not waste too much time “looking for answers”, get your notes/books organized before you begin.