Handmaid’s Tale Simile Perfect Paragraphs

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.

Links between LITTOC and the HT brainstormed in class

Social Status: The hierarchy in the HT — Love in the Time of Cholera there is also a question of status for instance, Florentino manages to change his social status (motivated by his love for Fermina), and Fermina improves her status through marriage

 

Sex used as an escape or as a form of power

HT: Offred sees the possibility of using her body with the doctor, the guards, the commander, and Nick

LITTOC: Florentino to fill the emptiness of not having Fermina or perhaps other psychological issues and justifies it as “love”

 

Revealing the sexist structures of society and promoting feminism / decrying patriarchy

HT: women are used as objects/property – they can’t own anything and are “objects of procreation” , women cannot have control over their own money and are made property

LITTOC: viewed as “prey”, Fermina’s frustration in her marriage — “servitude” , Fermina is like the “property” of Urbino/doesn’t make her own choices

both use “irony” — Serena’s position in society anti-career

Use of flower imagery

HT: flowers represent fertility — Serena’s garden and her cutting of the flowers

LITTOC: Fermina wears flower representing  purity

 

Manipulation

HT: brainwashed society, sometimes a survival mechanism to manipulate others

LITTOC: Fermina is constantly manipulated by one man or another

 

Power of words

HT: not allowed to use words and write, Offred is sensitive to words, her narration is also like letter or a journal in a way — very personal , but she does speak to some sort of audience

LITTOC: letters, Florentino’s sensitive to poetry– uses this to manipulate women and continue his illusions of love

 

Deterioration and transformation of society

HT: new society

LITTOC: author tries to denounce colonisation/

 

Violence

HT: physical violence, mental violence

LITTOC: sexual abuse, “predator”

 

Projection of feelings onto nature

HT: Offred often talks about flowers and seasons to portray her feelings/her environment

LITTOC: world deteriorating, etc

 

Use of foreshadowing/suspense–non chronological narrative

HT: euphemism

 

 

 

 

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. 

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.”