Literary Response The Handmaid s Tale - 1361 Words

Summer/ Literary Response †¢ The Handmaid’s Tale †¢ Margaret Atwood †¢ 324 pages †¢ Published 1986 1. Point of View: The novel is written in first person point of view. In first person point of view, we are brought into the mind and world of the main character, Offred. This allows the reader to experience moments and memories as vividly as she does. Ultimately, the reader bonds and sympathizes with Offred. 2. Main Characters: a. Offred , 33 years old b. Offred is rebellious, nostalgic, and remorseful. †¢ â€Å"It s an event, a small defiance of rule, so small as to be undetectable, but such moments are the rewards I hold out for myself, like the candy I hoarded, as a child, at the back of a drawer.† †¢ â€Å"I think about Laundromats. What I wore to them: shorts, jeans, jogging pants. What I put into them: my own clothes, my own soap, my own money, money I had earned myself.† †¢ â€Å"Eight, she must be now. I ve filled in the time I lost, I know how much there s been. They were right, it s easier, to think of her as dead. I don t have to hope then, or make a wasted effort.† c. Offred is a round and dynamic character. In the beginning of the story, she is more reserved and passive; however, by the end of the novel she is much more willing to take risks. She also demonstrates many different character traits, sometimes her traits go as far as to directly contradict one another. d. Offred is the protagonist of the story. She has the misfortune to be a handmaid in the town of Gilead. SheShow MoreRelatedMargaret Atwood s The Handmaid s Tale931 Words   |  4 Pagesbiology has changed at a rapid pace. In response various attempts to create specific and catch all definitions of growing gender and sexual minorities has been on going. This has resulted in the concept of gender becoming a multi- layered shifting hypothesis to which society is adapting. Since the 19th-century, philosophers and theorists have continued to scrutinize gender beyond biological and social interpretation. Margaret Atwood s The Handmaid s Tale captures the limitations and social implicationsRead MorePower Struggle In The Handmaids Tale By Margaret Atwood1373 Words   |  6 PagesShakespeare in ‘King Lear’ and Atwood in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ explore varying power struggles and their correlation to gender through their respective texts. Shakespeare and Atw ood use the genders of their central characters to focus on power in historical and dystopian settings. Both authors explore religious frameworks, the types of power in a patriarchal society, and the implications of gender on power through use of stylistic devices and literary techniques. Gender stereotypes play a major roleRead MoreThe Handmaid s Warning By Margaret Atwood1363 Words   |  6 Pagespredicted in The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood’s setting is futuristic, compelling, and terrifyingly believable. Her main character relates to the readers as real people. Her themes laced in the plot, from exposition to resolution, stem from conflicts with other characters, inner struggles, and heart wrenching losses. Readers are captivated as Atwood intertwines her literary elements, and warns the audience of a possible reality. Margaret Atwood tells the tale of a handmaid, and Atwood enlightens thoseRead MoreThe Handmaid s Tale By Margaret Atwood1328 Words   |  6 Pagespredicted in The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood’s setting is futuristic, compelling, and terrifyingly believable. Her main character relates to the readers as real people. Her themes laced in the plot, from exposition to resolution, stem from conflicts with other characters, inner struggl es, and heart wrenching losses. Readers are captivated as Atwood intertwines her literary elements, and warns the audience of a possible reality. Margaret Atwood tells the tale of a handmaid, and Atwood enlightens thoseRead MoreExpropriation Of Education And Body Image In The Handmaids Tale1880 Words   |  8 PagesDami Kalejaiye Oct. 17, 2017 Literature and Controversy Prof. Kristian Kahn Expropriation of Education, and Body Image in The Handmaid’s Tale. Education is one of the greatest tools available to the advancement and development of humans. It comes as no surprise as to why in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, we are introduced to a patriarchic theocracy, this society heavily subjugated women, and one of the means to install these methods of subjugation of women was to ban the literacy of womenRead MoreThe Classics Are Those Books Essay1137 Words   |  5 Pagesthey are in the best condition to enjoy them. The classics are books which exercise a particular influence, both when they imprint themselves on our imagination as unforgettable, and when they hide in the layers of memory disguised as the individual s or the collective unconscious. A classic is a book which with each rereading offers as much of a sense of discovery as the first reading. A classic is a book which even when we read it for the first time gives the sense of rereading something we have

Avian Symbolism In The Awakening Essay Research free essay sample

Avian Symbolism In The Awakening Essay, Research Paper Avian Symbolism in The Awakening Kate Chopin systematically uses avian symbolism in the novel The Awakening to stand for and Enlighten Edna Pontellier. She begins the novel with the image of a caged bird and throughout the narrative other birds and avian images appear stand foring freedom, failure, and picks that Edna, the narrative? s chief character, must do. Throughout The Awakening Chopin uses flight and descriptions of birds to show the psychological province of head of her chief character, Edna Pontellier. As the narrative begins we are instantly introduces to the importance of avian symbolism. The first spoken sentences of the novel, are oddly plenty, squawked by a parrot instead than a chief character or some other human. # 8220 ; Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That? s all right! # 8221 ; ( Chopin 3 ) are the words yelled by this crazed, caged bird. # 8220 ; Go off! Travel off! For heaven? s interest! # 8221 ; is the interlingual rendition of this message into English. We will write a custom essay sample on Avian Symbolism In The Awakening Essay Research or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This message represents the forbidden and tabu ideas rushing through the head of Edna Pontellier during her post-awakening period. Edna longs to go forth her subservient function as the loving, submissive married woman and female parent that society forces on her. She longs for something more exciting, something of her ain choosing and free will. These lines are echoed once more instantly anterior to her waking up. While the twins are one time once more playing the same vocals on the piano the parrot scream, ? Allez vous-en! Sapristi! . ? This is the concluding warning that the parrot relays to Edna. Edna should hold listened to the parrot? s message and escaped from her disappointing life instantly. Yet, she chose non to mind his warning and she was destined to stop her life in order to be free. In add-on to the parrot? s message, the image of this hostile, shrilling bird is a symbol in and of itself. For like the parrot, Edna is besides trapped, non behind the bars of a coop, but by the criterions of society and the function that has been appointed to her as a adult female. In the same manner that the parrot can non liberate himself of his coop, Edna can non of all time to the full break free of the restrictions that society has placed on her as a adult female, married woman, and mother. Although she makes a witting attempt to divide herself from the people who are keeping her dorsum and interruption free of the boundaries that society has set upon her, she can neer to the full win in fulfilling her hungriness to populate her ain life. The following illustration of the avian imagination in The Awakening comes in the signifier of a handsome, immature smoothie named Alcee Arobin. Although on first glimpse he does non look to be of or related to birds, upon closer scrutiny we see that his last name syllabicated easy is marked # 8220 ; a # 8211 ; robin # 8221 ; . This bird, ? the forerunner of spring? , is able to wing freely and live in close propinquity to worlds. Arobin matches this description, for he, as his name implies, flies freely through society and as his repute suggests becomes near with many adult females. True, with # 8221 ; # 8230 ; artless candor he spoke of what a wicked, undisciplined male child he had been. # 8221 ; ( 78 ) and to Edna he, # 8220 ; talked in a manner that astonished her at first and brought ruby to her face # 8221 ; ( 80 ) . Furthermore, he has no declinations or concerns when he pursues a relationship with Edna, a married adult female. Alcee Arobin is a adult male who soars t hrough life with no attentions at all. He is known for H is chases with adult females and is really straightforward when seeking to acquire what he wants. Clearly he disregards the limitations and? regulations? that society has set up. Edna sees these qualities as admirable and longs to hold them so that she excessively will be able to wing freely through life without limitations and a coop to lock her up interior. The advice, given to Edna by the cryptic Mademoiselle Reisz besides falls into the form of avian imagination to stand for a deeper significance for the novel? s chief character, Edna Pontellier. Mademoiselle Reisz says that, # 8220 ; The bird that would surge above the degree of apparent tradition and bias must hold strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the doormats bruised, exhausted, fliting back to Earth # 8221 ; ( 85 ) . Though Edna does neer truly understands the message behind Mademoiselle Reisz? s warning, the reader realizes that if Edna is determined to interrupt through the stereotype of the submissive, small adult female of her clip, and to interrupt free as herself in society, she must hold strength in order to win. When Edna attempts to derive her freedom she moves into a small house around the corner from her larger more epicurean house in which she is trapped by her household and the criterions that have been set upon her by the society around her. Not coincidently she names the house the? pigeon house. ? Edna felt that, ? The pigeon house pleased her. It at one time assumed the intimate character of a place, while she herself invested it with a appeal, which it reflected like a warm freshness. There was with her a feeling of holding descended in the societal graduated table, with a corresponding sense of holding risen in the religious. Every measure which she took toward alleviating herself from the duties added to her strength and enlargement as an person. She began to look with her ain eyes ; to see and to grok the deeper undertones of life. No thirster was she content to? feed upon sentiment? when her ain psyche had invited her. ? This house was the big measure that she took toward self-fulfillment and felicity. It seemed to be the lone thing that was every genuinely her ain. Once once more the image of birds is used to liberate her and to stand for her transition into a new life. At the tragic decision the presence of birds are one time once more really evident. Prior to Edna? s self-destruction, she notices that, # 8220 ; a bird with a broken wing was crushing the air above, fliting, circling disabled down, down to the H2O # 8221 ; ( 116 ) . The hurt bird being injured and weak dips into the H2O typifying Edna? s failure to get away the boundaries and restrictions in her function as a adult female. Edna shortly follows the bird into the deepnesss of the ocean, stoping her life and liberating herself of the lunacy that was environing her. Therefore, with consistent mentions to birds and flight, Kate Chopin? s trapped character meets her fate While she is unable to mind the advice of the parrot, non ready to follow the loveless, amoral way of Arobin and the work forces that she is certain will follow him, and merely half-understanding the message of Mademoiselle Reisz, in her decease she eventually becomes a free adult female. As she waded into the cold ocean H2O at the novel? s terminal, Edna Pontellier was # 8220 ; winging free # 8221 ; to her decease. 3cf Chopin, Kate. ? The Awakening. ? The Awakening and Other Stories. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1995. 3? 117.