In the beginning of The Handmaid's Tale, I only felt confusion as I read. I had no idea what was going on in the story and the jump from chapter one to chapter two was a bit sudden. As I read on, I slowly got more and more of the entire picture. After a few more chapters, I was able to ask questions like: "What are handmaids? What are "Marthas? Why has the United States become like this? What are the purposes of the different clothing styles, especially those of the handmaids?" So far I know I would not want to live in a society as theirs, with so many strict rules and enforcements thereof.
After reading the entire seventeen chapters, I understood what confused me primarily about this book: the structure. The main character or narrator, Offred, talks about life in her "present" but often gives sudden flashbacks. The life in her flashbacks is the United States we know and something must have happened that triggered a religious war, which resulted in the society we are currently reading about. When I finally got the answer to the purpose of the handmaids, I realized i was better off not knowing. They apparently are the childbearers of men and exist only for that "important" purpose, which is respected by all the other citizens and causes jealousy in the men's wives. Last but not least, the sexual "ceremony" in chapter sixteen was a bit too descriptive; I wish I had more warning before I got to that part. -_- I really hope there won't be parts as detailed later on in the book...
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Yeah, I thought the chapters were sudden too. Some were long though. I didn’t even catch the narrator’s name at first but then I re-read some to find out. I guess it was the structure that confused me too, because I could only note that Offred was talking to herself and about the past. I was surprised of the role of the handmaids as well. At first I just thought that they were servants primarily aiding the Wives, but it was more than that. I wish the Ceremony part wasn’t so descriptive either, but that is what Atwood likes to do. She really knows how to describe a certain environment in a scene. She can even describe scents, which I think is hard to do. The clothing styles were probably established to distinguish between different classes of women because the society is based on reproduction. If there weren’t separate clothing styles to define each woman in the society, there probably would also be love instead of just child labor.
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