Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale Essay -- Atwood Handmaids Tale

Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids TaleThe Historical Notes are important in the way we perceive the allegory asthey answer many important questions raised by the novel and alsoenhance some of the novels main themes.The first question it answers is the one raised at the end of thenovel that is whether Offred is stepping up into the,darkness, orthe, light. The endorser finds out that Offred escaped Gilead,presumably into Canada, with the help of the,Underground Femaleroad.The ratifier also learns that it was Nick who orchestrated her escape,using his position as a member of the Eyes. This is important to thenovel as it means that the novel can feasibly be a transcript of herstory, a story she could not have told if she was dead. It is alsoimportant in a much more simple sense, that it satisfies the readerscuriosity over what happens to the main character and brings the novelto a more satisfactory close. Over the course of the novel the readerhas built up a close relationship with Offre d through her telling herstory completely in the first person. This has the effect of makingthe reader touch a close connection with Offred, and care what happensto her.The Historical Notes also place the novel in its historical context.The notes tell the reader the story of why Gilead utilize theHandmaids in the first place, with the widespread reproductionproblems caused by the, AIDS epidemic, and leakages from, chemicalwarfare stocks. This is important to the novel as a whole as itoutlines the reasons Gilead has for implementing the Handmaids andshows that there was an veritable reason behind the methods of Gilead.This has the effect of making the society seem more realistic, whichadds... ... The fact that Piexto criticizes Offred forher account, she does not see fit to supply us with her originalname, demonstrates his misinterpretation of the account, that Piextosees it purely in the context of what he can learn from it aboutGilead, and does not seem to care for Offreds, wh iff of emotion, orwhat Offred seems to have suffered through. The fact that Piextoslecture is base on , Problems of Authentication, over again shows acomplete disregard for what Offred went through, and againdemonstrates his misunderstanding of the entire Tale. Atwood usesPiextos misunderstanding to again make a warning to society againthat what happens in the novel could happen again. This could again bea comment on society and university education by Atwood that everyoneis so concerned with facts, figures and dates, they often forget, the serviceman heart.