How effective are the narrative strategies in The Handmaid's Tale?

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How effective are the narrative strategies in The Handmaid's Tale?

The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood.

As a fictive autobiography, Atwood looks at the life of a woman in a dystopian setting, living amongst a male dominated environment, that of Gilead. The main protagonist is presented as first person narrator and offers a subjective yet often subversive view of her surroundings and life. Atwood has evidently chosen this narrative strategy to build a personal relationship between Offred and the reader. As Offred unfolds her descriptions, with perpetual attention to clarity and detail, the reader is willing to believe her eye witness account. This narrative strategy is effective in that the personal relationship also enables Margaret Atwood to place her own opinions in the reader's mind and begin her messaging process.

Offred has a complex narrative, which signals the post modern nature of Atwood's technique. She becomes a self-conscious narrator, caught in between the past and the present and continually draws attention to the storytelling process, 'I would like to believe this is a story I'm telling. I need to believe it.' Atwood shows how Offred uses storytelling for survival, she needs something to occupy her