Part 1 - Compiling Your Notes
Part 1 - Compiling Your Notes Now that you've done the bulk of your research, you should have several pages (on the computer, on paper, or both) of point form notes. In those notes should be full quotations you intend to use or paraphrase later, as well as general notes that you've already summarized or paraphrased. If you sit down to write the essay with this pile of unsorted stuff, inevitably you'll have trouble deciding where to begin and you'll keep leaving things out. It is much easier to group the notes, plan the essay, and then write, rather than trying to stick random bits in as you go. Look at your focus. Chances are it has several different elements to it, and now is the time to look at those elements separately. Don't worry about what element should come first or last, that will be sorted out in the planning stage next. For now, you're just going to group your notes according to where they fit into your coursework question. You will have to decide whether some points better fit one group than another, but do decide now rather than accidentally repeating yourself later. If you change your mind later, make note of it directly on the page. You will also find that some notes don't fit any category. Chances are, these are things that should be left out. You still have them written down if you decide to include them, but don't try and make every note fit your groups.
Offred's story was found by Professor's Wade and Pieixoto on the site of what was once the city of Bangor, in what would have been the State of Maine, which was a prominent way-station on what Offred refers to as "The Underground Femaleroad".
Stephanie Thorpe Offred's story was found by Professor's Wade and Pieixoto on the site of what was once the city of Bangor, in what would have been the State of Maine, which was a prominent way-station on what Offred refers to as "The Underground Femaleroad". The story was of spoken form, recorded on approximately thirty cassette tapes which were found in a US Army issue metal foot locker. It bore no title but was given the superscription "The Handmaid's Tale" by Professor Wade in a partial homage to Geoffrey Chaucer. Offred was among the first generation of women to be recruited for reproductive purposes. The reasons for the decline in Caucasian births are not altogether clear, although some can be linked to the widespread availability of birth control, including abortion; AIDs; genetic deformities linked to nuclear plant accidents and toxic waste sites. Offred appears to be an educated woman, graduating from a North American college. Ironically, there was the risk of herself being deformed as her mother was thirty seven when she was born. But it is clear from "The Handmaid's Tale" that she was definitely "a wanted child". It is also clear that her mother was very keen on education. Offred speaks of a television program she watched when she was seven or eight, describing it as "the sort of thing my mother liked to watch: historical, educational". Like most children
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.
A utopian novel portrays a nonexistent state and an idealistic way of life that establishes a model for social structure and progress. Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale places itself in the dystopian tradition, presenting an unpleasant and unsettling imaginary society where the ominous tendencies of our own world are projected into some near future world. The objective of the dystopic novel is to provide the audience with a warning about the effects of excessive adherence to beliefs already existing in their world. By watching the characters grapple with the effects of excess, the audience is supposed to learn how to avoid them and their consequences. Through The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood meant to warn society about the destructive effects of repressing female sexuality. She accomplishes this by portraying a society in which the men have taken all rights, privileges, and freedoms away from females, namely their sexual freedom. The result is a society in which the men attempt to legitimate and enhance their own power through the repression of women, and everyone, males and females, live despondently in a state of perpetual longing. Atwood's novel describes a not too futuristic society of Gilead, a society that overthrows the U.S. Government and institutes a fundamentalist regime that seems to persecute women specifically. The women of Gilead are not allowed to hold
Compare and contrast the presentation of the major female characters in the novel, including Offred, Ofglen, Moira, Serena Joy & Offred's mother.
Compare and contrast the presentation of the major female characters in the novel, including Offred, Ofglen, Moira, Serena Joy & Offred's mother. In 'The Handmaid's Tale' the major characters are all women. Women that don't have everyday lives but somehow you can still relate to them. These women have an amazing strength and seem to cope with what society throws at them. However some of the characters have stronger roles than others, but each character has their own unique strength in the society they live in. This brings me to my first character Offred, she is the main character of the novel. All events are seen through her eyes. There is a contrast between her outward conformity and her inner determination to resist brainwashing of Gilead by her thoughts and memories of a different past society: "Its lack of love we die from" (Chapter 20 page 113) Offred seem to respond to events rather than encouraging them unlike her friend Moira. In many ways Offred would like to be more out of control like Moira but never finds the strength to be openly rebellious but would like to be. Offred yearns for communication with others and would like to be able to form close relationships. Her only freedom is the relationship she forms with The Commander. Her 'arrangement' with The Commander is in the form of games of Scrabble. It is here that Offred is her liveliest and most
Presentation and importance of "The Handmaids Tale"
Chris Smith Presentation and importance of "The Handmaids Tale" The presentation of this scene is very effective and descriptive. It is presented well and tells us a lot about the type of society that these people live in. We can tell by the way it is written and portrayed that it is a very secretive society. People feel scared and are suspicious and "hesitant" of anyone who they are not closely acquainted. This is also continuously backed up through out the novel. It is showed by the re-occurrence of the "spies" and the way that Moira is not allowed to talk to her shopping partner. We can see the miserable and dull atmosphere by the first line, when we discover that the women are fed up and "don't smile". The "women" are also very uncomfortable with Offred being there and are very unwelcoming. There are also a lot of short, sharp sentences at the start of the extract. This creates tension and sets the mood for the rejoining of these old friends. It is obvious that the friends are very close and have been for a long time by the way they insult each other. Friends that are not to close do not call each other insults such as "whores". The smoky atmosphere could be seen as being a metaphor. It is ironic that it is smoky and the women in there cannot really see the rest of their lives clearly. There is also a simile within this small extract. The ladies room
'Despite Atwood's portrayal of Gilead as soulless and destructive she has nevertheless succeeded in giving the reader a sense of optimism.' How far foes this accord with your reading of the novel?
'Despite Atwood's portrayal of Gilead as soulless and destructive she has nevertheless succeeded in giving the reader a sense of optimism.' How far foes this accord with your reading of the novel? 'The Handmaid's Tale' is set in the futuristic republic of Gilead. Everybody has somebody controlling what they do and only a minority have control over other people. In the first chapter alone we learn of the system of control within the Handmaids' residence. There are the angels, who are responsible for the Aunts, who have responsibility for the handmaids, i.e. the narrator. This system has the sole purpose, reproduction: "we are for breeding purposes...There is supposed to be nothing entertaining about us, no room is to be permitted for the flowering of secret lusts...We are two-legged wombs, that's all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices." The narrator of takes on a role based on the Biblical story of Jacob's wives; when they failed to conceive, he fathered children by their handmaids. In a world in which the fertility of both sexes has dropped dramatically, it is the role for which young women who have demonstrated their ability to bear children are destined, rather to the chagrin of the Wives who have to house them. For this regime to function effectively it is important that a high level of control is exerted and more essentially, that the people within the regime
Diction and storytelling in Death by Landscape by Margaret Atwood
EN119-OC1 9 October 2014 Diction and storytelling in “Death by Landscape” by Margaret Atwood Rather than an exaggerated hyperbole, “scarred for life” is a very accurate description of Lois from the short story “Death by Landscape’s” state of mind. Margaret Atwood depicts a character haunted by her childhood and solidifies that past experiences do a great deal in shaping the future of children into adulthood. Through diction by an older and younger Lois: symbolism, setting and characterization are distinguished. Firstly, strong symbolism is expressed through the landscape paintings that Lois collects while at the same time she avoids the wilderness altogether. The readers are left wondering why Lois would collect these painting if she “does not find them peaceful in the least” but instead they “fill her with a world of unease” (2). It is revealed at the end of the short story that these paintings are representative of the tie Lois still has been unable to sever with her deceased best friend from childhood. A friend who in Lois’ mind completely vanished off the face of the earth; her body was never recovered. A young Lois recalled, “Lucy did not care about things she did not know, whereas Lois did”, from this it can assumed that Lois is a character of strong need for closure and she never got it. In her mind there was no way Lucy could just
Comparing and contrasting two characters from The Handmaids Tale. Moira and Janine: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Written Expression IV Essay IV: Final Version Leonardo Gómez 10th October Assignment: Write a Compare-Contrast Essay, comparing and/or contrasting two characters from The Handmaid’s Tale Moira and Janine: Two Sides of the Same Coin Sexual slavery and feminism are two of the main themes in Atwood’s dystopian book The Handmaid’s Tale (1986), in which she portrays a society called Gilead in which women are deprived of their civil liberties. In Atwood’s dystopian society most women have become infertile and the few ones who can still bear children are turned into handmaids, i.e. sexual servants who are brainwashed for the mere purpose of breeding healthy children for the elite. This novel is an account of Offred’s musings and her fragmented perception of reality. It is Offred who introduces two antithetical characters: rebellious Moira and submissive Janine. Although these characters employ different strategies to either escape or accommodate respectively, they end up being subdued by Gilead’s regime, metaphorically losing control over their own body. I will outline both characters’ personalities, their subjugation to Gilead and the loss of connection with their own bodies. Moira is a rebellious lesbian who is admired by the Handmaids, but as the story
How effective are the narrative strategies in The Handmaid's Tale?
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 mind and offer hope for the future. Atwood uses defamiliarisation when Offred presents three accounts of her time with Nick, 'It didn't happen that way. Here
How does the Handmaids Tale address the issues of social examination?
Chloë Morris English 12SSA How does the Handmaids Tale address the issues of social examination? The Handmaids Tale is a social examination told by one women trapped in a theocratic community. Offred dissects the Gileadien society through language and structure, which is parallel to her expression of self-identification and the wholes in her society with reference to past cultures. Gilead is a collection of past communities fused together to create a repressive dystopia analysed by Offred and is almost a warning to future societies. Aspects of Nazi Germany and Iran feature in the way Gileadien regime runs, the mistakes that have been made throughout history have not been rectified and have re-occurred, Gilead is a result of previous regimes and autocratic leadership taken to the extreme. The antics of totalitarian leader Stalin have been duplicated through the rise of Sadham Hussein, something that governments and communities would have never expected to have seen again but it was allowed to happen, this is just one example of political errors that is comparable with the regime in Gilead which Offred is scrutinizing. The Handmaids Tale is on a par with George Orwell's "1984" and Aldous Huxley's "A brave new world" it follows in there dystopian themes and character similarities are evident, however, The Handmaids Tale is a feminist book and the repression