Critical Analysis of 'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood

The creation of Offred, the passive narrator of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, was intentional. The personality of the narrator in this novel is almost as important as the task bestowed upon her. Atwood chooses an average women, appreciative of past times, who lacks imagination and fervor, to contrast the typical feminist, represented in this novel by her mother and her best friend, Moira. Atwood is writing for a specific audience, though through careful examination, …

…of a society, due to radical feminism and conservative positions, where women are repressed. This is both a combination of past times and past movements, with a blending of suppression and the dangers of a patriarchal society. The negativity of such a society is clearly evident, and through the scholarly dictation in the "Historical Notes", the reader can comprehend the possibility of a society. Offred narrates in the expected manner with passiveness and deliberate indifference.