Handmaids Tale Setting

The novel starts in a unfamiliar, unexplained world, using unknown terms like “Handmaid,” “Angel,” and “Commander” that make sense later on in the story as it progresses. The story takes place in a fictional country called the Republic of Gilead. The Republic of Gilead is in the territory of what had been the United States of America, specifically In Cambridge Massachusetts. The novel does not give lots of information on this in the first section but we find out more about the Republic of Gilead as the book progresses. The Republic of Gilead is the major setting for this novel. This is what the book is mainly built up around. A fictional country created with a complete different lifestyle. The whole country is built up in a different way then it is
Through out the book, the main character Offred always gives us flashbacks and information about her past. She narrates these flashbacks which are before Gilead was completely formed in the past tense, which tells them apart from the main body of the story which is what is happening in Gilead while she is a Handmaid, which she tells in the present tense. The first setting takes place in the past in a gymnasium. We don't get much information on what this gymnasium is for, or why the Offred and other women live there, but a few details about what it looks like we're given. The women in the gymnasium are always under surveillance by the Angels and the Aunts, and they cannot interact with one another. The whole situation in the gymnasium almost seems like they are in some sort of prison. The scene changes, and the story goes from the past to the present. The scene is of Offred in a room. the rook is, "Fitted out with curtains, a pillow, a framed picture, and a braided rug. There is no glass in the room, not even over the framed picture. The window does not open completely, and the windowpane is shatterproof. There is nothing in the room, and the door does not lock or even shut