How Does Margaret Atwood Use Language In The Handmaid's Tale

Language is the basis for human interaction. Created at an unknown specified time eons ago, it is a critical component to communication. Language can be used to shape minds, which is exactly the case for the dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale, authored by Margaret Atwood. Atwood manipulates language to show that it is used to oppress women, which causes a dysfunctional society. To start, Atwood’s female characters develop an inferiority complex on how they are viewed. Main character Offred reflects on the male thought process as seen in the following quote. “This is the kind of touch they like: folk art, archaic, made by women, in their spare time, from things that have no further use.” (Atwood 3). It is important to realize that language does not exist only within
One example is the market Milk and Honey, encountered when Offred and Ofglen are getting groceries. ‘Milk and honey’ is a term meaning fertile land as seen in the Bible. “So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey...” (Holy Bible: NKJV, New King James Version. Exod. 3.8.) The Republic of Gilead hosts a theocratic government, so it is no surprise that store names blatantly display religious allusions. The role of a woman in Gilead is to be a child bearer- nothing more. This subtle naming choice subconsciously strips women of their thoughts and feelings, demoting them to mere objects. Not only that, it also reinforces existing gender roles in Gilead’s patriarchal society, where men are at the apex of the chain, and women are at the bottom. Because women are seen for their fertility, all women are essentially the same. Individualism is both feared and mocked for women in Gilead, and small details such as Milk and Honey perpetuate the subjugation of