Storytelling as Represented in Handmaids Tale - A Literary Essay Example

Storytelling has normally been a part of human culture in the society. It is quite often that stories are told since no one in the world has ever lived without hearing any form of a story. The life that people live is a story that can be told sometimes to come. Stories are part of human life. Stories are part of the general avenue for communication. Humans have always been telling stories; keep telling stories, all for different reasons. It is considered that every individual has a story or two that he or she can offer to an audience. Some stories have been told to teach lessons. Some stories have been told to children as a way of explaining generations to them. Some stories have been told to explain how to do certain things in life. In some cases, stories have been told for pure entertainment.

In the early life of the Native Americans and the ancient Egypt, people would exchange stories that tried to figure out why the sun goes rises and goes down every day and every night. One key reason why people would tell stories is to express what happened in the past. During the World War II, many Jews people were tortured, deprived of their rights, and murdered. The stories of this time are told today in order to highlight the need for the modern society to shun war and break into a cohesive society. Such stories elevate the dangers of war, on an individual basis, and hence send strong messages to the listeners. In the article The Handmaids Tale, a story has been told for one critical reason, which is concerning a certain period of time.

The Handmaids Tale is a significant story that many readers will want to have in their daily lives. One aspect in this narration is a capacity that the author has used to incorporate many stories into one story (Boswell 5). The narration of the stories from the broth of the story, including stories that are to be told but can only be wished. Storytelling is an intriguing phenomenon. Most people love stories, as they are important when it comes to entertainment and education. Expressions that are offered through stories always form the basis from which education and learning take place.

This assignment seeks to establish the use of storytelling as part of the language in this story titled The Handmaids Tale. The article seeks to find out the possible mechanisms the author has incorporated in order to bring out the best form of writing involving different styles of writing. A story is anything that can be narrated and contains a hidden or direct message (Jarraway 34). The writing of any story is based on the motivation behind the author. In most cases, as seen initially, it is important to consider a story as essentially a piece of communication or a message that has been choreographed in a specific way and hence can be delivered in a special way to the audience. In order to find relevant meaning in any story, it is always significant to find the original context of the story. In this case, it is significant to consider the timelines of the writing of the story, the authors, and the current things happening during the writing of the story, among others.

The story has been written by a girl, young in age, and called Offred. In the story, she is the one named Handmaid. This name is significant in the story in that it carries a huge social meaning. The name means that as a Handmaid, she is able to do the work of having children and sleeping with the commander. This is the specific job that Offred and others do in a society called The Republic of Gilead. Offred is narrating a story about whatever she goes through in this community. She also tells other stories of other people she sees. In this society, women are extremely submissive. This is what has been expected of them. When it comes to making decisions at home, these women do not participate. They cannot even read a book. The main function of the Handmaid is that whenever there are women who have stopped giving birth; it is her work to continue the act of procreation. They are forced into this kind of life (Boswell 42).

As seen in the last chapter of the story, the Storytelling as Represented in The Handmaids Tale has acquired another function of being used as a historical reference in time. The significance of this use here is that this act of using women in such a way has been demolished and hence women are able to live their lives as they once did. The point of telling this story is to enable the readers, and the entire society, to see the need to alter its ways of life and acquire critical behaviors that are progressive.

Analysis Essay

Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale is a story that has to incorporate vast forms of stories in one story. Storytelling has been used as a form of the language of communication or passing out the message that the author intends for the audience. A story in this case of the story is a collection of words. The author has constructed different stories, put together and tried to bring out a number of themes like the one for gender and women. There is an artistic invention of words and language through stories, something that has led to this new episode of the story in storytelling.

The author has told the story in a way that it forms something like a series of constructions, all starting with the story of the main character called Offred. The memories, then, have been reconstructed to form verbalized tapes that are finally reconstructed to historical tapes. The chain of construction after one another has formed the basis of Atwoods work. It is the work of the audience to reinterpreted the reconstruction as a way of coming out with a significant meaning in every story. Offred forms the basis of the stories and the reconstruction. The existence of Offred as a woman and as a Handmaid makes it all for the reconstructions to be complex but with easy ways of interpretation. Throughout the story, the art of storytelling becomes the central mechanism that has been used by the author bring out Offreds story.

There is the first reconstruction involving Offred as she tries to bring back her memories of her experiences while working as a handmaid. It is the reader has been given a Meta point of issues surrounding Offred as she tries to work as a handmaid. When one reads this story, it will appear as if the reader is in the mind of Offred. The author alternates between the present and the past. The author is trying to initiate some sense of managing the readers mind. Many initiatives of the present are connected and mingled with the past memories. A typical storytelling process is underway. Offred is trying to cover a reflection on the process that she used to reconstruct. This is a reconstruction. All of it is a reconstruction. Its a reconstruction now, in my head, as I lie flat on my single bed rehearsing what I should or shouldnt have said, what I should or shouldnt have done (Atwood 144). This is the mind of Offred as she tries to make way into knowing the initiatives of the different experiences she had. She cannot recount everything that took place and how they took place. Nonetheless, she is able to reflect on a few that she manages to reconstruct. The story has been reconstructed from her perspective of memories. The narrator is part of the verbal repertoire. Everything is about Offred.

The next level of reconstruction happens regarding Offred. These are stories surrounding her memories as they have been recorded orally through a collection of cassette tapes. Offred uses a meta point of view, indicating her inaccuracy and the entire nature of representation of the story. The author writes, "It's impossible to say a thing exactly the way it was because what you say can never be exact, you always have to leave something out (Atwood 144). This is when she tries to figure out everything that connects between her the different episodes she went through as she tried to work as a handmaid. Through language construction, it has become possible for Offred to reconstruct her stories (Boswell 64). The best way in which her stories can be represented is through a process of linguistic representation. There is no way, in which the author is able to understand the core issues that actually happen, right from her start to her end while working as a handmaid. The story involves her self-reflection. She wants to express her interests in the best way possible. Nonetheless, she is sure that whatever she is giving is not absolutely accurate.

There are laws and restrictions. She says It is not a story I am telling. It is also a story I am telling, in my head, as I go along. Tell, rather than write, because I have nothing to write with and writing is in any case forbidden (Wisker 49). In this expression, Offred is trying to bring out some sort of complication that she went through. Her stories are simple manifestations of the ways in which her life went about. Nonetheless, it appears that everything was intense that the best she can bring to the audience is to use possible wording in her story, which is found in her mind as she reconstructs. With good oral language, Offred can manage to bring the story, as it was detailing almost everything that she went through as she served as a handmaid. Now, Offred is typically trapped in this house (Bouson 25).

One historian James Pieixoto tries to piece together the different parts of the story by Offred. From his comment, there is no direct accuracy within the reconstruction. There are many inaccuracies in the story reconstruction. He claims all such arrangements are based on some guesswork and are to be regarded as approximate, pending further research (Atwood 314). The story, as given by Offred, has some bit of challenge when it comes to accent. There are quite a number of obscure statements, some of which include archaism and referents that are obscure. According to Pieixoto, Offred stands as one of many artists who are able to reconstruct a story, although with a lot of inaccuracy. Pieixoto illustrates a number of biases certain the story reconstruction process.

The author of the story, Atwood, takes responsibility for language development and use throughout the story. The readers work to represent the final level of reconstruction. There are levels of reconstruction process that Offred uses to reconstruct his stories. Language has been sensibly used to relay the possible ways in which the story can be ascertained. Offred is represented as a woman through the different techniques that have been used to highlight the story. The different levels that have been used to bring out the story are all related to how Offred has been suppressed and is struggling in this life of being a handmaid. The memories still exist although they are hard to be reconstructed with absolute accuracy. The memories are mental but they are also linguistic. The memories are verbalized into cassette tapes. These tapes are a story in the making since they bring a clear connection between the past, which is pre-Gilead role when she was serving as women, together with the present life when she is a handmaid (Boswell 2-6).

When the tapes are organized, with the story being reconstructed through a fictions history, the experiences of Offred are brought into bigger sense. She is exemplified by a bigger meaning and representation in the life and existence of Gilead society. The stories have been given in such a way that they represent the actual womanhood in the society before the process that Offred went through as a handmaid. The tapes and the recordings have a clear meaning in the way in which they have been manipulated. When one reads the book, he or she is made to know how to further reconstruct it and give a new meaning based on the individual bias. When the reader reads and represents the message in the final meaning,...