The Handmaid's Tale: Chapter Analysis and Responses - Book Report/Review Example

The narration in the first six chapters of the novel is introductory of the location where the protagonist and other women are staying. The narrator and protagonist of the novel is Offred who seems to narrate her story through the aid of flashbacks. The story’s progress is smooth as the narration has been done in a gradual manner. This has allowed readers like me to grasp the idea of the background as well as the plot of the novel. In the first chapter, the narrator speaks of her experience and other women in the gymnasium as, “We slept in what had once been the gymnasium.

The floor was of varnished wood, with striped and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there; the loops or the basketball nets wee still in place, though the nets were gone (Atwood 5).” The narrator talks about the fear of women to be used by men if they were given considered pretty looking to them. The narrator has informed the audiences that women were commodities of entertainment to the foreigners and they were not allowed to speak aloud. This fact comes to observation when the narrator speaks that, “in the army cots that had bee set up in rows, with spaces between so we could not talk…Elizabeth patrol with electric cattle prod hanging from their leather belts (Atwood 6).

” The narrator progresses in the second chapter of the novels where the scenic description of Offred’s location suddenly changes into a separate room. The narrator describes the room to have a door that never closes completely, a framed picture, a bed, a glass of water on the table, curtains on the windows and braided rug. The description of the room of Offred proves to be a commercial living location. Offred illustrates herself as a handmaid who is not supposed to talk to the wives and Marthas.

The narrator has rather explained the uniforms of the handmaids, wives and Marthas to be red, blue and green respectively. This account of the novel rather shows the aspect of women being slaves of the army. Offred leaves from her room to go for shopping as she states “I never looked good in red, it’s not my color, I pick up the shopping basket, put it over my arm (Atwood 7).” This states that Offred is a handmaid who wears red uniform and is not allowed to talk to Marthas and wives but secretly she talked to Rita who is a Martha which is evident from the following narration.

Offred narrates that “Rita sees me and nods, whether in greeting or in simple acknowledgment of my presence it’s hard to say, and wipes her floury hands on her apron and rummages in the kitchen drawer for the token book. Frowning, she tears out three tokens and hands them to me (Atwood 9).” The third chapter of the novel rather talks about the role of the wives of the commanders. These wives were of the commanders who have been assigned the work of knitting scarves for the front angels in the army.

The wives of the commander had a garden and access to coffees cigarettes and alcohol. The narrator has been shown to express her curiosity regarding the roles of the wives and wonders if their knitted scarves have ever been used because she believed it was just a work to make the wives stay busy (Atwood). The fourth chapter of the novel takes the readers to a much interesting aspect of the novel where men have been described to be on service such as Nick who cleans the car of commander and winks Offred as she walks outside to meet the other handmaid as they have to go for shopping