Sunday, 26 September 2010

Exploring the rules of behaivour in society in chapter one

The way that pregnant women are spoken about in this chapter shows how respected they are in society. Women aspire to become pregnant. it's specified that pregnant women get guarded as they're so valuable. This fact shows society's attitude and behaivour towards pregnant women, the fact that they are so sacred and women envy any woman that can get pregnant.
         The first word of the chapter says a lot about the general attitude of the society. The word "doubled" to describe how she's walking down the street shows how people are encouraged to act and behave in the society. The adjective "doubled" gives the impression that she's hunched over with her head down. This leads the reader to believe that in the society, people are very much encouraged to keep to themselves.
         The most shocking quote is one used by one of the Aunts. This quote sums up the broken society simply and bluntly. This quote is "We were a society dying". The continuous verb "dying" shows how destroyed the society was.

1 comment:

  1. Your approach to writing is solid and developing but in this particular instance you have I believe miss construed the meaning in the passage. 'Doubled' here refers more directly the fact that Handmaid's cannot walk alone, that they must always be in pairs, I think in some respect the secondary meaning of doubled up could be explored here but you haven't gone far enough and haven't seen the primary interpretation - I think further evidence of the fact that women's identities are obliterated by the habit they are forced to wear as Handmaids.

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