Analyse du chapitre 23 de the handmaid's tale

« What is striking is the repeated use of similes.

A simile is a figure of speech which consists in comparing two unlikely things using like or as or as if.

A metaphor does the same without the words as or like. Studying those similes, we notice that they reveal deep themes and literary motifs that characterise The Handmaid’s Tale. First, “as if” + PRETERIT introduces propositions that are not real.

The narrator, Offred compares herself “as if I’m a kitten in a window”.

It’s both association of thoughts and picking a different object for lack of adequate words to describe really.

We can see that the purpose of the simile is to displace.

ANd indeed Offred says how difficult it is to tell a story, how impossible it is to tell the truth.

“All of that is a reconstruction”.

It means that similes are imperfect to describe, to explain, but they are the best she can do. Secondly, by using similes Offred shows also some distance with the reality when is giving an account of.

As in other places in the novel, we know that Offred has some sort of dark humour, here, the similes are sometimes also funny or ironic.

The brutal crime she imagines committing against the Commander.... »