Show how language and narrative structure are used to position your response to meaning of one or more themes in at least one novel you have read.
The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood, is a dystopian text which reflects on the perils of a monotheocratic fundamentalist society. This can be seen through the narrative and language structures of the text. Atwood has used these structures to better define the themes of the text. She uses a technique known as stream of consciousness to allow readers to view the story and its messages from the main character Offred`s point of view. This allows readers to experience events and memories as vividly as she does, she shows us the travels of her mind through asides, flashbacks, and digressions By using this form of narrative structure Atwood has positioned the reader to see the oppressive and despotic atmosphere of the society in which the story is set. Offred's frequent digressions into the past help to parallel her past experiences to her present state of mind. Much of her narration is concerned not with events, but with her emotional state, which is often affected by memories from her happier past. This is part of the exposition used by Atwood in order to help the reader understand how Offred came to be where she is and to provide us with a context for the plot.
The text is set in Gilead, a society that has been founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the North East of the United States of America. It is monotheocratic and patriarchal, meaning that it is based around one religion only, the society's foundations are based upon the religion "Puritanism", and whilst Gilead is a futuristic society it is deeply rooted in the past; "It's only the more recent history that offends them". In the context of the text, this return to traditional values means the subjugation and oppression of women to the degree at which the have no personal and social rights.
