Full question: 'I made that up. It didn’t happen that way. Here is what happened,’ declares Offred.
Examine the significance of storytelling in The Handmaid’s Tale in light of this
quotation [25 marks]
I made that up. It didn’t happen that way. Here is what happened,’ declares Offred.
Examine the significance of storytelling in The Handmaid’s Tale in light of this
quotation [25 marks] By Bianca De Villa
Atwood illustrates the central protagonist Offred taking herself away from the reality of the
regime in Gilead through storytelling in The Handmaid’s Tale, highlighted through how her
narrator constantly drifts away into memories of the past to be able to cope with everyday
life. Through this notion, Offred constantly reminds us of the dependency we have on her for
the truth - she could’ve completely made up the story and we as readers would never know.
Storytelling is a major theme within the novel as the text is a postmodernist metanarrative, a
story about telling a story.
The fact that Offred depicts three separate reconstructions contrasting her fantasy versus
reality of her first love scene with Nick poses an evident question to the reader: how reliable
is the narrative structure? Her admission that she’s recasting the account of her night,
uttering that she ‘made that up’, draws attention to the importance of telling stories within this
metafictional, complex narrative as well as to the novel’s status as a postmodern text. In
positioning herself as a self-confessed unreliable narrator, however, Atwood paradoxically
increases the reader’s belief that we can depend on her essential truthfulness. While some
details may be blurred, overall Offred’s narrative conveys an unassailable sense of
authenticity. Although Offred feels some element of debt to her audience for listening to all
her thoughts, she’s still honest at the same time about her falsehood and ultimately
preferring the embarrassing truth.
The concept of concealing or erasing readings is paralleled by the nature of Offred’s tale
itself: her tale is a palimpsest in both form and content. According to Pieixoto in the Historical
Notes, Offred erased most of the original contents of thirty cassette tapes and recorded her
own material, stating that “each tape begins with songs, as camouflage no doubt, then the
music is broken off and the speaking voice takes over” - Offred’s tale itself unequivocally
parallels the material form in which it’s found, for Offred constantly revises her story,
negating and then retelling certain segments. Essentially, Offred ‘rewrites’ her tale without
physically erasing its previous contents, thereby allowing her audience to consider both the
original and revised texts. In relating her encounters with Nick, Offred breaks off and
confesses, then retelling her story only to admit that “it didn’t happen that way either”. The
adverb ‘either’ depicts how she doesn’t retell her scenario after ‘erasing’ her other stories. As
a result, her audience is left with only an impression, or a faint image, of what may have
occurred. Yet the layering that occurs in a palimpsest adds to the dialogue of the story. The
possible range of events gives rise to a concurrent spectrum of possible readings for each
option presented. The fact that Offred doesn’t provide a conclusive account epitomises the
significance of storytelling as it allows for infinite readings since the text itself is infinite in
possible occurrences.
The power of storytelling is also exhibited throughout Atwood’s dystopia as a means of
rebellion. To tell one’s own story is to express their own beliefs surrounding a certain event,
or idea which would therefore need someone to have a personal identity and a sense of
individuality in order to establish such opinions. In chapter 7, Offred ‘would like to believe
that this is a story (she’s) telling’ - here stories become a symbol of survival and control. In
viewing her life as a story, rather than just a mere collection of memories and events, Offred
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