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Post by sgalle on May 17, 2010 10:44:39 GMT -5
A story may be narrated in first-person or third-person.
First-person narrators actually appear in the story. They may be reliable (you believe them) or unreliable (you do not always trust their version of the story).
Third-person narratives may be limited (the story does not tell us what is happening inside characters' heads) or they may be omniscient (they know everything, including thoughts).
Which perspective is the work you read in, and how does this affect the work overall?
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Post by joaquin on Aug 20, 2010 23:48:00 GMT -5
The story The Handmaid’s Tale is narrated from a first point person point of view. The main character from the book is Offred, she narrates her story as a handmaid and what are the obstacles and problems she has to face. She is a character with limited knowledge about the circumstances that occur in the novel. She is an unreliable character because most of the time she doesn’t know what is happening around her, so many times she creates her own ideas and conclusions without really knowing if it is true. The reader can’t trust her because there is not the certainty that what she is narrating is really what is happening. This affects the work overall because you don’t know what is going to happen next or if what Offren is narrating is true. This makes the story very interesting since there is a feeling of suspense throughout the novel.
Joaquin Espinosa 11th
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Post by aaleman on Aug 24, 2010 11:36:22 GMT -5
The Handmaid's Tale is told in by Offred she is the main character of the story. Since she is the main character she is present in the story, this means that the point of vies is from a first-person narrator. After reading The Handmaid's Tale I think Offred is reliable because she is writing to her husband Luke and if she is telling him that she cheated on him she is brave enough to tell him this the rest is true as well. Offred is telling her story which means she is a limited narrator because she dose not know what is happening to the people around her. Offred is telling us the story as if we already know what has happened in her time period, which makes the story some what confusing and hard to follow but as you keep on reading you understand more about what is happening. Anahi Aleman
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eliza
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Post by eliza on Aug 24, 2010 11:54:52 GMT -5
The Handmaid’s tale is a novel written from a first person point of view. The person who narrates the events of this polemic story is Offred, who is also the main character. Offred shares her insight of the harsh lifestyle women experiment during a time in which females are deprived of any kind of freedom, and are forced into a specific “chore” to contribute to their society. Her responsibility, for instance, is to get pregnant in order to help the community reproduce, and grow in an era when most women are sterile. Offred’s story is filled with painful and deep analysis of her own situation in which she looses her husband and child to become an instrument of reproduction, only. She is enclosed in a place where her opinion is not heard but judged; so this makes the story bias and unreliable because we, as the audience, may only appreciate the story only through her own perspective. This affects the narration in a positive way by attracting more attention and care to the reader because it makes it more intense due to the closeness we have with the character’s feelings and thoughts. It also makes it more personal in way because you get to know the character up to a point where you are able to predict her actions and reactions to certain situations she faces throughout this chapter of her life. ELIZA BURBANO; 11th Grade International
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maria jose cordova 11 C
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Post by maria jose cordova 11 C on Aug 28, 2010 12:42:54 GMT -5
The novel is told in a first person point of view, from the main character Offred. Offred is a handmaid that tells her story of her daily life at the commander’s household were she has the job to have babies. She tells her past at the red center. she tells all the things she know about this fake society and makes the book interesting because the reader sees the society as cruel or fair as the character is telling.. Its cruel because people aren’t free and have to follow some rules that benefits other people.
Maria Jose Cordova 11C
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Post by david valencia on Aug 29, 2010 14:23:23 GMT -5
The Handmaid's Tale is a novel narrated by first person point of view. The narrator is the main character,Offred. Offred is not the same as the rest of the Handmaid's, she thinks beyond what she sees. As i have said in older entries she is a clever character that wants to get out of the Household. She explains and seeks for explanations of many stuff that is going on in this new society, she tells us how women are being mistreated and are not being treated as any other human being and how they are being used only as birth mothers and not normal women. The aspect that makes her a good narrator is that she creates a sort of suspense that makes the book interesting. The fact that she is telling the book while being a character makes the book better because she is telling the story from her point of view with her analysis towards what is going on in the story.
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Post by gmolina on Aug 29, 2010 19:28:50 GMT -5
The novel The Handmaid's Tale is narrated in a first-person point of view. In this case our narrator is Offred who is also the main character of the novel. She is involved in the story and narrates her own experiences throughout the book but still she is an unreliable narrator. This happens because what she tells us in the story are only guesses of what might be happening in the outside world. For example Offred can't always know the truth about everyone since everybody hides a secret that can't be revealed or else they might be betrayed or receive serious punishments. The narrator as well cannot be in a limited third- person narrative because the novel does tell us what Offred thinks about the whole situation she is living and all her thoughts in response to certain experiences. Additionally it can't be omniscient because if that were the case we should know everything that happens around Offred including her thoughts which doesn’t happen throughout the story. All this incomplete knowledge that Offred gives the reader, affect the whole story. Therefore there are always doubts that appear but can't be resolved. The first-person narrator creates a lot of mystery and suspense in the novel and resultantly makes the reader have many undone questions that are left for the same reader to solve. Gabriela Molina 11th grade
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Post by mguerrero on Aug 29, 2010 20:50:29 GMT -5
The Narrative Perspective in The Handmaid’s Tale is a first person narrator. The narrator and main character is Offred, she tells us her story. The narrator is unreliable narrator because the narrator, Offred, only tells us her side of the story. Offred doesn’t know everything of the story, she tells us her thought, analysis and events that she saw or lived but they nay be true or not we don’t actually know. By having this type of perspective we are able to really feel we are inside the story for one reason, because only one character is telling the story making us have questions instead of knowing all of what is happening in the story. The reader feels the presence of Offred making a positive effect in the novel, and creating a union from book to the readers mind. Basically we could feel a connection from Offred thought by having this type of first person narrator. Mateo Guerrero 11th Grade
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Post by antonella damone on Aug 29, 2010 21:02:26 GMT -5
The Handmaid´s Tale is a novel told by our main character, Offred. She narrates her story, her lifestyle as a Handmaid in a first person point of view. Offred tells us her day by day life, how she changed from being a happy mother and wife, to a tool of reproduction. In this Era, most women are sterile, preventing the population of Gilead to grow. Blessed women such as Offred, have to scarify their families and lives and take the responsibility of making the population grow. Offred is enclosed in a world where her opinion is not heard, only criticized, where she has no rights, no freedom. We may only infer everything it occurs and rely on her perspective, since she is the only narrative character. This makes us, as the readers, to be deeply attached to the main character´s situation, feelings and thoughts and understand more the situation that she is going through.
Antonella Damone, International
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Post by mariemancero on Sept 1, 2010 19:44:45 GMT -5
The Handmaid's Tale is a novel that is told from a first-person narrator. Offred, who narrates the story, is also the protagonist in the novel. Her narrations are very clear and easy to understand, but most of all, she makes the reader believe everything that she tells. While reading her experiences from her past with her family and friends, one can relate to her life. This is because she illustrates her life, before being a Handmaid, as a very common life style that most of us live, with no great luxuries, but with a lot of appreciation. Her way of explaining how the Republic of Gilead worked, is very interesting. As a reader, it is very convincing that such laws, like those of being a Handmmaid to reproduce for the good of the country, may exist. This is because liberty of expression has not always existed, and is also being less accepted in some countries, so one may wonder, what if the world becomes a Republic of Gilead? Offred's narration in first-person gets you more into the story because it is interesting to know about another person's life, as bad as it may sound, because her situations are new to the reader who wants to understand how she was able to overcome all of the big changes.
Maria Emilia Mancero
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Post by nathalyrobalino on Aug 28, 2011 10:00:09 GMT -5
The book “The Handmaid’s Tale” is narrated in first person. Offred, the main character, is who narrates the story from her point of view. She explains carefully the details of her new lifestyle as a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She also tries to remember how she used to be and to live before she was taken prisoner in the Household. Offred express sincerely her feelings to the readers. This sincerity makes her pretty reliable. She doesn’t know all the details about the way that this Republic works because almost all the important information is hidden from women. It is an interesting way of narration because the reader gets interested in the hidden information and they want to discover it with Offred.
Nathaly Robalino
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