Handmaid's Tale Identity

As part of Edna’s self-discovery she wants to spend time on her own and she feels forced to leave her kids with her parents. When she visits them, her kids still bring her happiness even if her previous life does not and “it was with a wretch and a pang that Edna left her children” [95]. Edna does fine alone, with her art, forgetting her past, but when she goes to see them, she is confronted with the side of herself that she is giving up and it hurts her. This aching shows that there is still a part of her that is a wife and mother. One part where the Ratignole side of her overcomes Reisz’s is when she goes to Adele’s side at childbirth instead of staying with Robert.

After leaving Logan and marrying Joe, she was very happy and seemed to be in love but soon after becomes a “trophy wife” and was just going through the motions of marriage. “No matter what Jody did, she said nothing. She had learned how to talk some and leave some… She got nothing from Jody except what money could buy, and she was giving away what she didn’t value”(Huston, 76). At this point Janie had fully accepted the fact that she wasn’t going to have love in her marriage, and didn’t really care. At this point Janie’s character starts to develope into a more independent woman who cared less about what he husband wanted and more about what she wanted.

Edna feels she is entitled to a private emotional life, a hidden self. Edna reveals her idea of the self in a conversation with Madame Ratignolle, insisting that although she would give her life for her children, she would not sacrifice her self, a distinction that Madame Ratignolle fails to

Though she dresses her daughter is extravagant clothing, for herself she dresses in in text about what she wears. Hester undergoes a transformation in the story, that emphasized how society had impacted her, and perhaps to have the constant reminder of truth, another theme of the story. Again, she lives the simple life of a transcendentalist who does not take more than what is necessary. Hester Prynne is a transcendentalist because she demonstrates the qualities non-conformity, self-reliance, and simplicity throughout the book. Being exiled by society, she then has the opportunity to fully come into her own.

At the end of the novel, she finally takes care of Sethe rather than fully relying on her for physical nurturing and inner happiness. Denver ultimately matures enough to stop relying on her mother for total emotional support, to care for someone besides herself, and to “have [her] own [opinion]” (314). Though she lost her physical strength and size due to starvation, she gained mental clarity and emotional growth through accepting that she needs the presence of others to help her. The threat of losing her only companion proves more important than her irrational fear of the outside world; in procuring her own opportunities, she gains a newfound sense of confidence that allows her to stop relying on Sethe for happiness. Morrison inexplicitly provides Denver’s transformation as a symbol of ongoing hope for previous and current slaves.

A motif that was in infiltrated in the story was the motif of her children. We see multiple perspectives on how children should be raised, or what type of mother a women should be throughout this story, but Edna does not allow others opinions to affect her emotions on the situation. Edna makes it clear that it is not the lack of love she has for her children that causes her actions, but the fear of losing herself. Edna does not want to be seen as “property” of her husband, or a stay at

She felt as if “every step she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual.” This acquired sense of confidence Edna receives briefly leaves her when she comes to realise something about motherhood during the process of Madame Ratignolle’s, her character foil’s, childbirth: that there is a unity between mother and child that she cannot escape. She acknowledges that her small instinct of motherhood prevents her from living a life without her child, but is very much unwilling to regress back to just being “Raoul and Etienne’s mother” and “Leonce’s wife;” to do so would be to give up herself, something she swore she would never do. To defy this, Edna returned to the supple touch of the sea to be

After Rayona and Christine arrive to Ida’s house, Christine leaves Rayona in Ida’s care. Rayona ends up living with and describes how Ida would feel about her departure, “Aunt Ida is a mystery to me. She seems to take everything as it comes, but it’s all a burden. I tell myself she won’t miss me, she won’t care that I left the way I did.” (85). Rayona feels that Ida does not care about her well-being and prefers to not have the responsibility of watching over her.

From the beginning of the story to the end Nea is pigheaded and doesn’t think about the consequences of her actions. Nea misconceives Sourdi’s unavailability for being in danger and unhappiness in her marriage when in actuality she’s happy and expecting another child. Sourdi is a dynamic character because she shows growth throughout the story. Though subtle, Sourdi shows courage when she marries her much older husband not knowing what to expect, but hoping he can provide a more satisfying life. She becomes independent, no longer leaning on the support of her relatives and starts a family of her own.

Elizabeth Edwards once said, “Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you've lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that's good.” Her life experiences lead her to learn the hard way what exactly resilience is. Elizabeth Edwards models how changes in life shouldn’t bring one down. Being strong and fighting for oneself is much more important and helpful rather than sulking and comparing oneself to another. Using just this, comparison to others, Jeannette recalls her family’s past and the struggle they went through in her memoir, The Glass Castle.