Top Two Features

About loss e.g  freedom,mothers, children
I believe that the most important feature in the novel is about the loss of different aspects.


Offred loses her daughter when trying to escape Gilead. In earlier chapters she says that she sometimes sees her daughter as a ghost. the noun,ghost, connotes something see through and not frequent. This illustrates that she misses her daughter and that she can't have her like she did before in pre-Gilead.
Offred loses her freedom to everything that she believed she took advantage of such as speaking and meeting people. In chapter 1 she says, "We learned to whisper almost without sound". The pronoun, we, suggests that it weren't herself only that was confined to whispering and not expressing themselves like they would in usual circumstances. This loss of this simple action implies that they were reduced or stripped away to conform to their new roles of Handmaids than how they were in they former lives.
Offred also loses her mother throughout the transition of the new life because of her outspoken character which promoted feminism and not patriarchy.

About the exploitation of women
Secondly, I think about the exploitation of women as important as well


The most obvious way in which women are exploited in the novel is the idea of having Handmaids. It can be seen as state rape from the readers point of view. The form of this is done in what they call, ceremonies. It starts with a reading from the bible which is meant to justify the whole thing. In chapter 15, Offred says, "It's the usual story, the usual stories".This is ironic that they would have biblical allusion in such an activity. The adjective, usual, connotes that it is a regular occurance this state rape.