POSTMODERNISM
Definition: Postmodernism is an approach moving beyond the "modernist" questioning of previous certainties and acknowledges uncertainty in form and language.
Qualifiers:
1. Everything is a "construct" (language/idea we put together to better understand a subject)
2. There are different versions of the same event
3. Everything is open to interpretation
4. There is no certain ending
Postmodernism in The Handmaid's Tale:
The example of postmodernism in The Handmaid's Tale relates to qualifiers three and four in the above list. This example is the fact that there is no certain ending of the book and the reader is able to interpret the ending in whatever way they see fit. Best stated by Offred, "And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light" (295). Offred has no idea if the van she gets into at the end of the book will be her downfall or her beacon of hopeful escape. The story of Offred literally ends with that quote on page 295, leaving the reader confused and drawing their own conclusions based on the reading of the entire book. In an attempt to somewhat clarify the ending, Margaret Atwood adds a historical notes epilogue. Although, this section still leaves the reader confused; best represented with the end of the professor's speech, "Did our narrator reach the outside world safely and build a new life for herself? Or was she discovered in her attic hiding place, arrested, sent to the Colonies or to Jezebel's, or even executed?" (311). The historical notes do present clarification on the fact that Offred did escape Gilead long enough to create recorded tapes, but no one knows if she survived. Another example of this is the last line of the book. The professor asks, "Are there any questions?" (311). To which this quote would be answered with an extreme yes! No one knows for sure what has become of Offred and the others of Gilead. Since there is no clear and certain ending, postmodernism plays a major role in The Handmaid's Tale.