The Use of Color Symbolism in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

Abstract

In my thesis, I examine color symbolism in Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood uses colors in The Handmaid’s Tale, in an unconventional way because she gives uncommon meaning to them. In my essay, I focus on collecting and comparing the color symbols in the novel and I examine each of them placing in different scenarios. I want to compare their traditional meaning and their meaning from Atwood’s view of point. In order to go deeply into the meanings of the color symbolism, a detailed explanation of Gilead is needed. After that, I focus on the colors represented in the novel. I examine the color red, blue, purple, green, white and pink. My aim with this examination is to see what kind of a second meaning is given to these above-mentioned colors.