Narrative technique in The Handmaid's tale

The main story in The handmaid's tale is written in present tense. This story is an exciting story to follow because we gradually are given information about the main character's life in a totalitarian society. At the same time as the present story takes place we are given information about her past in a normal society. These glimpses of her past are not told in chronological order, but are stories she remembers when she has little to do, or they come as dreams. Her past and present lives are very different and in contrast to each other. When she feels alone in her present lift she can look back in retrospect to her former life with a husband and a child.


In the last chapter of the novel, we are taken forward to the year 2195 which is about two hundres years after the main story told in the novel. Now we are told that the story we have just read is actually a story transcripted from an audiotape some histrocans have found. We now know that the main character must have escaped and survived, and has been able to leave her story to the future generations.