#16- Handmaid's Tale

"The three bodies hang there, even with the white sacks over their heads looking curiously stretched, like chickens strung up by the necks in a meatshop window; like birds with their wings clipped, like flightless birds, wrecked angles... If it weren't for the ropes and the sacks it could be a kind of dance, a ballet, caught by flash-camera: midair" (277).

Atwood's comparison between the bodies and chickens in a meatshop window gives this scene an especially gruesome feeling. Chickens are raised for the purpose of being meat, leading the reader to wonder if the women were hung for a reason other than the crimes they "committed." This is supported by the fact that Aunt Lydia does not announce what crimes the women committed. Flight is often used to symbolize freedom. Atwood compares the bodies to multiple things that have lost their ability to fly. This sense of losing freedom is more than simply dying. Just like a bird cannot control whether its wings get clipped, these women were most likely hung for no reason. Comparing the scene to a dance gives it an ironic twist - dance usually symbolizes celebration. This hanging is a sick celebration, one of the control that the Eyes have over the women.

Work Cited:
Photo Credit:
"Answers search engine: clipping bird wings." Qwikstep.com. 2010. Answers search engine. 31 Aug. 2010 <http://qwickstep.com/search/clipping-bird-wings.html>.