The Handmaid's Tale

How is the very structure and style of this novel different from a more typical novel, say Heart of Darkness or Siddhartha.

How is the very structure and style of this novel different from a more typical novel, say Heart of Darkness or Siddhartha.

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One of the first things readers notice is the way in which the story shifts abruptly from one scene to another and from present time to the past, so that the narrator’s present situation and her past history are only gradually revealed. Reading becomes an exercise of reconstruction as we piece together present details with fragments of remembered experience, revealed by flashbacks. At the beginning there are few flashbacks, for we, like the narrator, are trapped in present time. I know Heart of "Darkness is structured", more or less, chronologically.The reader does not need to reconstruct anything. Much of what we see is through the protagonist Marlow.

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http://schol.wordpress.com/2007/11/12/the-handmaids-tale-narrative-structure/