Compare how a sense of claustrophobia is built up in the Handmaids Tale and an Evil Cradling

Margret A twainods off-key autobiography The Handmaids broadside And Brian Keenans autobiography, An Evil Cradling documenting his kidnapping by funda cordialist Shiite militiamen some(prenominal) present a whizz of claustrophobia. Each novel presents tional. strophobia Keenan the offspring of claustrophobia within the protagonists. An Evil Cradling presents Keenans physical claustrophobia as a hostage and the emotional entrapment. two authors successfully create a find of claustrophobia whilst exploring the different situations of both protagonists.Both Offred and Keenans flavourstyles step up even much claustrophobic in contrast to their foregoing lives. There is an asymmetry in the presentation of a comprehend of claustrophobia within and between the two novels. Whilst on the mavin clear, both writers deal with the supposition of claustrophobia as having a negative answer on their lives. On the other hand the life of the important protagonists before their confi ned state is presented with considerable differences. These differences atomic number 18 exemplified in the interruption chapters of both texts.Keenan in his geographic expedition of life before captivity seems to advise life was not each that in bendive and certainly not with by its problems before he was taken captive in the Lebanon, where one might imagine the root of entirely his problems with claustrophobia began. In the preface Keenan states, I was brought up in that harsh, divided landscape of Yankee Irish, working class and I went into with all its baggage. Furthermore he claims in his setoff chapter, Before I left Belfast, I had been torn with a desperate kind of love and distaste for my place. Both statements from the two parts of Keenans book, showing that his life, as he puts it himself, was a type of cul-de-sac. This parable for a dead-end shows that Keenan was no more free people in his native Ireland, so oft quantify that he was forced to seek mental co mfort elsewhere. The entire opening chapter of an devilish cradling set offs Keenans disconnection with his country and how he snarl trap and a hotshot of claustrophobia in a place so well-kn ingest(prenominal) to him. Contrastingly, Atwood presents her protagonist as having a furthest more affectionate, possibly rose tinted capture on her life before taken into captivity.In Atwoods A Handmaids Tale Offred conveys a tumid amount of nostalgia towards her past. In the opening chapter Atwood contrasts the senses of the past. The lights be vividly described as a revolving ball of mirrors, powdering the dancers with a snow of light. Atwood chooses this poetic metaphor to show her fondness towards previous times. Atwood describes the simplicity of the lights under the regime The lights were saturnine downwardly but not out. Offreds feelings of utmost(prenominal) claustrophobia atomic number 18 exacerbated through the juxtaposition of the antecedent senses. In Offreds case she is more photosensitive towards these feelings of emancipation.Offred is a victim of gradual entrapment that has been spare in her society for many years chapter 28 reveals the gradual oppression of women Things go on in that state of suspended sustenance for weeks Newspapers were censored roadblocks began to appear, and identipasses by stripping women of their political and social rights the Gileadean regime came to power. Offred uses listing to highlight the continuous changes in society, specifically tell at women, showing her own setback and resentment towards her gradual confinement. Offred does not merely demonstrate nostalgia towards her past in the opening chapters.Atwood ceaselessly uses similes throughout that are resonant of the past. These similes present an lack from the routine regime they often involve the senses which allow Offred to consort the regime by remembering and juxtaposing elements and senses of the past. Its near like June, Offred shift s in mental locating via association of seasons, Offreds memories of the seasons are superimposed oer Gileads charade of normality, it is as though Offred turning aways into her own private narrative underneath her fetter as a handmaid her recollections act as freedom from the past.Both Offred and Keenans sense of claustrophobia is intensified by the fashion that their human creations rights are no hugeer recognise and they oblige no freedom of choice. Keenans whiskers is used in The Devils Barbershop to symbolise his self-respect and freedom of choice. Keenan is very reluctant to behave his whiskers shaved off his deportment becomes the manifestation of claustrophobia. He becomes attached to his beard and it symbolises his freedom of expression, Ive had this beard for too long for some halfwit who thinks he owns me to make me what he wants me to be. Throughout this passage Keenan uses long sentences that highlight his heightened emotions, Keenans aggressive tone towar ds his captors to a fault shows his hesitance to change, Keenans identity is displayed through his beard and in addition to Offred he is being made to align and accept his claustrophobic surround. In The Handmaids Tale Offred is defined by her akin, and looses her previous identity. This expresses that in Gilead their lives have become so claustrophobic that even their ability to express themselves has been oppress.Offred feels trapped in a system which bang controls women. The tint coding of womens array indicates that in this society their individual identities are lost(p) in prescribed manipulations. Everything except the fly around my face is red the colour of logical argument, which defines us a sister, dipped in blood. Atwood uses this negative metaphor to highlight Offreds feelings towards loosing her individuality. Offreds uniform in addition acts as a physical restriction, The white wings they are to keep us from seeing, but in like manner from being seen. It i s made apparent that their clothes are also a steering of physically restricting them as way of control, deliberately designed to limit the Handmaids view. The blood red is a constant varan of the vilification of women in Giliadean society. Blood red is symbolised throughout the novel and acts as a constant re school principaler to Offreds role in society, although her role as a child barer allows her more freedom under the regime it is also the one thing that traps her. The description of the characters surroundings and routines present a sense of claustrophobia, Offreds account of going out and doing the daily obtain illustrates this.Under the Gileadaen regime the Handmaids never went out unaccompanied, this partnership system provided both chaperones and spies. Offred considers the sign of both women dressed identically in red, thinking of them as doubles, both visually and in circumstances. The truth is that she is my spy, as I am hers. Each woman traps the other. However, a suggestion of freedom is present in the structure of the two novels. For Keenan, his ability to let his mind wander in times of extreme captivity has been vital to his pick.Keenan changes tenses abruptly, from describing the cell, to a present time, showing the way in which his mind jumps, to escape his present situation. However, in Into the Bread Basket Keenans senses were shut down by the tight confinement of the enter which will not let my mind escape. Now that even his mind cannot escape he feels as if a splurge is bursting out within my senses which further reflects how his repressed senses are desperate to escape the confinement, without his freedom of mind Keenan finds himself completely trapped.Correspondingly, Offred is able to escape into her private instauration of memory and desire. Offred uses storytelling as a means of personal survival her narrative is the only way of bridging the rupture between an isolated self and the world outside. It is also a story I am telling, in my head, as I go along. Offred is able to escape the thick feelings of claustrophobia through expressing her feelings. Atwood chooses short sentences to emulate the essential nature of speech resulting in a flowing structure.Fear plays a main role in increasing the sense of physical claustrophobia experienced by both Keenan and Offred. In into the bread basket Keenan uses imagery that creates associations with stopping point I am being embalmed and mummified and I am going back to the coffin. This demonstrates how in such claustrophobic conditions where all his senses have been effectively shut off he is completely helpless and that in these secure dark conditions the difference between life and death becomes uncertain.Keenan carries on this extended metaphor in the oxymoron a living form this again reflects the negative experience of being in such claustrophobic conditions. Finally, both authors have used literary and morphologic techniques to reveal the many w ays in which claustrophobia can be created and intensified. Although the two protagonists situations are very different, as Offred lives a controlled and bound life and Keenan one of absolute entrapment they show many similar traits and emotions triggered from their individual feelings of claustrophobia.