Heros Journey In The Handmaid's Tale

Although Offred is the heroine of this story, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the hero’s journey can be found in many characters in the story as well. This story is breaking into shambles between the past and the present, however, through the story, readers can still see the signs of the hero’s journey that Joseph Campbell has studied. Offred, being a handmaid, has been thrown into a world where women are powerless and stripped away of their rights to read and write. Atwood illustrates a dystopian world where equality is a part of history, not in the present day Gilead. However, Offred is one of the main characters who ceased to live in a degrading world and find means to escape. Thus, Offred begins on her Hero’s Journey, which occurs

in two ways: her escape to Canada and her escape from Gilead. Her departure from her ordinary world of living in a place where women are treated equally into a world of degrading women. Her initiation into this new lifestyle and rebelling away from the new society. Her return with the knowledge of escape but has yet to fulfill her needs.
Campbell’s Perspective on the Hero’s Journey
Joseph Campbell depicted the Hero’s journey in three stage: departure, initiation, and return.

Departure, is when the main character is leaving their ordinary world behind because they have received the call to adventure by the herald. Once they have enter the first threshold, their life begins to change. They come face to face with the threshold guardian, who is trying to prevent the potential hero from moving forward into their journey. However, with the amulet provided by the mentor, the hero is able to defeat the threshold guardian and continue on seeking knowledge. During the initiation, the hero goes through trials, allies and enemies. As well as, receiving enlightenment along the way. The hero slowly realizes their old world was a trapped for them because their have not fulfilled their needs and wants. One of the most prominent stages of the hero’s journey is the Belly of the Whale. When entered into the Belly of the Whale, the hero is reborn into a new person. After their resurrection, the hero encounters one last battle with death before returning to the ordinary world with the elixir. The elixir, or the boon, is a reward the hero receives once they completed their journey. Often, the hero’s thoughts were the boon being a physical object such as buried treasure or finding love from another. However, they receive a spiritual token or lesson to be shared with others because it is important to bring knowledge to others around you in order to not be lost. If the ones

around you are lost or refuse their call to adventure, they will never be truly happy or feel spiritual/mental rebirth.
The Handmaid’s Tale’s Hero Journey
Offred lived in a place where women were unable to read or write because it was forbidden.

This is a post united states world and some people, in the story, have seen the changes of from United States of America to Gilead. In their dystopian world, the handmaids wear “Everything except the wings around my face is red: the color of blood, which defines us”(Atwood 8). This is an example of the Ordinary World, female servants are used for reproducing because if the decline birth rate due to sexual diseases. During the call to adventure, the reader can consider Offred going to the call of adventure before Gilead, as well as, after Gilead. Both of them relating to the mistreatment against women. Her friend Moira, before Gilead, showed her a world in which women were fighting for their rights in the 1970’s during the women's liberation movement. Her and Moira went to a rally where “(she) threw the magazine into the flames. It riffled open in the wind of its burning; big flakes of paper came loose, sailed into the air, still on fire, parts of women’s bodies, turning to black ash, in the air, before my eyes”. (Atwood 39). Offred was gaining some of her memory back, pre- gilead days, she knew her mother and Moira were apart of the feminist movement. In addition to the rise of the government, her and Luke needed to leave because she feared the safety of her daughter and her husband. In matter of fact, Offred was a bit precautious of entering a new world because she was scared of

what was on the other side. In her my mind she started to ramble different scenarios, “Surely they will be able to see through me. Worse, how will I be able to hold on to Luke, to her, when I’m so flat, so while?” (Atwood 95). Unfortunately, her cowardice brought the downfall of her family causing the end to her hero’s journey before Gilead.
In both the United States and Gilead, Moira was a mentor to Offred. The mentor in the hero’s journey is she was the to guide her through the suffering and treatment of a handmaid. Moira was a catalyst to the start of Offred means to escape. Moira had escaped “[she] was out there somewhere...Moira had power now, she’d been set loose, she’d set herself loose. She was now a loose woman” (Atwood 133).
Commander Fred could be consider the herald of Offred’s journey. A herald is a character who appearance is crucial to the call to the journey. As Campbell illustrated “ marks what has been termed ‘the awakening of the self’”(Campbell 57). Commander Fred wanted to know Offred as a person rather than an object used for pleasure. Since he felt trapped in an unloving relationship, he thought Offred was an escape from reality. He offered to play a game with Offred, it was Scrabble™. Offred describe this game as “This was once the game of old women, old men, in the summers or in retirement villas... Now it’s forbidden, for us. Now it’s dangerous”(Atwood 138). Offred, as the protagonist, is slowly leaving the world of a Handmaid because what she is doing is forbidden. Commander Fred is letting her read and play games, which most handmaids can not do. This can be considered as Crossing the first threshold because she is no longer able to return to her Ordinary World acting the same way. The threshold guardian, in Offred’s journey, is Serena. Serena is the commander’s wife and she is jealous of Offred having the ability to reproduce the next of kin. In the hero’s journey, the threshold guardian is the protector of the unknown because he/she wants to prevent the hero from learning the secrets from the supernatural world or from completing their journey. Serena does not want Offred to be educated or be the interest of her husband’s eyes. Serena tries to diminish the connection between Offred and Commander Fred by offering Nick, the driver, to court Offred. However, Serena does not know that Offred does not have an infatuation with Commander Fred, rather, she is using him to find a way to escape.
Offred, in her journey, has encountered enemies, allies and a road of trials. During the road of trials, the hero is helped by allies, amulets, and supernatural aid they have received in the course of crossing the first threshold. A good example of allies was Oglen and Nick. Ofglen was another handmaid who did not assimilate into the society of Gilead. In fact, she was in an underground operation to help handmaids escaped to Canada. When Ofglen and Offred were in the market, Ofglen aided Offred with a words, “‘There’s a password,’ she says. ‘A password?’ I ask. ‘What for?’ ‘So you can tell,’ she says. ‘Who is and who isn’t.’” (Atwood 202). The password, Mayday, was Offred amulet to escape. Using this password can help her determined who was on her side and who was out there to destroy her. Nick helped Offred coup with the life of being a handmaid. She found herself falling in love with him because he was the only person willing to listen to her. He reminded her of Luke, her husband, making two of the hero’s journey parallel to each other because they are both very similar. Although, she was not sure whether or not to trust him, she knew he was her only hope.