The Handmaid's Tale Journal 1

“We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, with 1
stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there; the hoops
for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone. A balcony ran around
the room, for the spectators, and I thought I could smell, faintly like an afterimage, the
pungent scent of sweat, shot through with the sweet taint of chewing gum and perfume from 5
the watching girls, felt-skirted as I knew from pictures, later in miniskirts, then pants, then
in one earring, spiky green-streaked hair. Dances would have been held there; the music lingered, a palimpsest of unheard sound, style upon style, an undercurrent of drums, a
forlorn wail, garlands made of tissue-paper flowers, cardboard devils, a revolving ball of
mirrors, powdering the dancers with a snow of light” (3). 10

In this passage the narrator is remembering things of the past that occured here. The setting is of a gymnasium but is it a High school gym, middle school gym, or an elementary gym? How much would the imagery change from one gym to another? One of the uses for the gym was "for the games that were formerly played there"(2) like basketball. If games are not played here then where are they played or are they played at all? With the line "[a] balcony ran around the room, for the spectators"(3) not only do you see the balcony you see anxious people for the next play excited or worried for the teams playing, and you can see even a father pacing around the balcony cheering on his son. Imagery is one of the strongest techniques that Margaret Atwood uses in this book. It is continued to be seen when she describes the smells that our narrator remembers. Our narrator remembers the smell of sweat mixed with the smell of perfume leading to the memory of the girls watching the game. "[F]elt- skirted as I knew from pictures, later in miniskirts, then pants, then in one earring, spiky green-streaked hair" (6) tell us that the narrator doesn't fully remember all the details of the past because she has to rely on pictures to remember the change in styles through out the years. Later dances are described as palimpsest with a list of things describing the dances following. Palimpsest can also be used to describe the floors. The paint hides the many details and complexities of the wood. Is the idea of palimpsest going to continue through the book? The items like "a revovling ball of mirrors" (9) she knows that they exist but they are all fading from her memory as they just barely grasp her now. This can either create a curious character trying to remember the world before or a frustrated and bitter character that longs for the past.