Double Meaning

            A while ago we talked about the words in The Handmaid’s Tale that had multiple meanings or at least meant something different from how we normally use them. Some of these words were “angels” and “is”. An angel is something that isn’t always brought up in every day conversation, but when it is people usually think of white robed people with wings on a cloud. In The Handmaid’s Tale however it was used as the title for the soldiers. This difference isn’t too crazy though because angles can also be thought of as “the warriors of god” and the soldiers can be thought of as protecting their religion and their interpretation of the word of god. The word “is” is a different situation however. How we would use it is if something is a matter of fact. An example is “the dog is in the living room”; there is no speculation, the dog just simply is in the living room. In the book however, the word “is” becomes something like a hope that everything is okay. The narrator uses the word “is” to talk about the people from earlier in her life when things were more like how they are today; the reason that she does this is because she has no way of knowing what their actual life is like in current times so she creates her own reality for them.

            This double meaning of words or altered meaning of words can also be seen other places such as the double speak in 1984 or even our own lives. To use my own life as an example, the words “depressed” and “sad” are very similar in meaning, but I give them my own special meanings. To me, sadness is a reaction to external stimulus. An example of this would be finding out that the reason my grandfather died before my parents met was not because of an illness of anything of that nature but instead because he committed suicide. And then to me, depression is a reaction to internal stimulus. An example of this would be how I expect myself to be superman in order to meet expectations and then beat myself up mentally and physically when I make even the tiniest mistake.

            Now, to end this blog on some sort of short conclusion instead of the previous paragraph. All of these examples show that words can be interpreted differently depending on the situation, the reader, and the writer. I am sure that everyone has their own versions of words that mean something slightly different to them than to the average person.