Discuss the variety of narrative techniques used in ‘The Handmaids Tale’

‘The Handmaids Tale’ has a complex narrative structure due to the fact that the narrator tells stories from the present, past and distant past throughout the novel. There are many scene shifts and time shifts that make the novel a difficult read. The narrators present situation and past history are gradually revealed through these shifts between time.
The first chapter of the novel is used to introduce more themes that occur throughout the novel. There are many techniques that are used in the first chapter that are used throughout the book, there are also many ideas and themes that are brought up in this chapter. Atwood hints at the major themes that occur in the story and so the novel is built upon this first chapter.
The time change is deliberately manipulated in the first chapter – everything in this first section, as in the rest of the book, is deliberately manipulated – and confuses the reader a little, there are changes between the distant past and the mor...