Handmaid's Tale (pg. 9)

4. “At the bottom of the stairs there’s a hat-and-umbrella…black, for the Commander, blue, for the Commander’s wife, and the one assigned to me, which is red.” (Page 9)

Atwood again uses color to give her story context. The people’s stations are defined by color. Black is for those in control and who have power. Blue is used to define those with secure status. Red is used for the women who are of child bearing years. It’s interesting that she uses red for women like Offred because red is recognized in current times as a passionate color and a color of love (hearts, lipstick, ads in women’s magazines). However, women like Offred were being schooled not to be passionate or to allow love to cloud their duties so it becomes startling because the reader begins to associate red as symbolic of fertility which was their purpose.