This unit opens with a Night section. What is noticeable or different about the content, mood, style and tone of these sections of the novel?

Like all novels written in the first person, The Handmaid's Tale offers the reader entry to only a single consciousness. This choice always suggests a certain degree of solitude, but in Offred's case this solitude is even more profound than usual. Offred's exchanges with others are extremely limited, and they are made more so by the sense that Offred is remembering everything from some point in the future. She is never in medius rei, in the middle of things. She also spends an astonishing amount of her time alone, and her attempts to pass that time make up a large portion of the novel. While Offred's loneliness is a reality, it is also a symbolic expression of her position in this society.