Awful Quote by Margaret Atwood
“The newspaper stories were like dreams to us, bad dreams dreamt by others. How awful, we would say, and they were, but they were awful without being believable. They were too melodramatic, they had a dimension that was not the dimension of our lives. We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories.”
About This Quote
Source Novel: The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood, 1985
The narrator sees media as distant, unrealistic dreams, offering freedom to those omitted from the story.
In simple terms: Media feels unreal, giving space to the unheard.
Key Takeaway
Recognize gaps in narratives.
Themes
media critique
alienation
freedom
Mood
critical
thoughtful
Type
literary
social
When to use this quote
- journalism
- personal identity
- social exclusion
Key Concepts
post‑modernism
narrative silence
Questions to Reflect On
- Who are the stories you overlook?
- How does silence shape identity?
A Different Perspective
Media can also marginalize.
