Nick

Outer characterization

Nick is a mysterious character in Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale. We get very little insight into his thoughts and feelings, or into his identity. He is one of the Guardians assigned to the Commander’s household; he is essentially a chauffeur. We first meet him when he is washing the Commander’s car: 

He's wearing the uniform of the Guardians, but his cap is tilted at a jaunt angle and his sleeves are rolled to the elbow, showing his forearms, tanned but with a stipple of dark hairs. He has a cigarette stuck in the corner of his mouth, which shows that he too has something he can trade on the black market. […] He has a French face, lean, whimsical, all planes and angles, with creases around the mouth where he smiles. (Chapter 4, 9%)

He liv...