Surveillance is a major occurring theme in both 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale. Characters are either being watched by Big Brother, The Eye, or even the people close to them. Either way, no action escapes The Eyes of the secret police. Spying is not a crime unless you do it for the good of the government, it is encouraged to spy on everyone.“‘You’re a traitor!’ yelled boy. ‘You’re a thought criminal! You’re Eurasian spy! I’ll shoot you. I’ll vaporize you, I’ll send you to the salt mines!’”(Orwell 25). There are microphones placed everywhere to keep the citizens in check, children are taught to keep a lookout on their own parents regardless of any family bond. Due to this, parents are always cautious of their own children. "There must have been …show more content…
Punishment is a form of correcting actions that were deemed wrong ones while learning to revamp a person's self, is what both societies believe in both novels. If a citizen is caught disobeying the order of the system, they will undergo severe punishment to correct that wrong action or thought. "How many times he had been beaten, how long the beatings had continued, he could not remember. Sometimes it was fists, sometimes it was truncheons, sometimes it was steel rods, and sometimes it was boots,” (Orwell 240). In 1984, if you are caught by The Eye you will soon disappear, not to be seen again, erased from history and brought to room 101 where you will be transformed and undergo torture and therapies so they may learn to love Big Brother just as they once did. “‘She hanged herself’, she says. ‘After the Salvaging. She saw the van coming for her. It was better,’”(Atwood 285). The thought of being punished was a greater burden than death itself. Offred was willing to end her own life than be captured by The Eye and be tortured because of what she believed was right. People can either disappear for disobeying the government like Winston almost did, or be hanged to death by the colon just as Offred was about to be, simply because they did not follow the orders of their leaders. The continuation of fearful punishment the …show more content…
The secret police of both novels like to have control on almost everything people do, it is not a surprise when knowledge is confined, knowing too much is not favored by the government. The theme of restricting knowledge presents itself a whole lot in both societies. Many of the characters suffered from not knowing what to do or were fed limited amount of information."Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought" (Orwell 52). Media is used to narrow the amount of informations people acquire, it is even worse when the government controls all that you hear and see. Knowledge is believed to be a power weapon, the less knowledge people have the less the government has to worry about citizens rebelling against them."'I'd like you to play a game of Scrabble with me?'"he says. Now of course it's something different. Now it's forbidden, for us. Now it's dangerous. Now it's indecent" (Atwood 126). Women are not forbidden from learning or reading, they can’t even read the bible, the book which Gilead holds dear too. In 1984, knowledge is a weapon that must be kept on the down low, the government wants to keep a tight hold on what people know. Knowing less shows a sign of obedience. While in The Handmaid's Tale it is illegal for handmaid to hold a book, let alone read one. The basic skill that many possess is considered doing wrong to the government. In conclusion,
The Dystopian Dream of Brave New World, The Handmaid’s Tale and GATTACA In Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill writes that “it is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied.” By this he meant there are qualitative degrees of satisfaction and if to be satisfied we’re lowered in status to that of a pig, it’s better for us to be dissatisfied humans. The film GATTACA and the books Brave New World and The Handmaid’s Tale create fictional places where the needs and desires of humans are met, but not as well as they should be and not without a price. Given the achievements in science over the last several decades, specifically in areas of genetics and biology, it is no wonder why we dream of altering our world in the name of progress. But with social progress in these tales comes repressed
The novel, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood connects to the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne through many similar, recurring themes. Both novels are described as works of dystopian fiction and they both manifest traits of Sin and Redemption with Good and Evil. One of the central themes that relate to both texts is Identity. Within both of the novels, both women protagonists struggle to successfully assert their identity, and they struggle to create genuine relationships with others. In The Handmaid's Tale, women have been banned from talking to one another because it's dangerous to express emotions. They are not allowed to read, write or create personal relationships with one another. All these things have been banned
In George Orwell’s dystopian novel, the government blocks almost all forms of self-expression in order to assert its authority over the people. Those within the society who show signs of defiance against the set rules, even those who act unwillingly, are seen as a threat to the success of the regime are wiped from existence. In Orwell’s 1984, the government uses different forms of propaganda and brainwashing to achieve complete control of society for their own personal benefit.
In Margaret Atwood 's The Handmaid 's Tale, society is meant to have overcome the sinful tendencies of modern culture. People who would rebel against the new status quo are broken through torture and conditioning. The character Moira acts as a symbol of the main characters, Offred 's, hope and need for rebelliousness. The perceived loss of this hope causes Offred to begin a spiral of indifference which leads her to cling to Nick as a replacement and a way to find meaning in an extra meaningless life. Moira 's attitude and statements in the beginnings of her and Offred 's conversation in the club, instead of showing her to be a broken woman, reveal the remaining fire and rebelliousness of someone with little room or freedom to express.
Thesis Statement: Both 1984 by George Orwell and The Handmaid 's Tale by Margaret Atwood are similar as they are placed in dystopian societies with governments that have complete control over their citizens, however, the roles of the narrator in both novels contrast each other. In 1984, the point of view is Limited Omniscient while the point of view in The Handmaid 's Tale is first person.
The purpose of this essay is to analyse and compare the narrative situations proposed by Franz Stanzel in the dystopian novels Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. For this aim, I am going to focus on the aspects focalization (reflection), relationship reader-narrator, narrative distance, knowledge, and reliability and demonstrate that they affect the interpretation of the novel by readers in a significant way. In the end, I will draw conclusions on how these techniques serve to alienate the narratives from their science fiction setting to set even more disconcerting issues about human’s existence.
A common feature in the dystopian genre is a unique protagonist, who holds views which are not necessarily in concordance with society’s regime. Both Fahrenheit 451 and The Handmaid’s Tale display protagonists’ trapped in a situation undesirable to them, yet are powerless to do anything about it. This is due to the oppression which is essential in any dystopian society. However, unlike most people in these societies, Guy Montag and Offred actually realise they live as part of an unjust regime. The two characters are nonconformists to the extent that they both dare to be different in the totalitarian regime that surrounds them, as commented by Devon Ryan, “the protagonist does not always have outstanding powers or talents, ” yet they have to
The ability to create life is an amazing thing but being forced to have children for strangers is not so amazing. Offred is a handmaid, handmaid's have children for government officials, such as Commander Waterford. Offred used to be married to Luke and together they had a daughter but then everything changed; Offred was separated from her family and assigned to a family as their handmaid. The society which Offred is forced to live in shaped her in many ways. In The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood uses cultural and geographical surroundings to shape Offred's psychological and moral traits as she tries to survive the society that she is forced to live, in hopes that she can rebel and make change.
Feminism as we know it began in the mid 1960's as the Women's Liberation Movement. Among its chief tenants is the idea of women's empowerment, the idea that women are capable of doing and should be allowed to do anything men can do. Feminists believe that neither sex is naturally superior. They stand behind the idea that women are inherently just as strong and intelligent as the so-called stronger sex. Many writers have taken up the cause of feminism in their work. One of the most well known writers to deal with feminist themes is Margaret Atwood. Her work is clearly influenced by the movement and many literary critics, as well as Atwood herself, have identified her as a feminist writer. However, one of Atwood's most successful books, The Handmaid's Tale, stands in stark contrast to the ideas of feminism. In fact, the female characters in the novel are portrayed in such a way that they directly conflict with the idea of women's empowerment.
Offred is a Handmaid in what used to be the United States, now the theocratic Republic of Gilead. In order to create Gilead's idea of a more perfect society, they have reverted to taking the Book of Genesis at its word. Women no longer have any privileges; they cannot work, have their own bank accounts, or own anything. The also are not allowed to read or even chose who they want to marry. Women are taught that they should be subservient to men and should only be concerned with bearing children. Margaret Atwood writes The Handmaid's Tale (1986) as to create a dystopia. A dystopia is an imaginary place where the condition of life is extremely bad, from deprivation, oppression, or terror. Three ways she displays the dystopia are through the characters, the language and the symbolism.
People need some sort of control in their lives, whether that be through big or little things. In The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, the republic of Gilead had clear positions that enabled more power for some compared to others, the most powerful being the commander and the least being the handmaid’s. Men were the ones controlling all of Gilead and they had the power to make the rules. There were different ways in which men ruled over women a few of them being taking away their names, using the wall as a threat and controlling what they wear.
The novel we have been studying is The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, in this novel the society is an oppressed society and she shows oppression in the culture and everyday life. The way in which Margaret Atwood wrote the novel we can determine the oppression in the characters. We also see the individual oppression and the group oppression from the internal thoughts of the narrator. In this novel I think that Margaret Atwood wanted to show the relation between standardized and personalized oppression.
In the novel 1984, George Orwell predicts the world’s future, when human rights, such as freedom of speech, do not exist anymore. Everyone has to obey the government. The government controls its citizens’ lives. No one speaks up against the government yet because they do not even have a chance to make up a thought about it. The government dominates the citizens’ thoughts by using technologies and the thought polices to make sure no one will have any thoughts, that is against the government. George Orwell wrote:“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows,” (Orwell.2.7.69) the government tries to control Winston knowledge and change it to fit into the purpose of the Party. To Winston, O’Brien said: “Whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party.” (Orwell.3.2.205). As a citizen, no one get to look at or tal...
Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake describes a world very different from the one we live in today, but not too far from a possible future. The story, told from the viewpoint of Snowman, possibly the only human survivor, recounts the end of days in human history. His description, given to us as flashbacks, tells of a world where technology is power, and those who lack power are doomed to a sub-par existence. This world gone mad is reminiscent of another Atwood novel written in 1986, The Handmaid’s Tale. In this story, the world of today is gone, democracy has been eradicated, and it is the elite few who control the fate of the masses. By comparing these two novels by Atwood, one can see corresponding themes dealing with governmental control, the dangers of technology, the uses of religion, and the treatment of sexuality.
"The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is a dystopia about a world where unrealistic things take place. The events in the novel could never actually take place in our reality." This is what most people think and assume, but they're wrong. Look at the world today and in the recent past, and there are not only many situations that have ALMOST become a Gilead, but places that have been and ARE Gileadean societies. We're not in Kansas any more, Dorothy!