A Handmaid's Tale A new society is created by a group of people who strengthen and maintain their power by any means necessary including torture and death. Margaret Atwood's book, A Handmaid's Tale, can be compared to the morning after a bad fight within an abusive relationship. Being surrounded by rules that must be obeyed because of being afraid of the torture that will be received. There are no other choices because there is control over what is done, who you see and talk to, and has taken you far away from your family. You have no money or way out. The new republic of Gilead takes it laws to an even higher level because these laws are said to be of God and by disobeying them you are disobeying him. People are already likely to do anything for their God especially when they live in fear of punishment or death. The republic of Gilead is created and maintains its power structure through the use of religion, laws that isolate people from communication to one another and their families, and the fear of punishment for disobeying the law. The new law would follow God's law that all are brothers and sisters, and according to Aunt Lydia will cause women to live in harmony together and support each other. The wife of the commander, Serena Joy was an strong advocate for submissive female roles and gospel singer before the war and the formation of Gilead. Since the creation of Gilead, she was forced into the submissive role of a housewife. Serena spoke on television about the sanctity of the home and how women should stay in the home. After taking on her new housewife role, "She doesn't make speeches anymore. She has become speechless. She stays in her home but it doesn't agree with her. How furious she must be now that she has been taken at her word" (chapter 8, pg.46). Serena has failed in producing children which is the purpose of woman's life in the beliefs of the Gilead society. She is jealous of Offred because Offred serves as a constant reminder of her failure. She is also resentful of the sexual relationship that Offred must have with her husband.
Strom, P., & Strom, R. (2007). Cheating in middle school and high school. Educational …..Forum,71(2), 104-116. doi:10.1080/00131720708984924
The women are divided into functions and are identified by the colour of their dress. In chapter 5, Offred is walking down the streets of Gilead, reminiscing about the days she used to walk down the street wearing what she wanted to wear before she got taken away, and also thought about simple things such as how she was able to freely walk to the laundromat to wash her own clothes with her own soap. She informs the reader of her analysis of the different types of women in the Republic of Gilead: “There are other women with baskets, some in red, some in the dull green of the Martha's, some in the striped dresses, red and blue and green and cheap and skimp, that mark the women of the poorer men. Econowives, they're called. These women are not divided into functions. They have to do everything; if they can.” (Atwood, 5.5) The Handmaid’s— the bearer of children— wear red, the Martha’s, who are the housekeepers wear green, and the wives wear blue. Econ Wives are the only women who aren’t defined by the colour of their dress because they must do every function. Atwood is showing that the individuality and identities of these women have been completely taken away and are labelled by the clothing they are forced to
Imagine a country where choice is not a choice. One is labeled by their age and economical status. The deep red cloaks, the blue embroidered dresses, and the pinstriped attire are all uniforms to define a person's standing in society. To be judged, not by beauty or personality or talents, but by the ability to procreate instead. To not believe in the Puritan religion is certain death. To read or write is to die. This definition is found to be true in the book, The Handmaid's Tale (1986) by Margaret Atwood. It is a heartbreaking story of one young woman and her transformation into the Gilead society, the society described above. In the book, we meet Offred, the narrator of the story. This story is not the first to create a society in which the only two important beliefs in a society are the ability to procreate and a strict belief in God. It is seen several times in the Old Testament, the Bible. The Biblical society is not as rigid as the Republic of Gilead, which Margaret Atwood has built, but it is very similar. The Handmaid's Tale holds several biblical allusions.
Most of the Amendments are what some would call, Fair Weather laws. It is the
In Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaids Tale’, we hear a transcribed account of one womans posting ‘Offred’ in the Republic of Gilead. A society based around Biblical philosophies as a way to validate inhumane state practises. In a society of declining birth rates, fertile women are chosen to become Handmaids, walking incubators, whose role in life is to reproduce for barren wives of commanders. Older women, gay men, and barren Handmaids are sent to the colonies to clean toxic waste.
The society established by the Republic of Gilead in “The Handmaid’s Tale” is founded on and sustained by false doctrine. They intentionally twist and skew the Bible in order to justify their actions and brainwash the women who are involuntarily participating in their indoctrinated society. The Gilead does not treat the Bible as the divine word of God. Instead, they exploit its authority and use it as a tool for their own benefit. The very framework of the Gilead’s social hierarchy is in sharp contradiction to everything the Bible teaches, but because they are so corrupt and only use the Bible for their own advantage, they seem not to care. Instead of abiding by the teachings in the Bible and letting them shape how things are done, they hand-select and contort certain parts of it to match the framework of their own aspirations and beliefs, which are by no means Christian. Every piece of scripture that the Republic customizes is specifically suited to help them achieve their ultimate goal: indoctrinating an entire society for the purposes of personal power and authority. The end product is the unethical, dysfunctional society that is depicted in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” The Republic of Gilead is by no means a true religious group, but they do use religion and skewed religious text as a reference for the foundation, justification, manipulation, and enforcement of their new society.
In College, high school, and middle school cheating has become a common occurrence on assignments of all types and varying difficulty by students in all levels and types of classes. So how exactly do all these students cheat? Even more curious, why do so many of them go on to cheat even though they understand that it is wrong and could have dire consequences if they are caught. What are the consequences of cheating other than those that are disciplinary? The four types of cheaters can be classified as “addicts”, “desperados”, “bandwagoners”, and “subconscious”.
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.
How bad has cheating become over the years, the numbers in some cases are mind-boggling. In today’s day and age the amount of college students cheating is numbered to have maintain a steady figure of about 75 percent. (Lang, 2013) Cheating has been around since the beginning of time, some of the reasons behind most of the prolific cheaters are centered on what seems to be three main issues plaguing our society. Cheaters be it young or old, all seem to have what I call the “Big Three” in common. In my research on cheating, there were three things that continued to stick out, such as; procrastinating, the pressure to make the grade and it is easier to cheat rather then to do your own work. To the answer the question why college students cheat, we must first understand why, in order to find a solution on how to help avoid this continuing going forward. After reading this paper you will see that cheating has become prevalent in college, caused by a need to get better grades with less original work being done eventually the ends don't justify the means.
The Handmaid’s Tale and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? draw on different narrative techniques to establish our relationship to their protagonists. Margaret Atwood allows the reader to share the thoughts of the main character, while Philip K. Dick makes the reader explore the mysteries behind the story. Atwood’s style works because she can directly show her readers what she wants. Dick’s opposing style works for him because he can present paradoxes and mysteries and let the reader form the conclusion. Both of these styles are skillfully utilized to create complex stories without losing the reader along the way.
Slobogin, K. (2002, April 5). Survey: Many students say cheating’s ok. Retrieved June 12, 2009,
Cheating by students in American schools has become a serious and growing problem. A 2005 poll of 12,000 college graduates in the contiguous United States with a 62% response rate showed the following: 45% of all students cheated on an examination that counted toward 10-20% of their grade and 51% cheated on an exam that counted toward 33-50% of their final grade. When asked why they cheated, 70% of cheaters stated that they did not fear failing the exams on which they cheated and that cheating for a "higher grade" was the primary motive. The most common method of cheating involved electronic technologies such as instant messaging via telephone, e-mail, internet searches, and other devices holding electronic versions of material covered on an exam. For outside classroom work, 71% of all poll responders admitted to copying homework from someone they considered "smarter". Of all the reponders, 43% of students stated that they had turned in an essay copied from the internet. Of the cheaters, 88% had turned in an essay copied from th...
Marriage, friendships, and families are all controlled by government restriction. Gilead deems it acceptable to arrange marriages between a Guardian and a girl who has just started her menstrual cycle, because “arranged marriages have always worked out just as well, if not better” than falling in love (Atwood 254). However, in pre-Gilead falling in love, friendships, casual sexual relationships, and not having a significant other were all accepted. Gilead gives the freedom from having to choose, but pre-Gilead gives you the choice of what you want to do with your life. Just the same with having friends, Gilead does not accept friends because with friends comes gossip and other illegal actions. In contrast, in pre-Gilead everyone has the freedom to befriend whoever they want and can choose not to be friends with someone if they so choose. Having a family is an important concept in pre-Gilead, Offred and Luke would spend a lot of time together with their daughter, they ate meals together and spent quality time together, whether it be going on vacation, having a picnic or to the park. However, in Gilead family is extremely controlled especially in a Commander’s family, they co-exist in the same house. The Handmaid eats in her room while the Commander and his wife eating the dining room the Marthas would presumably eat after everyone is finished. During the day everyone goes their separate ways, the wife gets control over
The first argument against cell phones in the classroom is, it is thought that technology adds an extra avenue for a student to cheat. With search engines able to give an answer in the matter of seconds, an overwhelming amount of students have admitted to cheating by using their smart phones. “ 52% admitted to some form of cheating involving the Internet” (Common Sense Media, 2011). Cheating is a huge issue, as it seems that students would rather risk their grades by cheating than simply study for a
Lynch, L. (2011, September 16). Cheating in school: How the digital age affects cheating and plagiarism. Retrieved November 9, 2013, from Schools.com: http://www.schools.com/visuals/academic-dishonesty.html?WT.qs_osrc=gensynd-cheater