areful emerald eyes watched the royal family depart with Lady Zerarah and the prince of Fredenbezigung. Athan remained where he was, pondering the task his king asked him to do and whether he trusted Rangor's guest or not. He didn't, not entirely. Something about the way the other walked, talked, an air of arrogance swept for Sossa's brother to feel centerfold. It felt peculiar. Stringy unkempt hair glided against his hairless face, the young warrior waited in the foyer devotedly looking after his family until they were no longer in sight, the festivities bound to keep them busy as others native to this grand country. Lips pressed inward, his head lowered, and he turned around thoughtful. Had it not been for his king surely he and Sossa may …show more content…
have ended up without guidence on the streets, possibly worse. Words, actions could never replace the debt both owed to Nayritah's father for taking them in despite their foreign appearance. Athan would gladly lay his life down to protect all he loved. For a slight moment he felt lost. His devotion brought him to have little of a personal life outside work aside from his little girl. Walking toward the palace, he stopped, a gloved hand underneath his hairless chin. He had the night off, she deserved to see the Jubilee too. Perhaps her mother wanted to as well.... Her mother... As if feeling eyes on him, his own raised upward.
He settled them on the woman at Prince Thaddeus' side, Ura, she occupied a balcony peering down at him. To Amon's guard, it seemed nothing would penetrate the coldness she showered to all those around her. The wave of arrogance touched her too. He vaguely wondered what she went through to be this way. It reminded him a bit of the mother long gone. How when he was small she argued with his father blaming him for everything. As a child Athan understood the unhappiness in the household, pretty much all he remembered before moving to Dathagkor. Ura frowned at him, turned around showing him her back. His unease returned. Opting not to head back to the palace, Athan left the premises to go to his own home in the heart of the festive city, one he shared with Sossa but neither were truly here often due to their work. Walking inside the household, he was greeted by cooked mint leaves from when Sossa purchased them in the market as an added air freshner. This was three weeks ago and still he smelled what at the time he thought to be annoying. It was extra dark exploring the three bedroom space. His boots hit the concrete flooring as he made way into his own room to clean himself and change …show more content…
clothes. Tousled blonde hair sprouted from Athan's head residing against his face and ears.
The cloak of a desert tiger hide wrapped around his neck attached by a silver crest. He obtained it when age thirteen, in training, at his king's side when roaming the wilds. The animal ambused the caravan. With the mindset to protect the king, he slew it using a broad sword. His first kill. A rite of passage for those sent into the world to survive. He kept as a reminder, the way things could've gone yet didn't. Draped around his broad shoulders, the man wore a white partial suiting jacket over a collared silk red shirt. His fitted pants matched the jacket, boots were long, above the ankles. A golden medallion lined his left breast pocket. Taking no more time needed, he snatched up a small jewelry box on his way out making sure his weapon belt had no empty slots in it hidden under the
jacket. His daughter lived with her mother a stone's throw away. Moving through the crowds, Athan veered from the road to a two story home nearest to the protective wall. His former lover knew to be expecting him sooner or later. As he knocked on the front door, he backed away drawn to the candlelight flickering in both windows, heard little feet running inside. Taking yet another step back, he abandoned the small porch steps in wait. The door opened. Athan crouched. A child, four years old, appeared like a mere ant standing in the doorway with her soft hands clapping together, the innocent smile melting the seasoned warrior's heart. His child favored her mother, a miniture version he liked to think. Chocolate brown skin, round face and eyes. She had his emerald eyes, a clear fact to mark her as his. Silk black hair was tied in two short ponytails and she wore a yellow dress. Shyly, Ragna covered her mouth. "Come." Athan coaxed her, smiling, able to lower his guard. "Come little one." He opened his arms. She sprinted from her doorway into those secure arms being raised in the air. Athan could understood the king's pain. The thought of something happening to his daughter brought an ill feeling to him. He kissed her forehead. "I love you." He pressed her head to his chest. Ragna busily chewed on her hand still smiling. Another appeared in the doorway. Elium, her beautiful mother. Elium's head caressed the lining, arms were folded across her flat stomach. At Athan did she look with her round dark brown eyes. Silence was between them. Elium smiled, full lips parting to reveal her teeth. The tart blouse accented her upper body curves. It held no sleeves and filled into a colorful half maxi dress split around her left leg. The woman's long hair fell around her waist bringing Athan to remember the times they were not spiteful of one another. His hands running through silky tendrils while on top of her. The pregnancy wasn't planned. He'd proposed but she told him he was a good man, she didn't want to be married for the sake of the child. Such a thing would prove deadly in the long run therefore together they parented their child the best way they could. Before she had Ragna, Elium served as an archer for the king. The best, he could now admit. They bested one another holding great disdain until maturing. "Athan." Elium greeted him.
After the great battle of the American Civil War was fought, and the North won, a bigger battle still had to take place; reconstruction. Reconstruction after the war was not going to be easy, and it was not. What was the primary goal? What should be done to ex-confederates? Free Blacks? How should this reconstruction take place? Many of these questions were solved by the government, but how well? Reconstruction could have gone very differently, and that is what I intend to show. I will develop my own reconstruction policy for the United States after the American Civil War, dealing with several critical points, and the overall re-integration of the south into the Union. My policy is based on equality for the South and North, and making sure that a political balance and a balance of economic power was restored as much as possible.
Every human being needs certain rights to survive. There are the fundamental ones; food, water, air, shelter, but there are also other ones that are equally important to survive: love, communication, compassion, freedom. In many dystopian societies one of these fundamental needs are missing because the society is afraid that they will break the control that they have over the people. In the novel The Handmaid’s tale by Margaret Atwood the society is no different. Narrated by a woman named Offred who once was happy who had a family and a job, she shows the reader that to keep people quiet the society takes away people 's freedom, their ability to choose, their ability to be with and talk to who they want, even their ability to read and write,
The book “A Handmaid’s Tale” takes place in the Republic of Gilead which is separated from the rest of the United States. The Republic of Gilead has its own governmental power. The book is narrated by Offred, a handmaid, who used to have a normal life before being forced to be taken from all her women rights. Handmaids are removed from their freedom and are being controlled by their commanders. They do not have access to education or any other resources. The freedom of speech is taken away from the Handmaids and any others without power. There are things that they are not allowed to ever say and also things they are expected to say. The Gilead’s government has control over everyone in this society. In the Gilead’s government,
The Handmaid's Tale This is a futuristic novel that takes place in the northern part of the USA sometime in the beginning of the twenty-first century, in the oppressive and totalitarian Republic of Gilead. The regime demands high moral retribution and a virtuous lifestyle. The Bible is the guiding principle. As a result of the sexual freedom, free abortion and high increase of venereal diseases at the end of the twentieth century, many women, (and men also, but that is forbidden to say), are sterile. The women who are still fertile are recruited as Handmaids, and their only mission in life is to give birth to the offspring of their Commander, whose wife is infertile.
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.
In any society, laws and restrictions are placed upon the individuals living in it. These regulations can not only be a determinant of how one acts, but also how one perceives themselves. One issue that is undoubtedly going to happen to an individual is unfairness concerning one of society’s laws. Even if one is innocent of actions, regulations can cause an individual to feel as if that law is creating injustice. Does an individual have a right to oppose and rebel against perceived unfairness? Or shall one simply accept the unfairness thrust upon them? In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, we meet a woman named Offred, who is a handmaid. She describes how her society is not always a positive influence towards the people living it. In connection to Offred’s opinion, in Plato’s Critio, Socrates argues that an individual needs to accept these regulations placed upon oneself. Both Socrates and Offred gives great reasoning behind their argument, but the connection found between both stories is that an individual needs to accept the terms given to them. To right against unfair regulations creates a huge controversy and can even cause injuries to a group or an individual. Society’s laws are not always positive influence however one needs to adapt life to make it more bearable. Laws are not always going to be fair and even if these laws interfere with individual needs, a person needs to corporate and find different alterations in order to survive.
Within freedom should come security. Within security should come freedom. But in Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood, it seems as though there is no in between. Atwood searches throughout the novel for a medium between the two, but in my eyes fails to give justice to a woman’s body image. Today's society has created a fear of beauty and sexuality in this image. It is as though a beautiful woman can be just that, but if at the same time, if she is intelligent and motivated within acting as a sexual being, she is thought of as exploiting herself and her body. Atwood looks for a solution to this problem, but in my eyes fails to do so.
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.
Margaret Atwood's renowned science fiction novel, The Handmaid's Tale, was written in 1986 during the rise of the opposition to the feminist movement. Atwood, a Native American, was a vigorous supporter of this movement. The battle that existed between both sides of the women's rights issue inspired her to write this work. Because it was not clear just what the end result of the feminist movement would be, the author begins at the outset to prod her reader to consider where the story will end. Her purpose in writing this serious satire is to warn women of what the female gender stands to lose if the feminist movement were to fail. Atwood envisions a society of extreme changes in governmental, social, and mental oppression to make her point.
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 Handmaid's Dystopia The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is a dystopian tale 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 anymore, Dorothy! Even today, there are places in the world where there is a startling similarity to this fictitious dystopia.
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.
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.
“[W]e are not slaves in name, and cannot be carried to market and sold as somebody else 's legal chattels, we are free only within narrow limits. For all our talk about liberation and personal autonomy, there are few choices that we are free to make” (Berry). In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood the protagonist Offred lives through a changing of society, in which is described by Aunt Lydia in the new society as the difference of freedom to and freedom from. The complexities of freedom are examined through social norms, relationships, and safety in society. As Offred notices the differences between her old life and her life now readers, especially North American readers, see how much freedom they take advantage of as a society.
story, a story she could not have told if she was dead. It is also