All throughout history, in every society and even today there are secrets in society that only a choice few know. In the past, certain societies operated based on what a group who claimed to know what is best for its people said. This is all thanks to a series of secrets used to strike fear in to others and basically make them slaves without letting them know the true reasoning behind their actions. Some secrets are created to keep peace and maintain a certain way of life, but it is that secrecy that can collapse a society. The biggest lesson to learn from this book is that fear is one of the most powerful weapons a person can use against others. Fear has a way of changing societies and their people. This is best shown in the magnificent work of Margaret Atwood’s work The Handmaid’s Tale. All throughout this book, the government of Giliad is keeping the public in the dark and claims to be following the will of God and executes all who disobey, yet refuse to show anyone the text. One of the first instances of fear being used as a tool the reader sees is the …show more content…
first part of the book during the meeting of Offred and Serena Joy. Serena starts laying down some ground rules saying, “I’ve read your file. As far as I’m concerned, this is like a business transaction. But if I get trouble, I’ll give trouble back” (Atwood 15). It seems the farther in the book a person reads the more severe the fear seams to grow. Fear is something that once it is shown by one person it is almost like a disease, it only spreads until everyone is overcome. The biggest fear not just in the book, but in real life, is the inevitability of death. Death is considered to be the greatest fear among most people whether it is a slow and painful or quick and painless. There are multiple ways to strike the fear of death into people, however in The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood goes into great detail on how the fear of death is used as a weapon. She illustrates how the main character and her accomplice see a group of people who have been hung for various crimes deemed to be worth dying for by the hands of the government. This tactic is used because the bodies of the so called criminals, can be publicly displayed as to strike fear in others to prevent them from committing an illegal act. Along with the fear of death shown in the book, the fear of becoming a slave in the colonies cleaning up radioactive waste is very real.
Death is the most powerful motivator when using fear but another fear that some fear even worse than death is becoming a slave as used in The Handmaid’s Tale. This comes to light when Offred confronts the doctor thinking, “He could fake the tests, report me for cancer, for infertility, and have me shipped off to the colonies with the Unwomen” (Atwood 61). For some the life of the Handmaid is the same as being a slave only with a different purpose, one for the creation of life and the other for the clean-up of the result of the war for control. The Handmaids from day one are scared into believing that if they do not obey the will of God and do their part to bare children they will be shipped off to the colonies to clean up the reminisce of the nonbelievers’
world. Fear is something that is not created only by a chose few, it can come from anyone who chooses to make others miserable. This is coming from the jealousy among the handmaids themselves and the other women in Giliad. While most women sit back and chatter their jealousy, Offred thinks “Jealousy could get her, it’s happened before. All children are wanted now, but not by everyone” (Atwood 26). It seems one of the biggest influences of society and the way they are run is their perception of God. All religions have their own perception of God and ways he will discipline them if they do not follow him. In multiple chapters in The Handmaid’s Tale there is some reference to the punishment that God will put on people, thus creating a fearfulness of him. There are plenty of examples of God’s involvement in The Handmaid’s Tale where the Handmaids are told they are following the wishes of the lord. Sometimes in life it is the things that people don’t know or ever learn that scare them the most. This is the mysterious unknown factor in which can be either good because it allows people to not worry about what they do not know about or it can make a person scared of all the possibilities that could arise. In just about every chapter in this book the reader sees an example of the fear of the unknown placed on our main character. For example when Offred is dreaming she begins to fear the possibilities of where her husband and daughter are. Often people would rather know something than worry about it their whole lives and in this case that is exactly what she desires. This fear arises when she begins to ponder to herself, “I belive Luke is lying face down in a thicket, a tangle of bracken, the brown fronds from last year under the green ones just unrolled or ground hemlock perhaps, although it’s to early for the red berries.”
Gender inequality has existed all around the world for many centuries. Women were seen as property of men and their purpose of existence was to provide for the men in their lives. Men would play the role of being the breadwinners, whereas women played the role of being the caregiver of the family and household and must obey the men around her. The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood portrays how women in society are controlled and demeaned by men, and how men feel they are more superior over women.
The threat of physical abuse is huge. Being woman is enough of a crime, but “any crime can result in an execution and a public hanging on ‘The Wall’” (Cameron 3). A woman can be hung for just about anything. If they defy the people in charge they can get hurt. The women are constantly abused. The Gilead government is in charge of what goes on in this society. If a woman has an affair with a different man they are taken and possibly tortured or hung. The Red Center, which is where they were taught how to be Handmaid’s, the women were constantly tortured. They had Aunts that looked over them. These aunts were not nice and, “they had electric cattle prods slung on thongs from their leather belts” (Thomas 91). The aunt’s view was all that was needed was the Handmaid’s baby making parts. The women did not need their feet, hands, or any part other than the torso. When the woman did something wrong or tried to run away th...
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.
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.
As you read through the handmaid’s tale you see the relationships of the characters develop and the fight for power, however small that glimpse of power may be. The images of power can be seen through out the novel, but there are major parts that stand out to the reader from the aunt’s in the training centre to the secret meetings between the Commander and Offred.
The Handmaid’s tale is a story in which throughout the text, the readers witness the events that occurred in Offred’s life in the past or the present. However, for this reason, there is uncertainty that the narrator is telling the truth. “If it 's a story I 'm telling, then I have control over the ending...But if it 's a story, even in my head, I must be telling it to someone. You don 't tell a story only to yourself. There 's always someone else. Even when there is no one.” (Atwood 39-40) This quotation is significant because the readers know that the irony of her telling that this is a story is evident that she has control because the reader is limited to the knowledge of the narrator. Overall, The Handmaid’s tale focuses on many topics, but the main idea of the story is that the actions of what society does, foreshadows their future. When there is no one to lean on after the physically present superior model is gone, people will learn to turn to and have faith in an unseen
Before the war handmaids had their own lives, families, and jobs but that’s all gone now; They have all been separated from their families and assigned to A Commander and his wife to have their child. Handmaids did not choose this life but it was forced upon them. 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
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 The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood explores the role that women play in society and the consequences of a countryís value system. She reveals that values held in the United States are a threat to the livelihood and status of women. As one critic writes, “the author has concluded that present social trends are dangerous to individual welfare” (Prescott 151).
The words control and Gilead, the setting for the novel "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood, are interchangeable. Not only is control a pivotal feature of the novel and its plot, it consequently creates the subplots, the characters and the whole world because of its enormity in the Republic of Gilead. Resistance also features heavily, as does its results, mainly represented in the salvagings, particicution and the threat of the colonies.
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.
It seems that more often when a group of people or a nation encounters calamity, some great “act of God,” or even just change, collectively, we begin to seek answers from a higher power. We tend to either blame or seek solace in this higher power or we seek what it is we can change to please this higher power. Without realizing we begin to adjust laws, limit freedoms, and become despotic fascist, all in the name of God. This fear of conforming and reverting back to the “dark ages,” constraining women to “know their role or place” is what seems to have driven Margaret Atwood to write her satirical novel “The Handmaids Tale.”
Additionally, in The Handmaid’s Tale all of the females were banned from reading the bible. Only the commander was allowed to read the bible, while the rest of the home listened. This was damaging to Offred’s connection with her beliefs because she recalled, “I would watch the Growing Souls Gospel Hour, where they would tell Bible stories for children and sing hymns. One of the women was called Serena Joy” (Atwood 20). This shows that Offred was likely a devoted Christian and taking away her ability to read the bible separated her from her faith and thus her beliefs and values. The oppressive behavior by the systems in control significantly influences the daily lives and practices of the oppressed. Continuous struggle and torture enhances the separation between the individual and a higher being. Although both novels describe the affect that abuse of power has on an individual’s beliefs and values, both novels did not intend for this shift in mindset to take place.
The Handmaid’s Tale shows acts of rebellion throughout, but when we as an audience first see a sort of rebellion push through the strict control of Gileadean society is when the Commander and Offred have their first evening together. Offred’s metaphor “If I press my eye to it, this weakness of his, I may be able to see myself clear.” is a foreshadowing of the idea that maybe through these evenings with the Commander she may be able to ease her way out of Gileadean society. “It’s like a small crack in the wall, before now impenetrable.” Use of simile in her language gives the audience a glimpse into the hope she feels, that maybe she may be able to escape, maybe she has another chance at a normal life. Offred’s first time seeing the Commander’s
The novel, The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood focuses on the choices made by the society of Gilead in which the preservation and security of mankind is more highly regarded than freedom or happiness. This society has undergone many physical changes that have led to extreme psychological ramifications. I think that Ms. Atwood believes that the possibility of our society becoming as that of Gilead is very evident in the choices that we make today and from what has occured in the past. Our actions will inevitably catch up to us when we are most vulnerable.