Individualism In The Handmaids Tale

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Recommended: The handmaid's tale as a feminist novel

Society & The Submissive In Margaret Atwood’s book “The Handmaid’s Tale”, Offred, The main character struggles with expressing individualism among a society that constrains a woman by labelling her for her duties and worth. Offred is a “Handmaid” which is a group of women who are used for reproduction, being a “Handmaid” is considered to be very degrading because these women are seen for only their bodies to provide children and nothing more. In the article “An Introduction to Jung’s psychology” written by Frieda Fordham discusses Jungian Archetypes and one that best correlates with the book is “The Persona.” Fordham describes the persona when she say “To some extent, it is true, people choose …show more content…

A quote that displays the persona is when Offred gets in the car that Saturday morning in September and she says “My name isn’t Offred, I have another name, which nobody ever uses now because it is forbidden. I tell myself it doesn’t matter, your name is like your telephone number, useful only to others; but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter (Atwood, 84).” This shows conformity because Offred loses her real name in which decreases individualism as well as self-worth because, the name holds an important part of someone’s identity and when these women are forced to lose their name, they no longer have self-worth because their name then becomes “property title” like Offred which mean “Of Fred” rather than being able to be known as an …show more content…

Because these women aren’t valued, it is as if she’s not there which greatly diminishes their self-worth. One quote to highlight this claim is “All you have to do, I tell myself, is to shut your mouth and look stupid (Atwood).” This quote connects to this claim because Offred knows that she is only valuable because she can reproduce, she settles for having no self-worth and knowing that she is no longer entitled to an opinion. Offred staying quiet and dumb can be viewed as a role or mask in the persona because due to her environment of low worth find it fitting to become an

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