Dystopia Dystopia is defined as a fictional place that portraits future consequences of present problems, in which are unpleasant. This is an argument on changing the way people do things. The writer shows how poor things can get if changes are not made; therefore, it is used to persuade people to change their ways for the better of the future. Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” is a dystopian novel, because the society goes against women. In this novel, women are not allowed to read, they are not allowed to write, if they are fertile they are forced into having sex to populate the Republic Gilead more, and the women are not allowed to be employed. During the time of Atwood writing this novel, there were three immense problems going on …show more content…
They have a minimal amount of rights. Even the most basic rights they could want, they do not have. An example showing how women are valued in the novel is when Atwood states, “ As if we are something he inherited, like a Victorian pump organ, and he has not figured out what to do with us. What we are worth” (88). This quote depicts how women are valued in The Republic of Gilead. They are looked at by high up men as a sex tool. If women are infertile, they are looked at as garbage and a waste. Women have no rights as shown in this quote when Atwood proclaims, “We can be read to from it, by him, but we cannot read” (88). This shows the very limited amount of rights that women have. They also receive almost no education, and are not allowed to be employed. Basically their only right is having the ability to reproduce with men, even though it is almost always forced when that …show more content…
Leading up to this time period, women worked hard to get equal rights and were doing well with it. For example, they got the right to vote, legal representation that was not just with their husbands, and control of their sexual reproduction; although, at 1985 they were not making any progress like they wanted to. To show an example of this, in the novel, Atwood states, “My name is not Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because it is forbidden. I tell myself it does not matter” (84). This shows an example that feminism is not where it wanted to be in 1985; however, it was not that bad in 1985. In 1985, feminism was stalled. There was no steps in the right direction and problems that still needed handled. Women did keep working to find out ways to fix problems like these in The United
Forming everyday life in different ways. Majority of all power in Gilead has been passed to the men and
In that time, many women began to want their own rights, especially the right to vote. This came from a sense of independence after the men went to fight in World War II and the women stayed home and took their jobs. Once the men came back, the women realized they could do so much more and wanted rights, resulting in the Women’s Movement (“American”). Atwood agreed with the Women’s Movement on the idea that women deserved more rights. She went on to say that the Women’s Movement changed “how people read and therefore what you can get away with in art” (“Spotty-handed”). In earlier times, society thought it was socially right to think of women as a man’s property, or keep them suppressed through laws. Eventually as the Women’s Movement formed, women had more rights and that's reflected in books. Although Women’s rights were not completely accepted it was now a widespread topic and women’s roles in books changed from those under the control of men to those in power. Atwood expressed this in her poem,
During the 1970’s, women were extremely mistreated and did not have many rights. There were very limited opportunities and women were restricted for doing certain things that men could. Throughout the United States women were not tried as equals compared to men. At the time, ladies could barely do anything if they did not have a husband, lesbian women did not have the freedom to express their sexual preference, abortions were illegal, females could only attend certain college and occupy certain jobs, and this list of inequalities can go on for days. According to the article some of these problems still exist today which is a major issue.
The Handmaid's Tale has been described as a scathing satire and a dire warning! Which elements of our own society is Margaret atwood satirising and how does her satire work ?
Dystopian novels are a dime a dozen and the majority of them focus on the overuse of technology causing the demise of humanity. However, with The Handmaids Tale, written in 1986, Margaret Atwood uses her dystopian novel as a warning against patriarchal societies. Atwood’s novel portrays a world undone by pollution and infertility, reflecting 1980s fears about declining birthrates, environmental degradation and nuclear war during the Cold War. The novel was written shortly after the elections of Ronald Reagan in the United States and Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain, during a period of conservative revival that was partly fueled by a strong, well-organized movement of powerful religious conservatives who criticized what they perceived as the remnants of the “sexual revolution” of the 1960s and 1970s. The growing power of this “religious right” heightened feminist fears that the gains women had made in the previous few decades would be reversed ("Historical Context"). In The Handmaids Tale, Atwood portrays two distinct social classes through her choice of diction and uses her novel as an allegory for the treatment and perception of modern day women by conservative men.
of rebels and rebellions. It is not fair to say that the form of rebel
In Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale, women are subjected to unthinkable oppression. Practically every aspect of their life is controlled, and they are taught to believe that their only purpose is to bear children for their commander. These “handmaids” are not allowed to read, write or speak freely. Any type of expression would be dangerous to the order of the Gilead’s strict society. They are conditioned to believe that they are safer in this new society. Women are supposedly no longer exploited or disrespected (pornography, rape, etc.) as they once were. Romantic relationships are strongly prohibited because involving emotion would defeat the handmaid’s sole purpose of reproducing. Of course not all women who were taken into Gilead believed right what was happening to their way of life. Through the process of storytelling, remembering, and rebellion, Offred and other handmaids cease to completely submit to Gilead’s repressive culture.
Many texts that were published from different authors have introduced topics that can be related in today’s society, but Margaret Atwood’s creation called, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, gives voice to the thoughts and revolves around the narrator Offred, a woman whose rights have been deprived due to political issues. However, the information shared by Offred to the reader to the text is not reliable for the reason that she only touches upon her own perspective. Through the text, Atwood depicted what the United States of America would be in the future based on the actions of humanity during 1980’s. The text is set up in an androcentric and totalitarian country called Gilead, where the government attempts to create a utopian society. Thus, in order to attain this society, the authorities generated their legislation from the teachings of the Holy Bible in an attempt to control humanity. The governing
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 life of a woman prior to the 1960’s was simple; stay in the home, take care of the family, and face discrimination daily. The feminists of the 20th century had different visions for themselves however, including: equal pay for equal work, an end to domestic violence, an end to sexual harassment, and sharing of household responsibilities.
In the 1960’s women were still seen as trophies and were beginning to be accepted into the work industry. They were still homemakers, raised the family, and made sure their husbands were happy. That was the social norms for women during that time period. They were not held to high work expectations like men were. But something amazing happened that would change women 's lives for centuries; it was the 1970’s. The 60’s put the equality movement in motion but 70’s was a time of reform where women were finally able to control their own paths. Not only was the 70’s a historical marker for the fiftieth anniversary for women suffrage, it was also a marker for the drastic change of different social norms, the changes of the American Dream, and the
As time passes things change such as: people, society, beliefs, stereotypes, discrimination. It wasn’t until the Feminist Movement, or also known as Women Movement Act that led women to have the courage to stand up for what they believed in. The first Feminism Movement Act was during the 18th through early 20th centuries, which dealt mainly with the suffrage movement. The second Feminism Movement Act was during the 1960s and 1980s,
The Handmaid's Tale presents an extreme example of sexism and misogyny by featuring the complete objectification of women in the society of Gilead. Yet by also highlighting the mistreatment of women in the cultures that precede and follow the Gileadean era, Margaret Atwood is suggesting that sexism and misogyny are deeply embedded in any society and that serious and deliberate attention must be given to these forms of discrimination in order to eliminate them.
Many women saw that this change was stupid and irrational because not every woman could go out, go work in a factory or work long hours because some women had children to take care of. Some women agreed with men that women should follow a man’s footstep without any questions because they were a weaker sex and “cannot be good leaders in business, publicities and academics ”(Sexism 1). Women also didn’t want to get used to “some customary behaviors in the workplace as ‘sexual harassment”’ (Philosophical Feminists 4) because men still didn’t respect the female body like the radical feminists wanted men to do. Even today men still don’t respect the female body because men still don’t see women as equal to men. Women still question if feminism is here today such as “revealing clothes, designer-label stiletto, and amateur pole dancing” because men don’t see women as equal because of how they dressed and that society sometimes did not approve of it. Some women think that today laws aren’t equal enough because women still don’t get the same amount of money in certain jobs and women, back then, wanted laws that made them equal to men that protected but many were “protective labor laws [that] were overturned (Feminism 5).” Many women didn’t want to get into this lifestyle because it was scary and just wasn’t normal. Women were used to just staying home and just listening to what their husband would say. Today, one sees women
For centuries now, women have been seen to be the weakest social group. They are disallowed to act the way they want. They are disallowed to freely say what they want. They are silenced. In the Handmaid’s tale, the Gilead regime, a totalitarian state, and religious autocracy take full power and completely forbids communication.