Exploring Subjugation in Literature and Real Life

The Detrimental Effects of Subjugation

The process of subjugation is a very detrimental thing as seen in three sources examined; the non-fiction article NBC News “‘I was broken beyond repair’ Elizabeth Smart recalls kidnapping ordeal” by Tracy Jarrett (2013), the film Memoirs of a Geisha directed by Rob Marshall (2005) and the novel The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985). In the non fiction article NBC News “‘I was broken beyond repair’ Elizabeth Smart recalls kidnapping ordeal” told the story about Elizabeth Smart and her kidnapping. This article explains how she is taken from her room in the middle of the night and brought to a campsite where she is raped by Brian David Mitchell and forced to do everything he asked of her. In the film

Many traumatic events occurred throughout the novel causing both physical and emotional pain. If a handmaid disobeyed the rules set out then they would be injured for doing so. During the novel a character named Moira wanted to escape so she chose to pretend she was sick and got carried out by the ambulance where she attempted to seduce the angels resulting in “[Them taking] her into the room that used to be the Science Lab. It was a room where none of [them] ever went willingly. Afterwards she could not walk for a week, her feet would not fit in her shoes, they were too swollen. It was the feet they’d do, for a first offence. They used steel cables, frayed at the ends” (Atwood 118). The aunts beat them for every single mistake that they make. Offred like many other handmaid’s did not enjoy being forced to do everything that they did due to the subjugation. They often wished that it never happened and wanted to find a way to escape, “Every night when I go to bed I think, In the morning I will wake up in my own house and things will be back the way they were. It hasn't happened this morning, either” (Atwood 257). The subjugation in the novel resulted in the trauma especially towards the handmaid's due to them having specific, important tasks that if they did not do correctly it is seen as grounds for punishment. Before the subjugation the trauma was significantly less in

Offred and everyone else is taken from their old lives and forced into a new life where they lost their loved ones and are isolated from everything they enjoyed and took for granted in their old lives. Offred, over everything else had the hardest time coping with the isolation from her daughter. Offred said “I want her back, I want it all back, the way it was” (Atwood 122). This quote is showing the pain and how desperately Offred wanted to be back in the life she had in before and to have her daughter with her, it shows how she is isolated from her daughter due to the subjugation and it proves how detrimental it was for her. Offred similarly to Smart and Chiyo had to deal with isolation that came with the subjugation and they had a very difficult time with it as it was very detrimental to all of