The dystopian genre often presents an abhorrent alternative society, constructed through the author’s extrapolation of their contemporary contexts in order to provide critical reflections and warn against potential disasters. Dystopian texts reflect on the idea that individuals are subject to the laws and regulations of corrupt systems, thus possessing a role, to act as a catalyst for change. These ideas are presented in the novel, the Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood, where the authoritarian theocracy represses individuals’ sexual and reproductive freedom, as well as their desires for social progress. This is contextually reflected in society’s fears of rising Christian fundamentalists and fascism to government power, as well as …show more content…
In an interview for The Progressive, Margaret Atwood explains that The Handmaid’s Tale was written “on a what-if scenario, supposing ultraconservatives of the 20th century achieved a coup d’état and ruled a totalitarianism regime, including unethical racial cleansing, torture, repressive police and women assigned roles based on their reproductive abilities .”(Cliffs Notes, Guide to Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale) As these attributes are reflected in the Gilean society, it is suggested that Atwood is supposedly cautioning audiences that the modern society could be contingent on these dystopic ideas unless rebellions are successful in inflicting change. Towards the end of the novel, Offred, although reluctant, slowly comes to terms with Gilead’s society and its implications, as she states, “Everything they taught me at the Red Center, everything I've resisted, comes flooding in…. I don't want pain. I don't want to be a doll… I don't want to be a wingless angel…” The anaphora of “I don't want” highlights her desire to surrender to the system, as she has given up on resisting any further. Moreover, she affirms her resolution in saying, “I am abject. I feel, for the first time, their true power,” where the short syntax accentuates her compliance and continuation to passively accept to the oppression of the system. Despite her early minor rebellious acts against the system, Offred’s final submission to authority and lack of change imposed on society, resulted in further repression and dangerous continuation of the Gilean
In The Handmaid’s Tale, much use is made of imagery; to enable the reader to create a more detailed mental picture of the novel’s action and also to intensify the emotive language used. In particular, Atwood uses many images involving flowers and plants.
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.
In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, there is an apparent power struggle between Offred and the Commander. The Gilead Society’s structure is based off of order and command. This is what creates a divide between genders and specifies gender roles in this novel. Without this categorization of the roles and expectations of women, the society would fall apart at the base. Thus, the Commander, being the dominant gender set forth by the society, has control over Offred.
The Handmaids Tale is a poetic tale of a woman's survival as a Handmaid in the male dominated Republic of Gilead. Offred portrayed the struggle living as a Handmaid, essentially becoming a walking womb and a slave to mankind. Women throughout Gilead are oppressed because they are seen as "potentially threatening and subversive and therefore require strict control" (Callaway 48). The fear of women rebelling and taking control of society is stopped through acts such as the caste system, the ceremony and the creation of the Handmaids. The Republic of Gilead is surrounded with people being oppressed. In order for the Republic to continue running the way it is, a sense of control needs to be felt by the government. Without control Gilead will collapse.
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
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 Tale by Margaret Atwood is a dystopia 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 any more, Dorothy!
The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel in which Atwood creates a world which seems absurd and near impossible. Women being kept in slavery only to create babies, cult like religious control over the population, and the deportation of an entire race, these things all seem like fiction. However Atwood's novel is closer to fact than fiction; all the events which take place in the story have a base in the real world as well as a historical precedent. Atwood establishes the world of Gilead on historical events as well as the social and political trends which were taking place during her life time in the 1980's. Atwood shows her audience through political and historical reference that Gilead was and is closer than most people realize.
‘The Handmaids Tale’ is a blunt warning to modern society, Atwood underlines that all the points in her novel have occurred in the world previously, and if propaganda establishes itself it could take place again.
Throughout The Handmaid’s Tale, the author Margaret Atwood gives the reader an understanding of what life would be like in a theocratic society that controls women’s lives. The narrator, Offred gives the reader her perspective on the many injustices she faces as a handmaid. Offred is a woman who lived before this society was established and when she undergoes the transition to her new status she has a hard time coping with the new laws she must follow. There are many laws in this government that degrade women and give men the authority of each household. All women are placed in each household for a reason and if they do not follow their duties they are sent away or killed. Atwood bases the irrational laws in the Gilead republic on the many
According to Bella DePaulo, a psychologist at the University Of Virginia, most people lie to someone else at least once or twice a day. The question this brings about is how does one differentiate the truth from falsehood? In Margaret Atwood's novel, The Handmaid’s Tale Offred, one of the many characters who is facing oppression in the society of Gilead is struggling to know if her story is true or false. The lack of confidence that Offred has makes the readers question whether or not to believe her story.
The sexual assault and rape of German women by Muslim refugee men in Cologne, Germany mirrors a few of the major issues in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Chancellor Angela Murkel’s decision to take in refugees from neighboring regions resulted in men groping and robbing scores of women during New Year Celebrations. Furthermore, Cologne police has received complaints from 90 victims but has made no arrests. The injustice in Cologne mirrors the Republic of Gilead through the men’s power over women, the violence against women, and the issue that stems from the assimilation of a foreign religion into another society.
As The Handmaid’s Tale is considered an allegory of the social injustice women face against traditional expectations of their role in society, the symbolism of the Handmaids and other women as a whole for repressed feminine liberty and sexuality allows Atwood to connect her work to the theme between gender and expectations in her society. As Handmaids in the Republic of Gilead, females are stripped of their previous identity and are defined as a tool of reproduction for the men who is assigned them. At its core, these females are forced against their will to be mere tools, experiencing unwanted sex at least once a month, which Gilead names “The Ceremony”, hiding its true nature as a form of rape. Offred
Questions need answers. But in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the answers expected to come at the end of the story are left to the reader’s imagination. Offred’s story ends abruptly, with her supposedly escaping the horrific Republic of Gilead. The readers do not get the reassurance from Atwood that Offred thrived after her time in Gilead. Creatively, Atwood includes a final section of her novel titled “Historical Notes.”
“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people” -Thomas Mann, Essays of Three Decades (). For centuries, there have been multifarious pieces of literature and people who wrote them. In the literary community, the innovators, the dauntless and the Mr. Nobodys, are the most common kinds of divisions of authors fall into, according to their works and their character. The innovators are the authors that their work changed a genre.