Nearly 300 million people around the world suffer from depression, and over 800,000 of those people succumb to suicide. As striking as these statistics seem, only one-third of those suffering from mental illness receive the adequate care and support they desperately need – a substantial contributor to the ongoing worldwide mental health crisis (Master). While mental health has become more prominent in today’s society, mental health awareness was notably absent from mass media prior to the 1980s. However, Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale, challenges the time’s social norms by vividly describing Offred’s mental state. Offred, like many citizens today, struggles with a plethora of mental disorders: anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. However, in modern-day society, many civilians can …show more content…
Treating anxiety requires a multifaceted approach that extends beyond medical intervention alone. Severe loneliness resulting from social isolation profoundly affects an individual's mental well-being. Individuals may struggle to escape dark and overwhelming feelings – ones which may lead to depression. After Offred separates from her family, she accepts that she will never see her loved ones again. However, her mind numbs of emotional pain and she reaches beyond the point of feeling anything, signifying that she entered a depressive state. She articulates, "But who can remember the pain, once it's over?" All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind, even in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind" (Atwood 144). Clearly, Offred feels overwhelmed by the insurmountable amount of pain she experiences. She acknowledges that her past trauma brandishes her as a woman who will never find happiness again. Margaret Atwood's portrayal of Offred's depressive symptoms reflects how many citizens feel in today’s
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 "The Handmaid's Tale", Margaret Atwood tells a saddening story about a not-to-distant future where toxic chemicals and abuses of the human body have resulted in many men and women alike becoming sterile. The main character, Offred, gives a first person encounter about her subservient life as a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, a republic formed after a bloody coup against the United States government. She and her fellow handmaids are fertile women that the leaders of Gilead, the Commanders, enslave to ensure their power and the population of the Republic. While the laws governing women and others who are not in control of Gilead seem oppressive, outlandish and ridiculous, they are merely a caricature of past and present laws and traditions of Western civilization. "The Handmaid's Tale" is an accurate and feasible description of what society could be like if a strict and oppressive religious organization gained dominant power over the political system in the United States.
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale analyzes human nature by presenting an internal conflict in Offred: acceptance of current social trends (victim mentality) -vs- resistance for the sake of individual welfare and liberties (humanity). This conflict serves as a warning to society, about the dangers of the general acceptance of social evils and boldly illustrates the internal struggle that rebels face in choosing to rebel.
Nostalgia is a common feeling of the human populous, but in it can be a sense of denial. Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale depicts an awful world, but so much of it is swept under Offred’s passive observations of it which ends up undermining the weight of the situation. The story of Moira is that of the social activist courageous enough to question authority, however, Atwood does not deliver a triumphant heroine in her. Hope is an important lifeline that Offred clings to, and Moira plays a significant part in that, but Atwood’s depiction of their relationship denies hope its prevailing image of savior. Instead of fueling an active struggle against oppression, Moira’s character is used as placating “if only” for Offred to daydream about.
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.
The Handmaid’s Tale is a feminism novel written by Canadian, Margret Atwood in 1986. The novel is set in the future of the United States, that no longer exists; and the futuristic Republic of Gilead is in control. The protagonist/narrator is Offred, a handmaid whose job is to lie on her back once a month to try to conceive from the commander. Offred and the other handmaids are allowed to leave their commander’s house once a day to go to the food market, where the signs are pictures instead of words because women are not allowed to read. This wake of independency makes Offred and the other handmaids think of escaping, and when Offred thinks about it the first person that comes to mind is her lesbian best friend from college, Moria. Moira is vivacious, rebellious and deliberately outrageous. The role in Republic of Gilead leads Moira to her feministic actions, and in contrast, it leads her to the handmaids from hope to hopelessness In accordance with the novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood symbolizes Moria as unconfirmed, seditious, courageous, and defeated.
In life, people don’t always stand up for what they believe in in order to avoid exclusion – this is called apathy. In specific situations, people will blindly follow a primitive ideology without any regard for morality. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is an excellent example of how apathy can affect an entire population. This novel is by and large a feminist novel that addresses the ignorance in imperialistic and religious ideologies, but also addresses the issue of human apathy. In this novel, Atwood offers a disturbing look into what could be. The alterior motive of the society is to purify and improve the country as a whole. However, it is not only nationalism and imperialism
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
“The bigger the real-life problems, the greater the tendency […] to retreat into a reassuring fantasy-land” (Naylor). When the difficulties of life are unbearable, people often escape through various forms, such as an imaginary world where such problems do not exist. This is a form of escape and a way of ensuring that the difficulties at hand do not overpower their lives. This idea is explored through various characters in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The district in which these characters are imprisoned, Gilead, is controlled by a radical Puritan government. There exists a regulation for every aspect of the characters’ lives: from religion to sexuality, from language to occupation, from meals to marriages. With such absolute laws, one would imagine that suicide is the only escape; however, numerous characters within the novel learn to escape in a manner which does not cause them harm. In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, government extremists cleverly employ various forms of control to manipulate the characters into feeling powerless and isolated; ultimately, this forces them to depend on temporary escapes to survive in Gilead.
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.
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 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 Handmaid’s Tale and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? draw on different narrative techniques to establish our relationship to their protagonists. Margaret Atwood allows the reader to share the thoughts of the main character, while Philip K. Dick makes the reader explore the mysteries behind the story. Atwood’s style works because she can directly show her readers what she wants. Dick’s opposing style works for him because he can present paradoxes and mysteries and let the reader form the conclusion. Both of these styles are skillfully utilized to create complex stories without losing the reader along the way.
Although both “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Most Dangerous Game” are from different times and places, their two main character are alike in their heartless, murderous desire. In Edgar Allan Poe short story, “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor is the protagonist who seeks for revenge because of an insult made by his friend, Fortunado. This story happens in streets of Venice, Italy where Montresor plans this terrifying plan to kill Fortunado, most of his plan consist in the catacombs under his house. Montresor commits the crime and gets away without consequences. In the other hand, Richard Connell’s short story, “The Most Dangerous Game”, the principal character is General Zaroff who lives in an isolated island called Ship Trap Island.
Imagine a world where one’s worth is determined solely by their ability to bear children, and where their unique traits are stripped away. Unfortunately, this is the chilling reality for female characters like Offred and Moira in The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood. The dehumanization and sexualization of women result in their loss of identity, ultimately causing rebellion amongst them as they fight for freedom and individuality. Only after freedom and individuality are achieved do the women truly experience fulfilment. By showing how the women lose their identity through enforced sexual slavery, the naming and outfit system, and the strict living regime, why they choose to fight for their freedom will be proven.