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Handmaid's tale as a dystopia
Handmaid tale analysis essay
Dystopia essay of the handmaid's tale
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Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaids Tale displays characteristics and techniques of the imagination tradition. The book is in the totalitarian dystopia category, incorporating symbolism, characterization, imaginary and pattern into its horrific storyline. The novel takes the reader into an imaginary place, but one that people in today’s world would not make it in. The handmaid’s tale tries to make an effort to create the paradise where for the people in the sons of Jacobs, everyone knows the Bible; they end of failing and creating a dystopia instead. In the novel religion is the main focus of the Gilead the entire plan of Gilead including its state religion is made up of one goal, and that goal is to take over reproduction. What Gilead is facing is a dramatic issue. …show more content…
Mainly the woman body’s, by coming for the woman body they feel as though this is an aspect of controlling the woman by taking her power also her voting right. The people of Gilead are in a tuff situation and they have to overcome and eventually they do but they have to go through hell for better days. Throughout the book, the Gilead society contradicts themselves because there is no way you can be all about the bible and make these kinds of decisions. Nothing of god says strip woman of their rights take man’s freedom or hurt the next person to get ahead. By exploring the primacy of religion, the Handmaid's Tale shows the aspect of both notice and unnoticed consequences for the people living in Gilead by including negative community repercussions such as religion outlook, misleading point of views, and abuse of
her point of power, order authority and freedom. In Gilead most women was overruled by power and
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.
Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale is a story heavily influenced by the Bible and has many biblical themes that are used to prove Atwood’s belief in balance. The novel is set in the Republic of Gilead, which was formerly the United States. The story is told through the perspective of a handmaid named Offred and begins when she is placed at her third assignment as a housemaid. Offred describes her society as a fundamentalist theocracy where the Christian God is seen as the divine Ruler over the Republic of Gilead.
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 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!
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 society established by the Republic of Gilead in “The Handmaid’s Tale” is founded on and sustained by false doctrine. They intentionally twist and skew the Bible in order to justify their actions and brainwash the women who are involuntarily participating in their indoctrinated society. The Gilead does not treat the Bible as the divine word of God. Instead, they exploit its authority and use it as a tool for their own benefit. The very framework of the Gilead’s social hierarchy is in sharp contradiction to everything the Bible teaches, but because they are so corrupt and only use the Bible for their own advantage, they seem not to care. Instead of abiding by the teachings in the Bible and letting them shape how things are done, they hand-select and contort certain parts of it to match the framework of their own aspirations and beliefs, which are by no means Christian. Every piece of scripture that the Republic customizes is specifically suited to help them achieve their ultimate goal: indoctrinating an entire society for the purposes of personal power and authority. The end product is the unethical, dysfunctional society that is depicted in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” The Republic of Gilead is by no means a true religious group, but they do use religion and skewed religious text as a reference for the foundation, justification, manipulation, and enforcement of their new society.
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.
Callaway, A. A. (2008). Women Disunited: Margaret Atwood's The handmaid's tale as a critique of feminism. SJSU ScholarWorks , 48-58.
At the bottom of the food chain is the women. Compared to men, they are the inferior sex. Basic human rights were stripped away leaving them with nothing but their red dresses and white winged hats. All they have to hold on to is their memories hiding inside their heads. Poked with cattle prods, herded into a crowded gymnasium, and forced to comply with beyond strict rules, the handmaid’s are closely comparable to slaves. Past lives are just that, their past. Women are not only Handmaid’s, there are a total of seven classes, the Wives being on top. The Wives wear all blue and are the partners of the commanders. The Marthas and the Aunts are infertile women who serve commanders and or train Handmaids. Econowives are similarly compared to Handmaids with the difference that their servitude and services are for lower-ranking officials. At the bottom are the Unwoman, they either refuse to be impregnated or are infertile, and as a consequence, they are sent to work in the colonies. Some may choose to work as Jezebels, which is a slang term for prostitution.Most all men have better lives than all classes of women. Commanders or more specifically the Commanders of the Faithful are married to the wives. Angels and Guardians of the Faith are soldiers fight outlaws and enforce laws. The eyes are Gilead’s secret police, no one knows who they are, but they are always
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.
In Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood creates a society of oppression in which she redefines oppression in common culture. Gilead is a society characterized by highly regulated systems of social control and extreme regulation of the female body. The instinctive need to “protect and preserve” the female body is driven by the innate biological desires of the men. The manipulation of language, commodification, and attire, enhances the theme of oppression and highlights the imbalance of power in the Gilead society.
In the society of Gilead, the most highly valued aspect of life is giving birth to a healthy child without deformities. Gilead was the aftermath of a nuclear world war (or some type of chemical mishap involving most of the world). As a result of this, some women and men are left sterile and unable to increase the significantly decreased population. The women who are fertile are placed in institutions where they are trained in the process of pregnancy and child bearing, those who are not are left to die in areas with concentrated radiation.
Unmistakably, fertility and motherhood are associated together, yet Gilead seems to detract them from each other, just like they dismember the bodies of all their citizens. The fact that they make women believe that they are ‘powerful’ because they are fertile is what keeps them from escaping from Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a compelling tale of a dystopian world where men are the superior sex and women are reduced to their ability to bear children, and when that is gone, they are useless. The story is a very critical analysis of patriarchy and how patriarchal values, when taken to the extreme, affect society as a whole. The result is a very detrimental world, where the expectation is that everyone will be happy and content, but the reality is anything but. The world described in The Handmaid’s tale is one that is completely ruled by patriarchal values, which is not unlike our society today. The proposal that the world described in The Handmaid’s Tale could be a vision of the future may seem far-fetched to some readers.