Conformity In The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

In the Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the language established in Gilead promotes conformity. This language utilizes biblical and neologism appeals to get their citizens to conform and follow the new regulations. To begin with, the novel is littered with biblical names and phrases: “Jezebel”, “Martha”, “Milk and Honey”, “All Flesh”, “Lilies” and many more. All of these appellations come from the bible and are used to name the shops that the handmaid’s daily shop at, the housemaids, and the nightclub. This affirms that Gilead is promoting language conformity because they are allowing people to only read words that are biblical. Since reading and writing is forbidden, Gilead wants their people to get accustomed to only seeing and reading biblical words that are in public. …show more content…
By doing so, will cause more people to follow Gilead’s rules and conform to it because it has a biblical title to it. Also, Biblical appeals help to control and manipulate the Handmaid's that are being enslaved by giving them false reasoning and security for the treatment that they have to endure. This manipulation of language is seen when Offred patiently waits in a sitting room watching a preacher on television and makes a comment about him by saying: “These days they look like a lot like businessmen.” Offred is implying that the preachers on the television are not preaching for the benefit of the public but brainwashing them with propaganda to support their religious beliefs. Offred learned to conform and listen to preachers and not speak what’s her on her mind because that’s not allowed. She learned to disguised when people are being real and truthful and when they are lying and only say what's convenient for them. Furthermore, not only does biblical appeal appear in the Handmaid’s Tale, there is also neologism present. Neologism is used to establish new meanings of words in