Milestone Two: Rough Draft
Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel takes place in Gilead, located in New England in the United States, where the republic’s democracy has been overthrown and replaced by a totalitarian theocracy. In order to procreate, the plummet of live births in Gilead leads to the implementation of divorced and fertile women serving as surrogates for childless couples. The Handmaid’s Tale tells the story of Offred’s life prior to the change in government and follows her as she navigates life from her current station. Based on the theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Marxism gives attention to social structures and classes, which includes the ideology that the ruling class remains in authority due to the subjugation of the working class. The theory of …show more content…
In the opening chapters of the novel, the narrator describes the room stating, “This is the kind of touch they like: folk art, archaic, made by women, in their spare time, from things that have no further use. A return to traditional values. Waste not want not” (Atwood 7). Written at a time when conservative Christians were entering the political arena as never before, The Handmaid’s Tale demonstrates the author’s paranoia regarding life under conservatives. Marxist theorists might look at this quote and explain that much governmental control exists due to the religion in power at the time and, thereby, the quote reflects the values and ideals of that same religion.
Not only does the novel reflect the values and ideals of the religion in power, The Handmaid’s Tale is an example of “literature that reflects and promotes social power or embodies in an unproblematic way the interests of the ruling class” (Rivkin and Ryan 713). One passage that clearly illustrates the division of social power
Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel takes place in Gilead, located in New England in the United States, where the republic’s democracy has been overthrown and replaced by a totalitarian theocracy. In order to procreate, the plummet of live births in Gilead leads to the implementation of divorced and fertile women serving as surrogates for childless couples. The Handmaid’s Tale tells the story of Offred’s life prior to the change in government and follows her as she navigates life from her current station. Based on the theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Marxism gives attention to social structures and classes, which includes the ideology that the ruling class remains in authority due to the subjugation of the working class. The theory of …show more content…
In the opening chapters of the novel, the narrator describes the room stating, “This is the kind of touch they like: folk art, archaic, made by women, in their spare time, from things that have no further use. A return to traditional values. Waste not want not” (Atwood 7). Written at a time when conservative Christians were entering the political arena as never before, The Handmaid’s Tale demonstrates the author’s paranoia regarding life under conservatives. Marxist theorists might look at this quote and explain that much governmental control exists due to the religion in power at the time and, thereby, the quote reflects the values and ideals of that same religion.
Not only does the novel reflect the values and ideals of the religion in power, The Handmaid’s Tale is an example of “literature that reflects and promotes social power or embodies in an unproblematic way the interests of the ruling class” (Rivkin and Ryan 713). One passage that clearly illustrates the division of social power