Essay On The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

“The Handmaid’s Tale”, by Margaret Atwood, is a dystopian novel concerning a woman living in the totalitarian and theocratic state of Gilead. Throughout Atwood’s novel, one is travelling alongside Offred, [a Handmaid to the Commander and Serena Joy] and is experiencing her journey as she is treated as political property. The Republic of Gilead is used by Atwood, to comment on the already existing radical feminism and religious rights trends within western society. Atwood utilises these trends for the basis of her novel, a theory of what would happen if these movements were suppressed to an extreme. In light of President Donald Trump taking office in January of 2017, some propose his public disregard for women would be the earliest reality of the Republic of Gilead truly replacing the United States. As we unravel the …show more content…
With women being seen as nothing but child bearers and used for a man’s sexual desires, Trump’s public sexism is the first glimpse of truth behind Atwood’s novel. As the leader of the ‘free world’ blatantly neglects that women are intellectual beings that could amount to more than being disposable for a man's wants and needs, and the people voting this man into office; it is proven that the American society does not value the lives of women as highly as we once perceived. Throughout the novel women are treated as bodies, and their minds do not matter, much like in Trumps ideal of the perfect world. In the novel, a woman’s intellect is disassociated with her body, and according to President Trump as long as woman has a nice body her mind is of no value. This is proven by his quote to Esquire Magazine in 1991, where he states, "it doesn't really matter what [they] write as long as you've got a young and beautiful piece of ass." Once again it is apparent that woman is valued for nothing but her