Margaret Atwood emphasises through her novel possible negative outcomes that may occur when an individual or society continuously live negligent lives in the twenty first century. This may include negligence of the environment, physical health, and toxic chemical usage. She uses narrative construction in The Handmaids Tale to depict one of the many grotesque situations which may arise in the upcoming future; a formation of a totalitarian theocratic society which controls political, social, and individual power. In this novel, Atwood portrays the living conditions people in Gilead are in through the view of a handmaid named Offred; a woman used as a commodity. Gilead leads a totalitarian Christian theocracy where individuals are constantly…
1.The king administered justice by turning his imaginations into facts. He made his decisions by himself without getting input from no one but himself. He built a public arena. One of the purpose of the arena was to widen and develop the mental energies of the people. Such as having two doors with a vicious tiger behind one and a beautiful lady behind the other.…
As hinted by the quotation, Offred felt guilty for having enjoyed the sex she had with Nick. At first, Offred agreed to have sex with Nick because of a pact she made with Serena Joy. Getting pregnant by Nick would save Offred from shipment to the colonies. However, after the act transpired, a revision occurred within Offred, which saw the return of her old identity. The identity that Offred had throughout most of the novel was a precarious one that Offred created to conform to Gilead society.…
Atwood shows how a mirror can contort a handmaids’ identity by enforcing how they are supposed to view their bodies. During Offred’s time at the Re-Education Center, the Aunts brainwash the Handmaids to accept the new ways of the Gilead society. It was the Aunts fear that the handmaids would get a hold of the mirror and use the glass as a weapon against the Aunts and/or themselves. Atwood’s a conclusion to have only a few scattered mirrors in the Red Center is to remind the Handmaids that they are alienated ‘breeders’. Offred is walking through the halls and noticed a mirror on the wall.…
The Handmaid’s tale is a feminist science fiction novel by a Canadian, and feminist writer Margaret Atwood. The story depicts psychological and physical struggle of a woman named Offred due to suppression of women by men in her society. Thus, the title Handmaid’s tale is representative of the life of Offred, the Handmaid or a female servant. This novel vividly portrays the cruelty of biological and social categorization. Handmaid’s tale takes place in a futuristic fictional society where revolutionists have wiped out the United States of America and a new totalitarian society called Republic of Gilead is established.…
Oh, he said, oh Jesus, breath coming out in wonder”(Atwood 146-147). To begin with, handmaids aren’t even appreciated by the wives for who they are bearing a child for. Instead, handmaids are looked down upon by them out of jealousy for being able to do what they can’t. And to throw salt on the wound, the process of getting pregnant is nowhere near the same as it would be for a surrogate. The Handmaid’s literally get raped by their commanders while their society sees it as socially acceptable because it’s a process that’s helping the human race.…
They say that women working is a waste of time and the government is paying them to waste their time. The new society believes that a woman’s God-given duty is to bear children and that it makes them useful to society. The Aunts use the misleading idea that women working is a waste of time and videos of Unwomen doing terrible jobs as a means of keeping control over the handmaids. Many of the handmaid’s, especially the ones who did not work in the previous society, are brainwashed by what the Aunts have been teaching them, which allows them to be completely controlled by the…
Deep sadness overwhelmed Minimus as grief and guilt settled in him over the death of his older brother. All throughout his childhood he looked up to Maximus. He had always admired his strength and beauty and truly believed that one day he would become like him. Memories flooded his mind of the years they spent together. Even though Minimis never got much attention from any of his brothers, the few special moments he had with Maximus he had grasped onto.…
The Handmaids not only choose but also have a desire to become impregnated by the Commander even though they have wives. They want to be the one who has the ability or even chance to carry a child of the Commanders. They make procreation their life and their duty to conceive. "Give me children, or else I die. Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?…
“Culture is so influenced by its dominant religions that whether a writer adheres to the beliefs or not, the values and principles of those religions will inevitably inform the literary work.” (Thomas C. Foster, How To Read Literature Like A Professor) Thus, the traits of characters from the dominant religion’s stories appear in literacy across the globe. One figure that often appears in literature is a symbolic Christ, because the world resides in a Christian dominated culture. There are distinctive qualities that make a character the symbolic Christ of a story, such as forgiveness and being tempted by the devil.…
Children were extremely important, as they were the future. Unfortunately, they were scarce due to a war which leads to diseases that in turn leads to infertility in men and women. The biblical quote from Genesis located in the epigraph of the Handmaid’s Tale gives an immediate reference to religion, leading the reader to infer that religion will be important to the plot. Oddly enough though, the laws of Gilead are seemingly hand-picked from the bible; only certain passages are acknowledged and put into action. There are laws against homosexuality; the punishment if caught is death.…
Women are assigned to bear children for the commanders. The commanders are high ranking officials in Gilead. Offred, the main character in the story is separated from her daughter and her husband Luke. She is assigned to a commander and is forced to be in that patriarchal society. The overarching theme most prevalent in The Handmaid’s Tale is that of power.…
The Handmaid’s Tale is a unique novel that raises awareness of society’s problems after the political uprising of Gilead and the new strict regime. The book portrays a life of a handmaid named Offred and the struggles that she goes through in her daily life. Since all women in Gilead are categorized into groups, varying from Unwomen to Wives; Offred has to serve the role of a Handmaid, which requires her to get inseminated by her husband. Handmaids have to recognize their husbands’ authority and have very little rights.…
Behind every action, there is a driving force. Whether explicitly stated or hidden, there are reasons behind every single thing people do. In the Handmaid’s Tale, one of the most prominent motivators is fear. Fear of being caught by the eyes, sent to the colonies, or being punished by commanders and their wives is shared by nearly every citizen of Gilead. There are also individual concerns specific to separate characters.…
Feminist Theory within The Handmaid’s Tale Feminist criticism is a literary approach that seeks to distinguish the female human experience from the male human experience. Feminist critics draw attention to the ways in which patriarchal social structures purloined women while male authors have capitalized women in their portrayal of them. Feminism and feminist criticism did not gain recognition until the late 1960’s and 1970’s(maybe add citation here of where you found this info). Instead is was a reestablishment of old traditions of action and thought already consisting its classic books which distinguished the problem of women’s inequality in society. In the 1970’s, The Second Wave of Feminism occurred known as Gynocriticism, which was pioneered…