Margaret Atwood's Nolite Te Bastardes Carborandorum

Nolite te bastardes carborandorum. (Atwood 52)
The 1970s-1980s were a time all about making statements, such as the preceding butchery of Latin. It was a time of “changing authority and governments, and culture, values, and technology” (Zuhlke). It seemed that there were “te bastardes” and there was you, with hardly any in between, and communication could only be made between the two through large symbolic actions. Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel was no exception. But to whom was Atwood making the statement? This time period was filled to the brim conflict, led overwhelmingly by radicals of all affiliations, and it seemed as if it would soon boil over in a massive way. Atwood recognizes this and decides to fight fire with fire, as it is likely …show more content…
The beginning of the situation that the women, and people in general, in this dystopian United States are put in was started by a group of people getting rid of the current government, clearly unhappy with the way things were being run. Offred remembers life before the inciting incident and life immediately after, as the events were not very far in the past. She recalls that “It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time. Keep calm they said on television. Everything is under control,” (Atwood 174). This statement holds severe irony in that the citizens are being told that “everything is under control” when almost every person actually in control of the national government had just been killed. Atwood exemplifies the confusion that the nation was faced with at this moment, contrasting the characterization of the event as a “catastrophe” with the orders for the people to “keep calm”. One would not usually use the word “calm” to refer to “a state of emergency”. The rising “Islamophobia” at the time Atwood writes the novel is shown with the instant blame on “Islamic fanatics”. The people in “control” are so wrapped up and unaware of the …show more content…
Several examples of these extreme feminists are presented in the novel, as Offred’s mother was a prominent leader in the movement, even being featured in a film about the so-called dangers of feminists who, according to the Aunts in the Red Center, “were always wasting time” (Atwood 118). Feminists in Gileadean society are called “Unwomen”. It is interesting how the prefix “un-” is used there as is almost implies a sort of reversal. They were women, but, in the Gileadean leaders’ view, they chose to strip that away to become what they thought would be more, instead now wasting away in the toxic remains of parts of the country (Atwood 10). As Offred remembers her mother she thinks, “You wanted a women’s culture. Well, now there is one. It isn’t what you meant, but it exists. Be thankful for small mercies,” (Atwood 127). Feminism is not a term meant to equal “a women’s culture” or a world dominated by females, instead denoting an equality between genders, but this is what many radical feminists took it to mean in the 1980s. Offred’s mother serves as a figure head for these types of feminists, and Atwood presents them with what they claimed to have wanted, “a women’s culture”, a society centered on women, and it is. Women and their classification are the basis of Gilead, the means by which the