The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

WT2-The Handmaid’s Tale When seeing a continuous problem happen in society it’s normal to want to fix it. For average everyday people it’s usually not possible to fix or even bring much attention to. But for people of power, such as a president, owner of a large company, or even actors and authors, it isn’t that hard. Margaret Atwood is a good example of an author who saw problems happening and decided to do something about it; she used the society and city of Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale to shine a light on many ways that women were being marginalized, excluded, and silenced in her society. The Handmaids are one of the several social groups of Gilead. They start off at “The Red Center” where they get proper training from the Aunts for how to do their job. However, while they’re being trained, the Aunts also try to completely guilt …show more content…
Not only did they take away the access to communication to marginalize and exclude them, but to also silence them. Not having access or permission to communicate makes the Handmaids literally voiceless so that they cannot defend themselves. They are also silenced through having to have a shopping partner because partners are required to report any misbehaviors of the other. So, they never know if they can trust their partner or if they need to be cautious about them. Another way they’re silenced is through the thought of the “eyes,” which is a group of spies who listen in on the people of Gilead and find out if anyone is or has been disobeying the rules. This makes not only the Handmaids fearful, but also the entire city because breaking the rules could easily cost someone their life. When citizens break the rules, after they’re killed they get hung up on “the wall” as a way to strike fear into the hearts of other citizens and leave them with the message to not make the same mistake because there’s constantly people breaking the