With reference to different interpretations and the contexts in which they were written, compare the presentation of identity in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
An individual is defined as “a thing or being incapable of separation or division without losing its identity”, and this opposes the general characterisation of people in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932) as most of the characters lack any sort of distinctive or individualistic attributes, and so personal identity is presented as being virtually non-existent. Huxley uses the depletion of morals and emotions to present the loss of identity as a consequence of total state control. Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) instead …show more content…
For example, Huxley presents the idea that identity is not important by categorising characters into groups such as “the Nurses”, “the infants” and “the students”, where people are referred to by the purpose they have to the World State. This is similar to the way in which Atwood introduces the Handmaids as “Offred” or “Ofwarren”, where their titles are composed of a man’s first name and a prefix donating ‘belonging to’. Atwood is therefore indicating that the Handmaids are not individuals but instead belong to someone else. A name is a descriptor that allows quick judgements and assumptions to be made about people and is usually one of the parts of a person’s identity that is somewhat self-chosen. So by eradicating individual character names in both of the novels, it is clear the authors are presenting identity as a limited luxury for the select few. The name “Offred” was the original name of the novel and Atwood hints at her reasoning behind this choice by saying “Within this name is concealed another possibility: offered, donating a religious offering or a victim offered for sacrifice.” The idea of a sacrifice creates an image of a person with little authority or importance, who is being traded away for the greater good. Therefore, the use of this verb as a name for the protagonist could symbolise how all characters in the novel have been dominated by …show more content…
For example, Huxley describes the infants created through the Bokanovsky’s Process as “eight-month-old babies, all exactly alike”. The use of the word “exactly” when describing how similar the babies are suggests that the babies are clones of one another and this shows how members of this seemingly utopian society lack personal identity. This links to the scientific advancements that influenced Brave New World, particularly eugenics, which was popular in both the United States and England during the early 1900’s. This movement is reflected in Huxley’s exploration of conditioning in his novel, as eugenics is the manipulation of genes in order to promote and enhance favourable human traits, such as intelligence, and eventually do away with less favourable ones. Therefore, Huxley incorporates this into his novel by displaying how the infants are similar by both genetic and environmental factors. For example, the babies are described as being “all (since their caste was Delta) dressed in khaki”. This indicates the extent to which the World State is expending to eliminate the individual from society. That doesn't mean the elimination of all people; it means the conditioning of those people so that they don't really think of themselves as individuals. The use of the phrase
An individual is defined as “a thing or being incapable of separation or division without losing its identity”, and this opposes the general characterisation of people in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932) as most of the characters lack any sort of distinctive or individualistic attributes, and so personal identity is presented as being virtually non-existent. Huxley uses the depletion of morals and emotions to present the loss of identity as a consequence of total state control. Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) instead …show more content…
For example, Huxley presents the idea that identity is not important by categorising characters into groups such as “the Nurses”, “the infants” and “the students”, where people are referred to by the purpose they have to the World State. This is similar to the way in which Atwood introduces the Handmaids as “Offred” or “Ofwarren”, where their titles are composed of a man’s first name and a prefix donating ‘belonging to’. Atwood is therefore indicating that the Handmaids are not individuals but instead belong to someone else. A name is a descriptor that allows quick judgements and assumptions to be made about people and is usually one of the parts of a person’s identity that is somewhat self-chosen. So by eradicating individual character names in both of the novels, it is clear the authors are presenting identity as a limited luxury for the select few. The name “Offred” was the original name of the novel and Atwood hints at her reasoning behind this choice by saying “Within this name is concealed another possibility: offered, donating a religious offering or a victim offered for sacrifice.” The idea of a sacrifice creates an image of a person with little authority or importance, who is being traded away for the greater good. Therefore, the use of this verb as a name for the protagonist could symbolise how all characters in the novel have been dominated by …show more content…
For example, Huxley describes the infants created through the Bokanovsky’s Process as “eight-month-old babies, all exactly alike”. The use of the word “exactly” when describing how similar the babies are suggests that the babies are clones of one another and this shows how members of this seemingly utopian society lack personal identity. This links to the scientific advancements that influenced Brave New World, particularly eugenics, which was popular in both the United States and England during the early 1900’s. This movement is reflected in Huxley’s exploration of conditioning in his novel, as eugenics is the manipulation of genes in order to promote and enhance favourable human traits, such as intelligence, and eventually do away with less favourable ones. Therefore, Huxley incorporates this into his novel by displaying how the infants are similar by both genetic and environmental factors. For example, the babies are described as being “all (since their caste was Delta) dressed in khaki”. This indicates the extent to which the World State is expending to eliminate the individual from society. That doesn't mean the elimination of all people; it means the conditioning of those people so that they don't really think of themselves as individuals. The use of the phrase