Summary Of The Handmaid's Tale

FINDING MEANING IN MY FAVOURITE TEXT Margaret Atwood engages readers in her enthralling literary masterpiece entitled “The Handmaid’s Tale”, set against the backdrop of a gloomy dystopic future which explores women subjugation in a male-privileging society. Breaking out of the habit of reading via the ‘Leavis method’, to read and interpret from different perspectives can, in Robert Eaglestone’s perspective, “[..] change your ideas about the text and even about your place in the world”. (Eaglestone, 2009, p.25). As such, I learned to like this text when I read and interpreted it in different ways because it challenged me compellingly to stop taking things for granted and be more conscious of the social injustices in my immediate environment and the role I can play to combat it—something I would rarely give much thought to on a normal basis. As such, I came to understand that under the meticulous lenses of Marxism and Feminism, “The Handmaid’s Tale” sets centre stage, the extreme levels of discrimination and …show more content…
(Tyson, 2014, p.56). Tyson’s viewpoint is evidently seen in Gilead, which views upper-class men (haves) as the most responsible to hold power over the running of affairs as against the lower- classes (haves not). In Gilead, power play amongst class divisions occur between sexes and within the sexes themselves. Exclusively amongst men, is a class order in which Commanders are at the apex of the pyramid. These are wealthy men that can afford to buy ranks within the ruling militant government. The other male social classes under the Commanders are the Angels (foot soldiers); The Eyes (government spies that look out for renegades) and Guardians who either do routine policing or menial