Manipulation In The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is a book about an unethical world controlled by the totalitarian government known as the republic of Gilead. The government uses fear and manipulation to control the people in that society. In fact, Gilead controls every minute detail of its citizens’ lives. Atwood shows that using fear-based tactics is effective and the government is able to maintain its power in this way; however, the author reveals that ruling by fear has its limits, as the citizens of Gilead slowly start to rebel. Thus, the author may be showing that totalitarian governments, while powerful, are not flawless.
Everyone in Gilead had a ranking, the Commanders, Wives, Aunts, Unwomen, Marthas and Handmaids are just some examples. Everyone in these groups had their own set of rules and they had to follow them. The Unwomen are apart of the lower class group and they are treated as if they aren't even humans, they would work in radioactive colonies and slowly be killed from radiation. Marthas are the next closest thing they are servants and they are treated like they didn't even matter to the world. The Aunts …show more content…
The uniforms are based off of the rankings, and would show people their status. Everyone in the same class had the same outfit, so it would also keep them from being and looking like their own individual person. The handmaid's wore red to represent childbirth, their main purpose in life. The color red represented a lot more throughout the book, like blood and death. White wings are also a part of the handmaids uniform and white is a color of purity, something the handmaids are expected to be. Something ironic is that the wives wore blue, it's ironic because red is more of a power color as opposed to blue, the wives had a lot of power over the commander and more freedom than any other women in the book. The commanders wore black suits which would represent how much power they