1.The king administered justice by turning his imaginations into facts. He made his decisions by himself without getting input from no one but himself. He built a public arena. One of the purpose of the arena was to widen and develop the mental energies of the people. Such as having two doors with a vicious tiger behind one and a beautiful lady behind the other.…
Guy is absolutely in shock in this section of the book. The antagonist, Captain Beatty, has gotten on Guy’s last nerve and now has paid the price. Guy is flabbergasted when the firefighters pull up to burn down a house, and the building turns out to be Guy’s home! As guy gets out of the Salamander, Captain Beatty tells him the entire setup of what he knew. How he sent the hound around the house sniffing for books.…
The psychological phenomenon known as the “Bystander Effect” occurs when “the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency situation. (“Bystander Effect.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers). The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood, is a brilliant novel that discusses the future society of the Republic of Gilead. Each Handmaid has been assigned to a married couple who are having troubles reproducing due to fertility issues.…
The Green Broke Women of Gilead “Nothing walks the earth more savage than a mare enraged.” -Janet Morris Dividing people into categories will cause animosity to build up amongst the groups.…
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. Don’t let the bastards grind you down”(Atwood 223). The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, is a dystopian literature novel that is viewed as a cautionary tale which forewarned the oppression of women in a society known as The Republic of Gilead. The story unfolds through the narration of the protagonist, Offred, who is a Handmaid in this totalitarian society. Her character is dehumanized by others in this society while also being taught that a fertile woman’s sole purpose is to bare children for powerful, but sterile couples.…
Oppression always exists in some type of form, and often we see people fighting for their voice to be heard and have an equal chance on the playing field. Sometimes, however, we tolerate oppression, because we find benefits in doing so. In a world where women aren’t allowed to read and kept around for the purpose of having babies, the actions of the characters, women especially, in “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood shows that people who are affected by an oppressive environment will subject themselves to this oppression as long as a form of freedom is offered in exchange. Offred is a handmaid whose function is to give birth to her Commander’s child, and as a result, she is separated from everything in her past life. Although she is never physically present during the book, Offred’s mother is brought up often, and in one instance, she offers a bit of wisdom that makes the reader realize a main message in the book: “Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations” (Atwood 271).…
I believe the narrator is unnamed, because of the little significance a girl/woman was given in that times. In comparison with her brother, whose name is Laird( meaning Lord or Baron) in the eyes of their parents he " was going to be their real help" once he grows up, while the narrator was considered just a girl who was supposed to help her mother around the house, wear dresses and behave like a girl. Her work was underappreciated even though she could do more than her brother who was young and careless. The name of her brother and the anonymity of her name symbolize the inequality of roles and the superiority of the male child in their family. This also portrays the traditional roles in a family where women were subordinated to men who were…
Women have fought hard throughout history to gain equal rights, but is it possible for everything they have worked for to be ripped away? This situation is a very real one in Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood introduces a world where women are nothing more than tools. She published The Handmaid’s Tale in 1986 (Callaway 5), but Atwood’s writing career began in 1961 when she published Double Presephone. Over the course of her writing career, Atwood wrote twelve novels, six children books, sixteen poetry collections, eight short fiction collections, and five major non-fiction books (1).…
The Handmaid’s Tale is an eye-opening tale as horrifying and real as they come. It explores ideas of feminism, the power of literacy, and the connection between sex and politics. Offred is a prime example of an ordinary woman being placed into an extraordinary situation. Offred faces enmity and oppression from other women and the society of Gilead itself while being coddled and engaged by the very men she should be distant from. She grapples with herself and her decisions while trying to hold on to her sense of self and person.…
“Culture is so influenced by its dominant religions that whether a writer adheres to the beliefs or not, the values and principles of those religions will inevitably inform the literary work.” (Thomas C. Foster, How To Read Literature Like A Professor) Thus, the traits of characters from the dominant religion’s stories appear in literacy across the globe. One figure that often appears in literature is a symbolic Christ, because the world resides in a Christian dominated culture. There are distinctive qualities that make a character the symbolic Christ of a story, such as forgiveness and being tempted by the devil.…
The quote, “History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme”, redacted from another quote by Mark Twain (O’Toole), could act as a summary for Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale. In this novel, a dystopian society is implemented through the utilitarian control of a Biblical patriarchy. While certain analyses of this novel comment on the piece’s abstractness and point to the realities as to how this type of society could never exist, every detail in this book was created via something that has already existed or happened as a historical event. Specifically, America’s religious and patriarchal roots have not only deeply influenced our current culture, but also the future culture of the Gilead society. Margaret Atwood employs various symbols throughout her novel to concretely embed the abstract concepts of patriarchal religious oppression in this society through the usage of historical settings in context, specifically through the settings of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University within Cambridge, and Salem, Massachusetts.…
In the story The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, the United States has fallen apart. It is now the Republic of Gilead and women have lost everything. They are stripped of their money, freedoms like being able to read, family, and they can no longer work. Fertility rates have decreased, and women are blamed for it. Women who are fertile are taken to the Red Center, where they are trained on how to be a handmaid.…
Margaret Atwood’s award-winning novel The Handmaid’s Tale is based in an imaginary country of Gilead, a palimpsest of the United States. The novel explicitly illustrates the inequitable life of women in the Republic of Gilead. The author connotatively portrays how women face problems like lack of freedom, lack of education and censorship in their daily lives. Margaret Atwood circuitously mentions several institutions, which she blames to be the reason behind social issues. The author herself does not write what the institutions are, however people speculate that she criticizes the Christian church for the social problems mentioned in the novel.…
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.…
William O’ Douglas, former Associate Justic of the Supreme Court of the United States once said, “The great and invigorating influences in American life have been the unorthodox: the people who challenge an existing institution or way of life, or say and do things that make people think.” The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood presents unorthodox characters in Offred, The Commander, and Moira through freedom, relationships, and individuality. Offred, the protagonist of the novel, is an unorthodox character because of her small defiance of rules, want of little freedoms, and knowledge of Mayday. Firstly, Offred takes pleasure in the ability to manipulate her world, Gilead, in the little ways that she can. For instance, one day Offred makes eye…