Margaret Atwood

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…

The manipulation of power within The Handmaid’s Tale is very evident within the household. The power resides in position one is in at that household. Atwood uses figurative language, word repetition, and symbolism to explain the power. What use to be called the United States of America, is now the Republic of Gilead. Due to low birth rates, a society was built to try and turn around the reproduction issue. The society is set around a hierarchy. This hierarchy revolved specifically around the…

World renowned Canadian author Margaret Atwood is the writer of countless poems, essays, criticisms, short stories, and novels. The author of over a dozen novels, Atwood continually features female protagonists and covers themes pertaining to women. The Handmaid’s Tale deals with the rise of the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian theocracy that replaces the United States and returns to the suppression of women. Another one of Atwood’s novels, Alias Grace focuses on Grace Marks, a women…

Unorthodoxy In The Handmaid’s Tale In a world where everything is in order, individuality will not go unnoticed. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, is set in a totalitarian theocracy called the Republic of Gilead. The main character and narrator, Offred, presents her story as an audio diary, which is transcribed into book form by Professor Pieixoto. Offred tells of her life before Gilead, when she has a steady job and a loving family; during the revolution, when she loses her job, money,…

Margaret Atwood is a well-known Canadian author who uses several aspects in her writing to successfully inform her audience. Atwood has written several award-winning novels such and “The Handmaids Tale” and “Alias Grace”. Both of these novels are important because Atwood uses her writing to show the importance of Women’s rights and equality. In both novels, Atwood uses a female as the main character and shows the unfair treatment of women in both books. While “The Handmaids Tale” is set in the…

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood recounts the establishment of a theological state, Gilead, in place of the United States of America. Gilead uses the Bible to justify a misogynistic, hierarchical and racist society. Offred, the narrator, is a woman forced to become the “Handmaid” of a Gileadean Commander, Fred. Handmaids are supposedly a position of honour for fertile women; in reality, they are sex slaves, allowing only the leaders of Gilead to reproduce. In the novel, education is…

In the novel Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, Crake knowingly caused a plague that led to the death of the majority of humanity. His intentions behind this act were to help the world from human suffering by creating a pill and modifying embryos to create a better population. Unknowingly to Snowman and Oryx, this pill called BlyssPluss would eventually cause a worldwide epidemic killing those who were not immunized beforehand. This act of deceit was intended to “help” make the world a better…

In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the female protagonist, Offred, is shaped by her society into a tool used solely for reproduction in order to serve the patriarchy. Comparably, the female protagonist, Furiosa, from the film Mad Max: Fury Road is shaped by her society into a tool used by the patriarchy to keep inhumane control over the people. Even so, both protagonists react to their objectification in contrasting ways. In the Gilead Age, women do not have as much…

In “Morning in the Burned House,” Margaret Atwood suggests that when recalling the past there is a tendency for a person to desire dwelling in the past instead of living in the present, therefore there must be a destructive force in order to reinforce reality and continue progress. The author of the poem carefully chose the title as it reveals a lot about the entire meaning of the poem. Atwood used words such as morning, burned, and house in the title. Morning might be a connotation of a new…

Handmaid’s Tale is set in a theocratic nation known as The Republic of Gilead, defined by its significant social boundary between males and females. Influenced by the strict and traditional lifestyle of the seventeenth century American Puritans, Margaret Atwood based her narrative on the disparity between the role of the man and woman in their culture. Especially in the 1970s, America was swept by rising movements based upon the Republican party ideals which heavily supported the values of…