Republic of Gilead

Although the Republic of Gilead and the state of Iran are located in disparate parts of the world, the similar attributes they share are portrayed through the way women are dealt with in relation to their clothing, education, and physical relationships. To begin with, in both of the theocratic societies, women are oppressed and are forced to wear certain types of clothing without any complains. The women in the Republic of Gilead are assigned very conservative clothing styles chosen by the rulers of their society, “Everything except the wings around my face is red: the color of blood, which defines us” (Atwood 9). The dress codes play an important role in highlighting the social control of women as they have only made it easier to decipher which service a specific woman facilitates – the colour red symbolizing the blood of the menstrual cycle and childbirth of the handmaids.…

Handmaid’s Tale by Margret Atwood is a dystopian novel based in a totalitarian Christian theocracy that has forcibly removed the United States government from power and has become the Republic of Gilead. Due to the terrible decline in reproduction rates because of natural disasters, women become an essential part of ensuring that the population does not drop any further. In this republic, women are completely subjugated by men and stripped of all their freedom. Offred the main protagonist who is…

In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Offred, one of the main characters lives in the Republic of Gilead. The Republic of Gilead is a regime where fertile women are used for their ovaries to reproduce children. Known as handmaids, these women are treated like prisoners and are forced to have sexual relationships with their Commander. Before Offred entered the Republic of Gilead she was the wife of Luke and the mother of a daughter and her life was complete. “Our happiness is part memory.…

Margret Atwood’s novel "The Handmaid's Tale" published in 1985 is a brutal and unimaginable prediction of America’s future as a totalitarian state. The Republic of Gilead resorts to old fashion traditions in order to get the population back to where it once was. By recruiting fertile women as handmaids who's sole purpose is to carry children for the social elite. The government of Gilead stripped the women of any right to education, forbidding all women the ability to read and write. Instead,…

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a novel with thought-provoking storytelling which allows for powerful ideas and themes to be bred. The story takes place with the overthrowing of the democratic government in the alternative future United States (called Gilead), bringing about a new, totalitarian regime to replace it. The protagonist, Offred, finds herself in an bizarre position as a handmaid trying to survive her new life. In this new society, it is widely agreed among the upper echelon…

United States because of the low reproduction rates they created the Handmaid’s to give birth to elite couple who are having trouble conceiving. The women are subjective to prostitution, pornography and violence during the republic of Gilead. As the author states “Atwood’s protagonist, Offred, is a Handmaid—a fallen woman who is forced to bear children for righteous couples—and the book follows her sufferings under the Gilead regime. Atwood paints in garish strokes intended to shock: This new…

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried - Winston Churchil. Democracy is not really by the people, there is always someone who actually controls everything. In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the notorious1 big nurse, Nurse Ratched rules the mental hospital and keeps everyone under her control. Democracy is cynical and in the novel it is developed through the diverse2 events occurred in the hospital. Through an…

In the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand, the main character Equality’s society is built on strict rules and guidelines. These rules are enforced from the time they are born. They are taught never to love, have any self motivation, or individuality. Equality breaks free from these rules, and lives in the Uncharted Forest with Liberty, someone who also broke free from The City. Equality envisions creating his own society, one far different from the society he has raised in. Although Equality’s ideal…

Milestone Two: Rough Draft Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel takes place in Gilead, located in New England in the United States, where the republic’s democracy has been overthrown and replaced by a totalitarian theocracy. In order to procreate, the plummet of live births in Gilead leads to the implementation of divorced and fertile women serving as surrogates for childless couples. The Handmaid’s Tale tells the story of Offred’s life prior to the change in government and follows her as she…

“A Republic is the last step in our journey of departure from our colonial origins. And it cannot be achieved as a truly significant step ─ a moment of re-funding ─ unless it also represents the end of the colonial experience for Aboriginal people.” (2004, p.20-21) This argument is at the heart of Mark McKenna’s book “This Country a Reconciled republic? “, that was published in 2004, only a few years after the failure of both the 1999 republic referendum and the reconciliation movement. This…