Vince Clarke

Margaret Attwood uses her gift for fictional writing to explore the powerful theme of control. She does this through the medium of The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), which won the Governor-General’s award in 1985, and the first Arthur C. Clarke award in 1987. The dystopian novel portrays a current day North America being occupied by the religious extremists the Sons of Jacob. The religious leaders that are aiming to enact its idea of a perfect world heavily control the dystopia’s population. Attwood…

Toni Morrison 's The Bluest Eye and Margaret Atwood 's The Handmaid 's Tale are novels that include many instances of violence in order to demonstrate how brutality informed the ideas and lives of their characters. The Bluest Eye introduces the character of Pecola Breedlove, a young girl whose life has been characterized by habitual exposure to violence. Pecola develops and maintains the idea that she is unworthy of better circumstances and the frequency of violence throughout her life foster…

The title, Sana Maabot ang Langit, in Velutha’s point of view, the Langit represents Ammu who is in the higher position in the caste system and Velutha, an untouchable can never reach her. Based on the novel, this is a book that is a letter to the powerless, whether it is women who are not allowed to follow the direction of their heart or men who suffered because they are from the wrong caste. Therefore the designed poster is a form of triangle that represents the caste system in India, and Ammu…

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.…

Oppressive circumstances can lead to a comforting form of ignorance. The once United States of America has now turned into a nation known as the Republic of Gilead. The falling reproductive birth rates and chaos of the previous nation has lead to an implication of certain restrictions placed on women. The few women that are able to reproduce, known as handmaids, are assigned to couples in order to bare them children. In Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel Handmaid’s Tale, the main character Offred…

Throughout history, all of the world's governments have used authority to ensure or at least try to make their country run properly. Whether it be police watching the streets, armies putting down rebellions, or even secret police spying and taking out people, one way or another the government always tries to maintain power of its citizens to make sure nobody is doing anything that would harm the state. This idea of power of authority is shown in these three works, The Handmaid's Tale by…

Elizabeth Pham Professor Sara Moore English 200 4th February 2016 Dystopian Freedom The 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…

In the world before Gilead, Offred felt uncomfortable with her mother’s feministic ways, and she had an affair with a married man named Luke. Luke then divorced his wife and married her, and they had a child together. When Gilead started they took their daughter as they tryed to escape across the border into Canada. Instead, they were caught and Offred hasn’t seen her husband or daughter since. After her capture, she continues to mentally resist Gilead, but she submits to Gilead. Afterwards,…

As hinted by the quotation, Offred felt guilty for having enjoyed the sex she had with Nick. At first, Offred agreed to have sex with Nick because of a pact she made with Serena Joy. Getting pregnant by Nick would save Offred from shipment to the colonies. However, after the act transpired, a revision occurred within Offred, which saw the return of her old identity. The identity that Offred had throughout most of the novel was a precarious one that Offred created to conform to Gilead society. It…

In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the Commanders run a society lacking authentic emotions and relationships. They use threats of removal to the colonies and death to fulfill their desire for order. A Handmaid’s only purpose in life is to produce offspring for their Commander, and they have no connections or feelings for each other. Offred says that Handmaids like her are for “breeding purposes” and are merely “two-legged wombs…sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices” for their Commander’s…