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Atwood Use Fear As A Motivator In The Handmaid's Tale

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Fear as a Powerful Motivator in The Handmaid's Tale

Fear is a powerful emotion that everyone experiences in life and can be used in ways that can help your situation but can also be abused. In The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, fear is shown as a powerful motivator for the handmaids. Fear is used as a means of control, as a incentive for conformity, and an motive for resistance.

Firstly, The Republic of Gilead uses fear as a means of controlling the handmaids and keeping order in society. “The three bodies hang there, even with the white sacks over their heads looking curiously stretched, like chickens strung up by the necks in a meatshop window; like birds with their wings clipped, like flightless birds, wrecked angels. It’s hard …show more content…

The fear of losing their freedom and individuality causes them to resist and hope for escape from Gilead. While Offerd is with the commander she asks what the writing from the previous handmaid says. The commander says, "Don't let the bastards grind you down." (Atwood 171). This shows that the handmaids are trying to resist from letting Gilead wear them down enough to give in. Offred says to herself, “My name isn’t Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because it’s forbidden. I tell myself it doesn’t matter, your name is like your telephone number, useful only to others; but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter. I keep the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure I’ll come back to dig up, one day.” (Atwood 80) She talks about how her real name is something she should remember and keep until it can be used again. While Gilead is trying to dehumanize the handmaids they are trying to hold on to their individuality and freedom. The fear of losing what they have from a time when they were free causes them to hold onto them instead of conforming to the new society of

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Handmaid’s whom are the fertile women in the Gilead society, are stripped from all freedom and rights, banned from knowing any form of literature and have to be submissive to men, allowing their bodies to be sexually used to produce children. In contrast, women who are not fertile such as Wives have their freedom taken away too as they are confined to doing assigned jobs around the house. In contrast, the Aunts and the Commanders are shown to have the highest rankings in the Gileadean society. They are powerful figures, with privileges such as the Aunts being allowed to read and write and the Commanders being permitted to get married and have a handmaid's assigned to

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