After reading a select few words of science fiction from the twentieth century, one of the most recurring themes was the power of words and literature. Or rather, the fear of the power that literature and words may have on society. In the dystopian novels, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Fahrenheit 451, and The Handmaid’s Tale, the envisioned societies were all controlled by governments that disvalued books. It could be assumed by readers of these novels, that the reasoning behind the prohibition of novels in these works is due to the ideas that could influence those in their so-called utopias. The symbolic representations of the newspaper in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, the pillow in Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and the temperature at which paper
In The Handmaid’s Tale, the oppression of women was the absolute first thing that stood out. The exposing of handmaids inabilities The women that were not able to produce babies such as Offred were sent to this Nazi type regimes called the colonies. There were Guardians or “secret police” watching all of the Handmaids at all times. The Republic of Gilead did something called “Men’s Salvaging”, which occurred when either men, but mostly women got penalized from doing something forbidden and they got hung and killed. Women weren’t able leave their households unless they were going shopping for food.
1. Socrates explains that he has acquired a bad reputation, because a prophecy by the oracle at Delphi stated that no one was more wise than him. He is considered the wisest, because he is the only one that acknowledges that he does not know anything. He uses the oracle to explain his mission by interrogating wise men, but if they were wise, it seemed that they were only wise about their own career, and nothing else. In this mission, he tried to prove the oracle wrong, but discovered he was wiser than these men, because the men he interrogated seemed to think they were knowledgeable on subjects when they weren’t.
“The Handmaid’s Tale”, a dystopian fiction novel by Margaret Atwood, was written about two decades ago, however the passing of time does not change the quality of this unique story. The story takes place in a Republic of Gilead, a futuristic United States, in which a Christian theocracy has overthrown the old government and are now forcing everyone to live by their beliefs, word by word. Offred, a young woman who is assigned with the duty of being a handmaid, a person who bears children for their assigned couple, lives with her commander and his wife, Serena, in his mansion. The commander is an elderly man who has a high position in the government and he once a month has to have sexual intercourse with Offred due to the declining birth rates in the Republic of Gilead. Serena is the assigned wife of the commander, although she can’t bear children herself due to her age, she waits for Offred to hopefully become pregnant in order to finally have the child that she has always desired to have.
Vivian: Welcome back to That Show, everyone. We are back with our special guest, Margaret Atwood. She is an amazing author of an award-winning novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale”. [to Margaret] Your novel turned out to be one of the greatest feminist novels. Are you a feminist?
Thesis: Atwood uses the concept of time through flashbacks to compare and contrast between past and present freedoms. Before the fall of Gilead, the women in society were free to do as they pleased; however, currently, they are forced to obey strict rules, and must give in to the commanders demands. Through constant flashbacks, the main character Offred remembers the freedoms granted to her under a democratic government, compared to protection granted under a totalitarian society. Atwood compares these differences to warn how life for common people would exist under a totalitarian government if freedom is given up for safety.
Women are beings of creation, the individuals given the burden and gift of fabrication. This obligation is powerful, yet it has been taken hostage by men. Men took power through force and have kept it, spanning from biblical times to our modern society. And with this power, men have used it to harm other women, usually for their own pleasure. Women throughout history have been sexualized, raped, abused, and killed, just for being women.
To begin, the foundation of every government’s power has always been fear. Governments depend on public fear to secure societal position. Tracing back to thousands of years ago, governments relied primarily on conquests. The research author Robert Higgs argues, “Losers who were not slain in the conquest itself had to endure the consequent rape and pillage and in the long term to acquiesce in the continuing payment of tribute to the insistent rulers.” In other words, Higgs’s point emphasizes that the government violently conquested lands and hence attacked people living there in the old times.
“Power doesn’t corrupt people, people corrupt power.”- William Gaddis. People take advantage of power when it is entrusted to them because of their own greed, which as a result lead to societal deterioration. In the story, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” by Margaret Atwood, the higher-ups from Gilead abuse the power that is given to them, ruining the life of the citizens in the society. This was the cause for the need of higher birth rates and fixing conflicts in the world, but this was handled immorally.
The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. The protagonist, narrator, and handmaid Offred lives in a dystopian world where a theocracy, Gilead has taken the place of the United States government, and women have lost all of their rights. Offred has been forced to become a handmaid, but dreams of escape. In the essay we will be looking at how certain themes in the novel can be applied to the wider society, more specifically how women are oppressed.
Atwood created a society, in where the people who did not respect the rules and regulation of the Gilead, were punished in a place where intelligence was once displayed by a diversity of students, were freedom and hope and was shown every day; and which would now be turned into the regimes detention center This community is implemented and control by violence, fear, and force. Doctors who once perform abortions, were executed during the era of the Republic Of Gilead. Rapist were also executed, based on the word of the bible. Aunt Lydia mentions This is evidenced when Aunt Lydia states: “The penalty for rape, as you know, is death. Deuteronomy 22: 23-29” (p.279).
Some of these methods include destroying identity through classification, objectification, and indoctrination. Most women of Gilead are sufficiently repressed that they seem to accept their assigned roles, at least outwardly resigned to their fate. Atwood uses gender roles in The Handmaid’s Tale to show the lengths to which misogynistic totalitarian governments will go, to protect their dictatorships. The Republic of Gilead is a hierarchical society which requires complete submission of women to men. By taking away women’s paid jobs, confiscating their property, draining their bank accounts, and giving them no recourse, the male leadership leaves women in a fully dependent and subservient position.
Perceptions of Society Living in a society filled with standards, restrictions and ideals, yet we pertain this idea that our world is worthy. Worthy of the sacrifices women make. Worthy of the limits homosexuals follow. Worthy of the lives being controlled. Our world has experienced these perceptions through the past and the present, but will it advance through the future?
In this written text, the emphasis will be on Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale and as well as the way Atwood portrays women and how it can be argued to show the oppression of women. The main purpose is to analyze the way women are treated throughout this book and depict why they are represented this way in the society in Gilead. Then, comparatively, observe the men’s domination over women and how they govern this society. In The Handmaid’s Tale, women are stripped of their rights, suffer many inequalities and are objectified, controlled by men and only valued for their reproductive qualities. The Gilead society is divided in multiple social group.
Imagine a nation in which its government commands by a religion where women are separated into different titles and must conceive children for their commander. Their rights from before this regime, and anything deemed unholy by the government, are a thing of the past. This situation is the one represent in the Republic of Gilead, where the rules of society and its traditions are not taken lightly if broken. In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood shows that an oppressive government leads to the inevitable neglect and remiss of the rules through Offred’s characterization, irony, and flashbacks. Offred 's character development can show that her actions change .
