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Breaking Rules In The Handmaid

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Offred is a rebellious individual who makes a habit of breaking rules just for her own pleasure.The novel takes place in the Republic of Gilead which is a totalitarian society. Has multiple rules that restrict the lives of many people in the Republic. The Commander or the highest one in control, is the leader of the Republic. Within the Republic there are Handmaids, Aunts, and many more. Due to the strict leadership of the Commander, many people of Gilead are going to turn rebellious. Atwood’s Novel proves that strict leadership can lead to rebellious acts as shown through the symbolism of the word “Mayday”, the irony of the Commander breaking his own rules, and the narrator’s only way of having fun “breaking rules.” The word “Mayday” a …show more content…

Also it is illegal for the Commander too. This is the start of the Narrator favoring breaking rules because she knows the Commander is breaking rules too but does not care. The Narrator is going to start breaking rules with the Commander now because she is starting to have a hobby of breaking rules. “I know without being told that what he’s proposing is risky, for him but especially for me; but i want to go anyway. I want anything that breaks the monotony, subverts the perceived respectable order of things.” (Atwood 231). She agreed because she knew it was risky and she did not care because it seemed odd. This leads to her having fun breaking rules because she does not know where she is going with the Commander and likes odd surprises. Strict leadership can cause rebellious acts among the people of the totalitarian government, also the leader can commit rebellious acts too. The Republic of Gilead can relate to other governments as well. One country that is fairly similar to Gilead is North Korea. They are not as strict as Gilead but they are both ruled under one superior. Gilead’s superior is the Commander and North Korea’s superior is Kim Jong Un. Sometimes a way of having fun can be by

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Leaders protect the community by having laws. Although some laws are just others are unjust because it goes against moral rights. Rule breakers are influential because they fight for what they believe in, while facing hardships. If there are no rule breakers or activist then there cannot be a healthy community. Rule breakers have to break the law to make communities healthy because the leaders can’t always see where they made mistakes.

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Outward conformity along with inward questioning, that is what the main character, presented in Margaret Artwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, has to undertake in order to survive in a theocratic society. Stepping out of line in any way risks your life, so in a place where freedom of speech and basic human right’s no longer apply, Offered must comply with whatever rules they have in place and pretend to agree with the system, but in the inside, she cannot help but think about her past life, her husband, her daughter, before everything began. Flashbacks are integrated in the novel to not only compare the old society with the new one, but to also demonstrate this fake conformity Offred has to display to others and her internal struggle with giving up on escaping the Republic or just accepting her fate and playing by

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Gilead values obedience to their core beliefs and use many tactics to maintain it. The citizens often spy on one another and Eyes are spread throughout the society. Offred’s depression and fear is what controls the way she behaves even around Ofglen, who later on became one of her closest companions. “She may be a real believer, a Handmaid in more than name. I can’t take the risk.

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As Fredrik Pettersson stated in his criticism, “[Offred] might not have any real belief in the theocratic values, but they affect her life and actions nonetheless. ”(8) Even though Offred may disagree with the values of Gilead, she is too fearful to actively oppose the society, and has internalized some of Gilead’s views. When Offred sees the black van coming towards her, Nick tells her that “it’s Mayday” and to “trust” him. Offred is suspicious, “but snatch[es] at it, this offer.

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1436 Words | 6 Pages

Offred struggles between her attraction to Nick and remaining faithful to Luke. In the end of the novel, Offred ends up giving in to her attraction to Nick, however she does not feel that she has betrayed Luke in any way. Both gentlemen fulfill needs of Offed at different times of her life. Luke only exists in her past life, and most of Offred’s memories with him are fading away as she struggles to remember certain details of her past. Offred thinks, “The fact is that I no longer want to leave, escape, cross the border to freedom.

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741 Words | 3 Pages

So, generally speaking, the people of Gilead are so passive about the way that they are treated because this is the only way for them to continue to survive. Offreds passivity is something that is touched on several times throughout the novel, but she does not just learn this skill on her own, but is taught by a woman named Aunt Lydia. “Aunt Lydia said it was best not to speak unless they asked you a direct question. Try to think of it from their point of view she said, her hands clasped and wrung together, her nervous pleading smile.

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The protagonist of The Handmaid’s Tale is referred to as Offred (of Fred). Through the manipulation of literary devices such as juxtaposition, allusion, and descriptive diction, Margaret Atwood voices her concerns about our future, and reveals just how quickly and completely our present could transform. As chapter 33 begins, the Handmaids are off to the Women’s Prayvaganza (a portmanteau of pray and extravaganza). The event, juxtaposed to the ‘fun festival’ it resembles, is really a mass wedding with girls as young as fourteen married off to Angels (troops).

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It is narrated by the protagonist, Offred who is a handmaid forced into sexual servitude. Facing a plunging birth rate, the fundamentalist regime treats women as property of the state. Handmaids are the few of the remaining fertile women and their sole purpose is to help the government into re-populating their society, where a lot of people are left sterile. The Handmaid’s Tale deals with the theme of women in subjugation to misogyny in a patriarchal society, primarily. It shows the struggle that women have to go through in that society, as a Handmaid or as not being able to be one.

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971 Words | 4 Pages

Offred is suspicious of what the handmaid 's did. She looks at their hands, and a clue is given to her when she sees “black gloves”(Atwood 275). She ponders what they could have possibly done to have warranted such action from the authorities. Her speculation shows how the society of Gilead functions. The government of Gilead wants the handmaids to see that the prisoners are being hanged, as their suspicion is how Gilead gains control of them.

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Offred initially feels a sense of loss due to her position as a fertile woman since the independence and individuality she once enjoyed has since been stripped from her by the Republic of Gilead. It is only through rebellion that Offred is able to slowly regain her sense of self and reject the role that Gilead forces her into. By rebellion, however, it is often more dangerous for the perpetrators than to the government’s grip on the people. Offred’s societal role as a handmaid in Gilead forces her to first obey, then causes her to question, which finally allows her to realize her

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978 Words | 4 Pages

In the novel, the main character Offred tells her tale as a handmaid and, how her and the other characters rebel towards the oppressive government. Offred, the only source of information, therefore the reader only knows what she tells them.

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571 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Offred has a continuous search for justice for her daughter, in a society in which her idea of justice is starts as one concept and changes to one that she never expected. Margaret Atwood writes Offred as a character who was at once strong-willed, and who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. Her strength is dimmed at first, when her daughter and husband are first taken from her. Her strength, however comes back in full force when she finds the opportunity to get justice for her daughter. Offred uses the motivation of her daughter to spur a rebellious side of her that disappeared when the new leaders came into power.

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1587 Words | 7 Pages

One’s power can be abused due to indolence; it ruins the lowest social class. In the handmaid 's tale, the Handmaids are treated poorly, making the person no longer themselves. The reader learns that Offred is being told what to do and has no say for her opinion, since it is against the law to go against the government. According to the handmaid’s tale, "You go out through the door and turn right. There 's another door, it 's open.

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711 Words | 3 Pages

Another broken rule, the Commander showing Offred off to the group of men. Another example of a rebellious action they both commit is the exchange of gifts. The Commander awards Offred with gifts like magazines, lotion, books etc. “Staring at the magazine, as he dangled it before me like fish bait, I wanted it. I wanted it with a force that made the ends of my fingers ache” (Atwood 156).

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1101 Words | 5 Pages

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 .

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