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Censorship In The Handmaid's Tale By Maragret Atwood

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In a world where gender inequality persists and undemocratic governments are spreading, censoring Maragret Atwood’s thought provoking dystopian novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” by prohibiting it in high schools is a disservice to society. Censorship is the deliberate restriction of information, ideas, or opinions imposed by governments, organizations, or individuals. The principal objective of censorship is to stifle certain narratives to maintain social norms. Therefore, censorship, in general and specifically the banning of “The Handmaid's Tale,” undermines society, stunts individuals intellectual development, and is unjustifiable. “The Handmaid’s Tale” is a cautionary tale about a society that is undermined when women are stripped of their …show more content…

Without this critical awareness, there is a risk of complacency. Understanding the warning in “The Handmaid’s Tale” may encourage people to take a more informed and vigilant stance to actively advocate for gender equality, and foster a society that values the agency and well-being of all its members through activism. Reading and learning from a wide variety of challenging texts, including “The Handmaid’s Tale” is foundational for an engaged, active society. To ban books from libraries and schools risks the regression of society and the future of young people across the …show more content…

“The Handmaid’s Tale’s” thought provoking narrative challenges readers to think about uncomfortable truths with regards to power, gender, and societal control. The novel’s ability to spark critical thinking and generate discussions on these important topics makes it an essential read. This can be seen through the line, “Better never means better for everyone… it always means worse, for some” (Atwood, 244). The Commander says this when he is trying to justify the creation of Gilead to Offred. The line encourages readers to think critically about how Gilead is structured and provides a segway for readers to consider the issues in our world that cannot be solved without causing harm to some people. How a society balances these harms depends on what it values and prioritizes so healthy debates are necessary to inform important policy decisions. Consider, for example, there are ongoing debates on how to mitigate issues like environmental damage and future climate change risks, an issue that also exists in Gilead, and how the impacts and burdens of actions or inaction will be distributed amongst individuals and between

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