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Narrative conflicts in the handmaids tale
The handmaids tale relationships
Consider and analyse female relationships within the handmaids tale
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In the Time of the Butterflies is a book about 4 sisters, Patria, Dedé, Minerva, and María Teresa. The book is about the three girls growing up and their experiences during the time of the underground movement to overthrow Trujillo. The book was written in memory of Dedé’s 3 sisters who had been ambushed and murdered, which we are aware of since the beginning of the novel. The beginning chapter of the book is describing Dedé as she waits for a woman who is going to interview her about her three sisters, she then goes into a flashback she has of her family talking at the dinner table and her father mentions someone named Trujillo, which then gives a hint at who this book might be formed around. Through the book, we read stories about times in the girls’ lives when they were going to school at Inmaculada Concepcion and being at home and falling in love, as well as there run ins with Trujillo himself.
I found the clerk to be interesting because he was different from most of the characters at that time. The clerk did not care about worldly things like most of the other characters in the tale. Instead of spending his money to look like he is from a high social class, the clerk spent money on books that help him expand his knowledge. Through the knowledge he gained from the books, the clerk was wiser than the other characters in the tale. His actions were different from the actions of other people during that time.
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
The novel, The Handmaid's Tale, centers on a woman named Offred. She is abused of her body when she gets constantly raped in order to provide a child from her Commander and his wife. It burdens her life daily. Many literary elements are revealed through the novel such as symbolism ….. That come together to affect the story, and the reader.
the President of the United States and all of Congress, the United States is shaken at the center. Wars take after, and demolition follows. Out of the lethal waste dumps rises the Republic of Gilead. The forces that be, in the place where there is Gilead bring back the abuse of ladies that is a sign of severe religions and their social orders. This abuse is supported by people with significant influence as a way to guarantee the survival of mankind and the conservation of the beliefs of Gilead.
What would have happened if Blair Hunting hadn't brutally ensured an end to their adolescent relationship? Treloar had contemplated that before he'd decided to attempt to reunite with Alexandra again. If he'd simply allowed them to be, would the differences between them and their upbringings have created a wedge between them, despite how much the couple continued to love each other and in the end, that being too much for either of them to endure? For Richard Treloar would never have conformed, never been 'one of them,' and that could well have led to the natural fading of their relationship without the rancour and hatred that the Patriarch's actions back then had forced now. Possibly, this was the only way it could ever have worked between him and Lexi, the flight from her father, the time that they'd spent apart, the desire to start a new life together, free of his influence and that, ironically, Huntington's actions to force that before it's time had led to the present, placing them in a position where they fully united against him.
‘Positive characters … usually prove miserably ineffectual when contending with ruthless overwhelming powers’ claims Amin Malak, noting on such protagonists as Winston Smith and Offred in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and, when looking at the dystopian genre as a whole, he certainly seems to be correct. Dystopian fiction does seem to portray the worse side of human nature than the better, leaving the positive traits to the struggling protagonists. While utopian writers seemed to think that the essence of human nature was to do good, dystopian writers seem to think very differently and it is from this notion that these novels seem to be written. Nineteen Eighty-Four certainly seems to do this, with almost every member of the society representing one or more negative aspects of humanity.
In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, ‘The Commander’ is the head of the household where his handmaid Offred lives. They live in a society where women are oppressed, and men rule. The commander inaugurates an inappropriate relationship with his handmaid throughout the novel, and on page 243 the two characters share a significant moment. The quote above in which the commander is speaking to Offred, he attempts to depict, justify, and make clear of the reasons and the framework behind Gilead clear to Offred. He explains a mans inability to feel emotion in their past lives, and how they created Gilead in order to restore human emotion.
Margaret Atwood's novel, The Handmaid's Tale, is full of references and examples of puritan and theocratic ideals, but one of the most interesting aspects of this novel is her use of nature. Puritans believed that divination and purity could be found in nature. Atwood uses nature to reflect the human nature of the characters in this work with flower and sky imagery. However in Chapter 13 Night, Atwood utilizes a storm to comment on nature during Offred and Nick's night rendezvous arranged by Serena Joy. As Offred step's outside heading to meet Nick, Atwood writes, "Now there's thunder, the storm's moving closer" (Atwood 260).
Satire is often described as the use of humor, irony, or exaggeration to criticize someone or something. The Handmaid’s Tale was written shortly after the beginning of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. With concerns regarding the possibility of reversing everything that feminists have accomplished, Atwood writes of a story that examines and criticizes what a protestant puritanical society would be like. In The Handmaid’s Tale, women are oppressed due to Gilead’s perverted perception of Christianity and the bible which can be seen when Aunt Lydia twists passages of the bible to conform to their agenda. Atwood shows a contemporary society with repressive views when taken to their logical extremes, in this case, extreme right wing ideology.
Conflict can be described as the struggle between two opposing forces, whether the forces being person vs person, person vs self or person vs society. Good examples of conflict can be found in almost any book. Margaret Atwood’s novel, the Handmaid’s Tale is a source of all three types of conflicts. The Handmaid’s Tale is about a society where females are given specific duties and are restricted from reading, writing, talking to others and looking at themselves in mirrors. The protagonist, Offred whom is also the narrator in the novel faces conflicts with herself, with other people, and the society that she lives in.
What would become of the world, if our current societal flaws, such as sexism, racism, and classism were ingrained and executed at a systematic level? This is exactly what The Handmaid’s Tale set out to explore. The novel, which claims to be speculative fiction, is set in the theocratic Republic of Gilead (formerly the USA), where birth rates are rapidly declining and women have been marginalized by the patriarchal regime, forbidden to read, write or love and valued only if they are able to procreate. They are separated into classes, including Wives, Marthas, Aunts, Unwomen, and Handmaids, distinguishable only by the color of their clothing. The Handmaids are renamed by combining ‘of’ and the name of the Commander that they have been assigned to, stripping them of any individuality.
Symbolism can be defined as the use of symbols that an author uses to suggest more than the literal meaning of the object .Symbolism often allows the reader to understand the text better and connect with the story on a different level. In The Handmaid’s Tale, symbolism can be seen in various parts of the novel. One of the most common type of symbolism that can be identified in the text is through the use of colours. One of the most obvious symbols in the novel is the uniform that every Handmaid is supposed to wear.
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale tells the story of a young woman, called, but not named Offred, trapped in the patriarchal society of Gilead in the role of a handmaid to her commander. Offred’s role as handmaid, simply put, is to become pregnant in lieu of the Commander’s wife who is too old to do so. At the novel’s setting, Gilead is still less than a generation old, meaning Offred remembers her life before the institution of new societal standards when she possessed the freedom to choose her own career, education, and romantic partners. Handmaids undergo a boot-camp like training at the Red Center (so called by the Handmaids for the color of the dresses they wear) where they teach proper behavior based on misinterpreted Biblical text.
The majority of people ask the same question at some point in their life; who am I? The concept of identity is something many wrestle with their whole lives. Other individuals are confident of who they are. The Handmaid’s Tale follows a society that is stripped of individuality and identity. This question can no longer be asked because it cannot be answered.
