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Essay On Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

893 Words4 Pages

Margaret Atwood wrote the Handmaid’s Tale shortly after the election of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain. This was during the time that televangelism was on the rise and many popular political movements in the West was fueled with religious conservatives. These conservatives used Christianity to frown on the “sexual revolution” of 1960s and 1970s. The term “religious right” referred to label “conservative Christian political factions that are characterized by their strong support of socially conservative policies.” (Andersen) This heightened feminist fears as many of their traditional principles set the gains made by women back decades. The novel discloses what would happen if the rights of women were actually taken away. This is shown after a group of conservative religious extremists (The Republic of Gilead) takes power and uses it to make women powerless and subservient. Gilead is a society that is built on …show more content…

These toxic issues led to infertility (only within women), which is another fear that can be dated to the 80s. Women who still possessed the ability to reproduce are made as handmaids. Handmaids are looked down upon by the Wives, those no longer able to reproduce but are married to very wealthy and/or influential men. Handmaids are first brainwashed in a re-education facility known as the Red Center. They learn to forget their past identities “from the time before”, to know their place and duties, and understand that they have no real rights. Atwood also only includes events that has actually occurred sometime in the world’s history. The effect of this makes things very vivid and realistic for readers. This also shows how close mankind has come to a radical theonomic militaristic society like Gilead. Atwood provides a realistic insight towards the direction she believed the United States was headed during the rise of Christian political

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Throughout the novel The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood portrays a world built upon the ideals of male leaders through the lens of a woman subject to the terrors that this world inflicts. In response to falling fertility rates and progressive ideologies, a group of powerful men are motivated to concoct a society based entirely upon their religious ideals to further both their reign over the female population and their success as leaders. Through the experience of a woman living at the expense of these ideas, Atwood communicates the negative consequences of idealism in the hands of a man, and the consequences of a religion-based idealistic world. Throughout the Handmaid's Tale, Atwood portrays a dystopian world by the name of Gilead, where

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