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Examples Of Patriarchy In The Handmaid's Tale

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in her futuristic dystopian society shown in "The Handmaid's Tale," shows how a patriarchal culture denies women self-identity, subjectivity, self-esteem, and power. The oppressive social structure of a totalitarian theocratic state imprisons women by limiting their uniqueness, controlling language, erasing their inherent identities, and enforcing stringent restrictions on their ability to read, write, talk, and think. Like all other totalitarian societies, the Republic of Gilead uses religion to control its female citizens by brainwashing them into thinking that having children is their blessed duty and means of salvation because "Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" and "she shall be saved by childbearing". …show more content…

Language without any restriction validates an individual’s existence. Without freedom of speech transformed in order to harmonize the regime’s ideology. As Gilead views language as a means to fight injustice, women are not even allowed to interact with words. As a result, the patriarchy takes use of the language to keep itself in power and subjugate women, forcing women to speak a certain way. As a result of the intertwining of language manipulation and dominating patriarchy, women are thus voiceless and robbed of their originality and uniqueness. Reading and writing were no longer choices for the people of Gilead. Beginning with newspapers that were initially censored but are now completely prohibited, it destroys all books and movies. To prevent even the Aunts from committing "the sin of reading," the Handmaids listen to prayer tapes at the training facilities, while the Aunts are permitted to read and write on occasion, such as Salvagings. Images and icons are used in place of language since they are seen to be safer than actual words. Even the Offred recorded her story instead of writing …show more content…

For instance, one day Offred smells freshly baked bread in the kitchen, and she describes it as "a nostalgic smell" that takes her back to her mother's and her own kitchens before Gilead. She suddenly remembers that “This is a treacherous smell, and [she] know[s] [she] must shut it out”. Offred self-censors such nostalgia for her safety because senses like smell frequently bring up memories in unexpected ways. Sensations like smell often conjure up memories in an unexpected manner, yet Offred self-censures such nostalgia for her

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In the book “The Misfortunes of Alonso Ramirez,” the author describes the adventures that a poor Spanish American carpenter had when he was captured by English Pirates. Alonso Ramirez pleads his case to judges to prove that he was in fact not a pirate working with the English and that he is indeed innocent. We will be considering different evidence that Alonso Ramirez states in order to prove that Alonso Ramirez was indeed a pirate, but just distorted his stories in order to make him seem a victim to the whole situation. People who commit piracy is defined as someone who commits crimes of robbery and violence in the seas. Alonso Ramirez fits into this description when he talks about Pirates taking treasures from Siamese people.

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The Commander and the Aunts claim that women are better protected in Gilead, where they are treated with respect and kept safe from violence. However, while Gilead claims to suppress sexual violence, it actually institutionalizes it. An example is Jezebel’s, the club that provides the Commanders with prostitutes to service the male elite. Another example is the Ceremony that compels Handmaids to have sex with their Commanders. Foster suggests, “...sex can be pleasure, sacrifice, submission, rebellion, resignation, supplication, domination, enlightenment, the whole works” (158).

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For instance these Upper class men, commanders, use handmaids to reproduce because their “wives” can no longer reproduce. In Gilead, women are only faulty and so if they cannot become fertile or produce a viable child then they get shipped off even though the men could

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1410 Words | 6 Pages

It seems the older Wives are seeking to hang onto their attractiveness and fertility by decorating themselves with flowers and tending gardens. Serena Joy seems to enjoy mutilating the flowers ; flowers being the symbol for the Handmaids. This shows her hatred for the Handmaids . What the Handmaid’s never get to experience is freedom as they are supposed to blindly follow the rules set for them. In the text, the Eyes of God are Gilead’s secret police.

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Often, we see a society’s cultural values reflected in its citizens. For example, the United States values equality, a standard that is shared in all facets including gender. The opposite is true of Gilead, a fictional society in Emily Bronte’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The novel’s main character, Offred, is subjected to degrading treatment simply because she is a woman. It becomes apparent that this repeated degradation has affected the protagonist’s mind.

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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.

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Throughout history, women have often been subjected to prejudice and an inferior status to men. Due to sexist ideologies of men believing that women are not capable of controlling their own lives, women have often been reduced to the status of property. This concept is prominent in many pieces of literature to demonstrate the struggles women have to go through in a predominantly, male structured world. In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, the author illustrates a woman’s battle in an extreme society ruled by men to express the misogyny occurring in the time period when it was written, 1894. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia summarizes Atwood’s story as one that “depicts one woman’s chilling struggle to survive in a society ruled by misogynistic fascism, by which women are reduced to the condition of property.”

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The structure of Gilead is rigid, specifically designed to oppress and reinforce dominance. Throughout Offred’s perspective of events, it is always difficult to define who the main leaders of the society are. Because of this setup, those in top power can rule as they please without fear of anyone committing assassinations or rebellions. How could a person attack something or someone they do not know? Despite the lack of a main formal authority, the world of the Gilead have maintained the structure of their social system, enforcing importance based on one’s fertility.

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This year is the 30th anniversary of the publication of Margaret Atwood 's dystopian classic, The Handmaid 's Tale. The novel is told from a first person account of a young woman, Offred. In an age of declining births, she is forced to become a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, the imagined future in the United States. The Handmaids are to provide children by the substitution of infertile women of a higher social status. Through the creation of different characteristics of female characters – ones who are submissive yet rebellious, and like to take advantage of their power - Margaret Atwood portray themes of love, theocracy, rebellion, and gender roles.

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Handmaid’s whom are the fertile women in the Gilead society, are stripped from all freedom and rights, banned from knowing any form of literature and have to be submissive to men, allowing their bodies to be sexually used to produce children. In contrast, women who are not fertile such as Wives have their freedom taken away too as they are confined to doing assigned jobs around the house. In contrast, the Aunts and the Commanders are shown to have the highest rankings in the Gileadean society. They are powerful figures, with privileges such as the Aunts being allowed to read and write and the Commanders being permitted to get married and have a handmaid's assigned to

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1122 Words | 5 Pages

Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, argues that women are instruments of the patriarchy, that women know this, and that women allow the system of oppression to live on. Her fictions ask, “What stories do women tell about themselves? What happens when their stories run counter to literary conventions or society’s expectations?” (Lecker 1). The Handmaid’s Tale is told through the protagonist, Offred, and allows readers to follow through her life as a handmaid while looking back on how life used to be prior to the societal changes.

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In this frightening society, women are not allowed to speak freely, therefore, the handmaids learn how to lip-read, and to whisper at one another while they are at the Red Center (where handmaids are trained for their mission), as their only way to communicate with another person, and to maintain even a minimum of human contact in a society that has amputated their ability to feel as a normal human being. Even though this is pure fiction, sadly some common threads between Gilead and our society can be found. For instance, in some South Asian countries, women’s rights are non-existent, they are treated

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According to Alanna A. Callaway, Gilead’s entire power structure relies on the disunity of women. Although Gilead’s system oppresses women, it is the few women in power that make the caste system dangerous for Handmaids. The patriarchal power structure of Gilead needs women to regulate each other, suggesting that gynocentric misogyny, or women hating women, is far more dangerous than traditional misogyny (Callaway 2008). This being said, the genuine threat in Gilead is not from the men in power, but the

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988 Words | 4 Pages

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the novel critiques gender inequality and autocratic authority. The hierarchical class of men consists of Commanders, Angels, and Guardians. In particular, the Commanders are the highest-ranking social group in Gileadean society. The Commanders are represented as powerful men. They have leadership roles, autocratic governance, and are oppressors controlling the Gilead regime.

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1472 Words | 6 Pages

Atwood connects the political events to show how Gilead gained control and keeps their control by establishing fear into the women. Gilead stays in control by limiting speech to religious references, keeping the women from talking about the oppression they are suffering. Additionally, women are blamed for the social issues that were present in a pre-Gilead society such as rape, abortion and adultery. Women get the blame for the issues and men do not suffer consequences since it is in their nature to cheat. Atwood uses allusions to the Old Testament and historical events to satirize the oppression of women in political, religious and social

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