Lack Of Freedom In The Handmaid's Tale

In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tales, by Margaret Atwood, the city of Gilead acts as a totalitarian society where handmaids are created to bear children for couples who have difficulty conceiving children. This novel acts as a satirical hyperbole towards “traditional values” towards women in past America. The main character, Offred, is restricted of her sexual and societal rights as a woman, much like the rest of the housemaids who are only used for their menstrual cycle. The biggest issue regarding this novel was the lack of freedom expressed for women. Although this novel is fiction and takes place in the future, this is no new issue for women. In the past, women have been restricted in human rights, especially with their autonomy and place in society. In the novel, housemaids are forced to use their body in order to give couples the children they are unable to have. Of course, this kind of restriction to freedom is exaggerated, but greatly represents the lack of rights that women experienced in the past. In the past, as this class has taught me, women have been depicted as feminine if they bore children and had motherly traits. In this book, women are viewed as child bearers and

In the town of Gilead, traps women in the confinement of a man’s world and does not allow them to grow and prosper as intelligent beings. Women have always been treated less than males due to the stereotypes and roles that society deems to be the correct way. Of course, men have stereotypical roles in society as well. Men are expected to be strong, hold a job, support the family, and be masculine. Women are presumed to take care of the house and the children. If these roles are not followed by the specific gender, society judges the individual and claims that what they are doing is wrong. This book gives countless great examples of the roles that genders are expected to follow; specifically