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The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

900 Words4 Pages

Evelyn Reynoso Butiu English 11 21 February 2018 Literary Analysis Essay You are a successful women, success covered in the droplets of your blood, sweat, and tears. Suddenly, your success no longer holds your value and your fertility now defines you. In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, American society took multiple steps backwards, drastically changing the lives of all citizens for good as illustrated when Offred lost her financial and property rights in a matter of short time. Formally the United States, the totalitarian Christian society of Gilead is the reflection of future America if oppression of women, environmental damage, and disagreement of religion and politics continue. Women continue to be be oppressed by …show more content…

Although religion plays a major role to the new government, only one religion is accepted, allowing a great amount of success to their new political system. In order to establish their powerful government, all American government officials were assassinated, for instance, “It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time.” (Atwood 174). Not only does this illustrate how Gilead was able to rise to power, but portrays how certain religion groups were marginalized. In comparison to the quote, modern America has a history in oppressing people of different religion backgrounds, labeling them as terrorists and using them as scapegoats to any devastation. Now that Gilead is dominant, only Christianity is allowed to be practiced, in a reformed manner; this idea has only been effective through executions for the sinners practicing another religion. For example, “Only two were hanging on the wall today: one Catholic, not the priest though, placard with an upside down cross and another sect I did not recognize.” (Atwood 200). Though all religions follow the same concept, all believe in different ideas. The idea of Christianity in Gilead is altered to make the …show more content…

Not only does Gilead reflect the U.S., but warns Americans as to how they may live in the future. Now that the United States is facing similar issues described in The Handmaid’s Tale, it is important to change any negative habits that may lead to any permanent unfavorable change. If a country does nothing to protect its citizens and environment, your accomplishments are worth nothing, even

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The novel, Handmaid’s Tale, was written by Margaret Atwood in 1985. The text is centered around Offred, a woman subsided into a role of inferiority and lead into a series of events surrounding the limitations of The Republic of Gilead. The Republic of Gilead, previously known as the United States, is totalitarian government concealed as a religious one as it uses forceful methods to control its people. These methods constructed the only acceptable social paradigm input, ones where Atwood wrote in form of historical and cultural allusions. Furthermore, it is a reflection of the author’s world and her belief system on how they would morph and adapt to an extreme scenario.

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There are two ways people will react to when their freedom is taken away. They will either accept it or rebel against it, which is what a lot of the female characters in Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale accomplished. Shown through Offred’s repetition of certain events, Moira’s tone of being a fighter, and Serena Joy’s desperation, the reader can see that lack of freedom leads to rebellion. Offred, the novel’s narrator, now lives in a world where women are powerless. She has had her freedom taken away, and at times follows the rules, but ends up rebelling in many powerful ways.

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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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In this written text, the emphasis will be on Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale and as well as the way Atwood portrays women and how it can be argued to show the oppression of women. The main purpose is to analyze the way women are treated throughout this book and depict why they are represented this way in the society in Gilead. Then, comparatively, observe the men’s domination over women and how they govern this society. In The Handmaid’s Tale, women are stripped of their rights, suffer many inequalities and are objectified, controlled by men and only valued for their reproductive qualities. The Gilead society is divided in multiple social group.

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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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