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In many ways, history can solely reinvent itself. Women's representation in modern times has shown development ever since, but there are still elements that contribute to societal misconceptions toward women. Margaret Atwood, the best-selling author of The Handmaid’s Tale, expresses the evolution and the possible fates to which women are subject. Through The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood portrays a representation of current anti-feminist viewpoints by reflecting current perspectives of pro-life stances, as well as recurring oppressions against women's economic growth and rights.
“The Handmaid’s Tale” - Inappropriate or Informative? The novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood caused uproar in many societies when first released, and it continues to do so today. Elements that were the cause of concern are prevalent in life today, such as abuse, self-worth, violence, reproductive rights, and so many more. Not long after people got a hold of the story, they began to argue that it was too much and must be banned. Doing so caused many more to read the novel, whether in an attempt to see what the controversy is about or to experience it before the potential ban.
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.
In the Handmaid 's Tale power is used to control the women and sort them into certain gender roles. Each women in the society of Gilead is assigned a certain job that is stereotypical of a woman 's job such as cooking, sex, and reproduction. These women are the lowest class in Gilead and have no control. The men have superior power of the women but the women such as Ofgeln and Offred gain control in power in their lives. Men have an upper hand in the control of these women.
In The Handmaid’s Tale, the effects of suspicion on a society, on handmaid’s, are clearly visible; it can also be seen that the government’s method of control leads to the creation of a dystopia. The Handmaid’s Tale proves that a society built on fear and shaped by suspicion achieves near total control of the population by the ruling class, the government of Gilead in this case. In chapter 42, Aunt Lydia describes how they will no longer announce the crimes that the prisoners have committed at the Salvagings. Once Offred learns this she states, “Now we are left to our own devices, speculation” (Atwood 275). Therefore, through Offered, the reader is able to see how the handmaid 's will now have suspicions of what the prisoners did to get hanged, since they are no longer being told.
June, who is now Offred, is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She is forced to wear only the clothes she is given, go where her commander allows her to, and to provide a baby for the commander. Women have no rights in this place. “A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays in the maze”. June is no longer June, she is Offred now.
Rebellion; the action or process of resisting authority, control, or convention. The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood is a novel. The novel takes place in Gilead a dystopian society. Everyone in Gilead has an important role to play within the society, however, it seems as if none of the characters seem content with their role, due to the restrictions they face. In the novel, the lack of freedom leads to rebellion as shown by the characterization, interior dialogue, flashbacks, and foreshadowing.
Chauvinism and Feminism in Handmaid’s tale Introduction This paper explores the relations between women and men in a context of a dystopian society which is very well depicted by Attwood. Debates raised since society acquired language and nowadays is still a hot debate. Radical, feminists point men as the 'main enemy’ and they say that, patriarchy is considered as a form of domination imposed by men on women. Feminists are dealing with how to understand the relations between patriarchy and how to confront to oppose male chauvinism.
In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Offred has a continuous search for justice for her daughter, in a society in which her idea of justice is starts as one concept and changes to one that she never expected. Margaret Atwood writes Offred as a character who was at once strong-willed, and who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. Her strength is dimmed at first, when her daughter and husband are first taken from her. Her strength, however comes back in full force when she finds the opportunity to get justice for her daughter. Offred uses the motivation of her daughter to spur a rebellious side of her that disappeared when the new leaders came into power.
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.
In Margaret Atwood’s novel, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, Moira is depicted as the symbol for resistance to authority and represents hope to the Handmaids. Atwood presents her as a polar opposite to Offred. She is independent, strong-willed, and outspoken. Conversely, the pair can be argued to be doubles in the fact that they both ‘resist’ to the oppressive Republic in Gilead.
In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood demonstrates a quizzical protagonist, Offred, in a dystopian, totalitarian society where fertile women are only a mere vessel for child birth. Every month during Offred’s menstrual cycle her Commander, Fred, and his wife Serena Joy perform detached intercourse while Serena holds Offred’s hands. The handmaids of the Republic of Gilead are not allowed to use their mind for knowledge nor take part in formal society. They are but the vacuous-minded property to their Commanders and their infertile wives. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred discloses the day to day moments and her commicalOffred had once lived in a world where she was her own person with a job and a home with a family of her own but now she lives under unfortunate circumstances that disable her from being a true, soulful human.
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, power is defined as “possession of control, authority, or influence over others. ”Although it is customary to see power in straightforward terms such as government or parenting, in The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood explores the different limitations and locations of power in society. From the perspective of Offred, a handmaid, the novel tells of a dystopian society called the Gilead, where the people are defined by labels according to designated power and fertility. Atwood is able to expose the diverse range of power through the system of government created, the dynamic of members of a household, and the social interactions between people.
These views can be seen in the Handmaids themselves because traditionally the lives of husbands and wives are very private, but by introducing Handmaids, the idea of privacy is destroyed. For example, the Ceremony, which is how Handmaids conceive their children, is something the whole household is a part of, which is quite a change from how things were done before the regime was put in place. Another liberal idea in The Handmaid’s Tale was Jezebel’s, a place where women could work for very little money as prostitutes instead of becoming Handmaids or being sent to the Colonies as punishment. This is a liberal idea because in such a strict society one would not think such an establishment would be allowed, especially because so many Commanders know about it. Also in the novel are feminist beliefs that run society.
In the 1980s, United States was experiencing the rise of conservatism. Under the presidency of Ronald Reagan, conservative religious groups were gaining popularity. In response to the social and political landscape, Canadian author Margaret Atwood published a fictional novel The Handmaid’s Tale in 1986; a genre of dystopian novels. The storyline projects an imaginary futuristic world where society lives under oppression and illusion of a utopian society maintained through totalitarian control. Dystopian novels often focus on current social government trends and show an exaggeration of what happens if the trends are taken too far.
