The novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood illustrates a dystopian society effectively by presenting all the negative aspects in it. In the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian state, women have suffered greatly from the oppression from the government and this greatly differs from the idealized society. Comparatively, the film Animal Farm (1999), which is based on the novel of the same name by George Orwell, creates a similar representation of dystopian society while using rather different techniques. By depicting the unequal society with people of stratified classes and the difference between ideals and reality, both texts have constructed a representation of dystopia which criticizes and satirizes the political figures that are reflected from the texts. The class stratification in the society is one of the key aspects of the representation of dystopia in both texts. In The Handmaid’s Tale, women are categorized into different groups within the Gilead society based on their function in the society. Due to the low …show more content…
Although Napoleon the swine, as the leader and the smartest among the animals, claims to be building a society where all animals are equal, the other animals are exploited as laborers to fulfill its own desires. This theme is highlighted ironically at the end of the film, as Napoleon sells the most loyal worker, boxer, to buy himself alcohol. When contrasting the two texts, it can be seen that the animals other than the pigs play a similar role as the Handmaids. Both have been indoctrinated by the government’s propagandas to believe that they should serve the society, and both have been exploited by the authority. Therefore by illustrating the inequality in the society, not only do both texts illustrate a representation of dystopia effectively, a reflection of our own world is presented as well, as the problems of discrimination and inequality still exist