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Literary devices in handmaid's tale
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Analysis of margaret atwood handmaids tale
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The dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, is about a new Christian theocracy that took over the government in the United States by creating a new society named the Republic of Gilead. This new society was created due to a nuclear fertility crisis, and their main goal is to heavily control women’s reproductive freedoms in order to increase the population. The protagonist, Offred, is a handmaid whose main role in society is to breed healthy children. In order to maintain control over the women in Gilead, the society uses acts of cruelty and violence to force the women to conform into their respective roles. In the dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood presents sexual violence, the removal of knowledge, and public hangings in order
It symbolizes her becoming a woman and starting to make her own decisions. Her mother was against her posing for a cigar brand but Ofelia made her own choice to pose in the symbolic red dress with a red carnation behind her ear. A smaller example of symbolic clothing is when Conchita wears a paisley dress to the party for the new cigar brand. Paisleys
Her dresses show the talents of the slaves and the clothing made from loose fabric, probably hand made. She has a pistol in the hand of the broomstick and a rifle in the other, showing the way some mammies may have protected themselves. Also symbolizing the Black Power era. They were also victims of rape and sex slaves to the masters. The portrait has altered meanings and I can insinuate that females in that age really had a struggle with life.
In the short story Ambush, the protagonist killing the young man was justifiable. This is ok because doing what he did, was the protagonist's job. It was his responsibility to ambush any enemies who came on the site. Even though the man may have not been the enemy, he was on the site. So, as soon as the protagonist saw him, it was a natural reaction for him to pull the pin on the grenade.
In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the protagonist, Offred, expresses her wish that her “story [is] different,” that it is “happier,” or at least “more active, less hesitant, less distracted” than it is ultimately portrayed (267). However, as her story is told, these characteristics are evident in the way she talks and acts, especially around those with authority. Hesitant to express her true thoughts and feelings, and distracted by memories from her previous life, Offred attempts to piece together her role in the society that has taken her freedom. The result is a compilation of moments, of memories, both from her present, her past, and even speculation about her future.
Paul-Michel Foucault explains “power is only exercised over free subjects, and only insofar as they are free”. Therefore, the idea is that as humans we are products of our society and have limited freedom as we are governed by our social and political regime. Furthermore, the desire of some people to utilize their power and position can lead to negative and at times inhumane outcomes. In literature, writers often present characters who are either villains exerting their power of victims to this power struggle. In Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein, her protagonist Victor wants to create new life and although he battles his conscious, he allows his desire to overrule his moral compass and religious influences to benefit his self-interests.
One of Hawthorne’s most famous short stories “Young Goodman Brown” uses symbols such as pink ribbons, a dark forest, and a serpentine staff to contribute to his overall meaning that life is full of temptations that ultimately lead men into sin and away from God. All throughout the story, Goodman Brown’s wife Faith wears pink ribbons on her cap. The first significance of this description is the color. Pink is typically associated with babies and young girls, which Hawthorne tries to highlight in his description of Faith. Pink is also associated with things like friendship, harmony, and affection, which is the relationship Goodman Brown and Faith have at the beginning of the story.
The Fear Itself "Fear is a powerful stimulant" (Atwood 268). The novel Handmaid 's Tale is a story that takes place in a dystopian society where in order to increase the fertility rate women who are able to have children are distributed across the country and are encouraged to have babies from the Commanders. Like most of the dystopian novels, the focus of the story is how people are oppressed in the name of fear. Fear is used as a controlling mechanism to keep people in check and stop them from rising up. In the book, fear is too strong of a feeling that it creates the base of most of the emotions and actions.
There are symbols that are important throughout the story: the washtub and farm, the white cloth, and the clothier/ man with the cloth. To start, the farm is an important symbol, as it sets the scene of a rural community, where strangers are almost as kindly taken to as their neighbours down the road. The washtub may sound like an odd choice for this literary theory, but it reveals to the reader around the time the story would have taken place. With this information, we can deduce that this would have been in a time that electricity wasn’t very common out in the rural communities, and before the time when items like washing machines were readily available. The significance of this is that it sets up how the social world works out there, as during this time
In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the Republic of Gilead actively represses women by forcing them into very narrowly defined, ultra-conservative gender roles. This totalitarian government strips women of all rights and protections, and imposes severe punishments for defiance. Pollution and disease had caused severe infertility in this society, drastically reducing birth rates. In an effort to reverse a drastic population decline, this thoroughly misogynistic and power-hungry regime, takes full control over the human reproductive process. Furthermore, the leadership uses various dehumanizing methods to achieve complete subservience of women to men.
The Handmaid’s are not only not allowed to touch the Commander during the process; they are not even allowed eye contact. This portrays the idea that the Handmaid’s are only there to provide sexual stimulation for the man, and is not allowed to take any sort of pleasure in the act. The Handmaid’s must remember, “For him …I am only a whim.” (Atwood 159). Another example of sexual dehumanization during the Ceremony is when Offred is “serviced” beforehand.
To begin with, the Handmaids are unfortunate women whose existence depends on their fertility. They lose all of their personal possessions, families, memories, and finally identities. They are renamed according to their relation to men and they must wear the same uniform, as they are objects
Handmaids are fertile women who are to be impregnated by the Commander or Angel they are assigned to.
“Power doesn’t corrupt people, people corrupt power.”- William Gaddis. People take advantage of power when it is entrusted to them because of their own greed, which as a result lead to societal deterioration. In the story, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” by Margaret Atwood, the higher-ups from Gilead abuse the power that is given to them, ruining the life of the citizens in the society. This was the cause for the need of higher birth rates and fixing conflicts in the world, but this was handled immorally.
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.
