ipl-logo

The Caste System In The Handmaid's Tale

1168 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Oppression in handmaid's tale

Throughout the world, many people are discriminated based on their social standings such as jobs, wealth, authority, and race; however, in India, there has been a strict social structure that has impacted the country for hundreds of years. This social structure is known as the caste system. Members of Indian society are divided into castes, also known as jati, which from the time they are born greatly influence and shape the rest of their future (India- Caste and Class). The origins of the caste system present in India are debated greatly among many historians. Different theories and stories about the origins of the caste system have been told and past down through the years. The most popular theory about how the caste system began entails …show more content…

The Handmaid’s Tale is a clear example of a society divided by classes. Each person in the book is divided into a part of society that has a specific role. The wives and commanders are the heads of the society while the econwives and econohusbands are the lowest part of the society (Atwood). These examples from the book demonstrate the Indian Caste System perfectly. The wives and commanders can be seen as the Brahmins, the maids and angels represent the Kshartyia in the Indian society, the handmaids and guardians are the equivalent of the Indian Viasya caste, and finally the econowives and econohusbans are the untouchables of the society. In The Handmaid’s Tale, like in the caste system of India, each caste is treated differently and worse and worse as it goes down the list. The divisions of the society are easily noticeable by what each color the class of society is forced to wear. In the novel, the wives wear blue, the handmaids wear red, the husbands wear black and so on. Another novel that shows an aspect of the Indian Caste system is A Brave New World. In the novel, the society members are born into one of five castes: Alpha, Beta Gamma, Delta, or Epsilon. The Alphas and Betas are about 1/9 of the population in the novel while the remaining 8/9 are the Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons. Each caste is conditioned to be a little less physically and intellectually impressive (Huxley). In A Brave New World just like The Handmaid’s Tale, the different members of the caste are recognizable by the color of clothing they are required to

Show More
Related
639 Words | 3 Pages

Outward conformity along with inward questioning, that is what the main character, presented in Margaret Artwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, has to undertake in order to survive in a theocratic society. Stepping out of line in any way risks your life, so in a place where freedom of speech and basic human right’s no longer apply, Offered must comply with whatever rules they have in place and pretend to agree with the system, but in the inside, she cannot help but think about her past life, her husband, her daughter, before everything began. Flashbacks are integrated in the novel to not only compare the old society with the new one, but to also demonstrate this fake conformity Offred has to display to others and her internal struggle with giving up on escaping the Republic or just accepting her fate and playing by

Read More
475 Words | 2 Pages

There are many different societies in our world today, and each of these communities treat and group their people differently. While some places, like the United States, do not have set groups, others, like India, have very strict laws about what each class can and cannot do. The Caste system in India is a great example of how one society strictly groups their members. The Caste system is a class structure that is determined at birth.

Read More
447 Words | 2 Pages

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson argues that the United States, as well as other countries have a caste system that is based on race and history due to slavery and discrimination. Wilkerson explains that caste is a social order that is enforced through social and cultural norms and that it is different from class or race-based discrimination. Additionally, she argues that caste is a system of social classification that is based on ancestry and birth. In the United States, the caste system is based on race with white people at the top, and black people at the bottom. She believes that this caste system is implanted in American society and that it has roots in our history, slavery and Jim Crow segregation.

Read More
666 Words | 3 Pages

The difference of social classes in Life in the Iron Mills is gigantic. The upper class and the lower class are so far from each other they are like a slaveholder and their slaves. For one life is great and the other life sucks. There is a substantial amount of evidence on the book to prove so. Inequality will be evident in society until someone steps up and does something about it.

Read More
997 Words | 4 Pages

And just like in To Kill a Mockingbird those who do not fit into societies boxes are shamed and avoided by their families and former friends. The Handmaid 's tale conveys that society looks at people as expectations, measurements, and archetypes it causes people to be outcast unless they

Read More
841 Words | 4 Pages

The social inequality shared between the two novels was wealth and poverty, but it goes deeper into that, they also share the discrimination of appearance, bullying, and

Read More
1854 Words | 8 Pages

Conformity in the Handmaid’s Tale A Japanese proverb says, “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down”. As seen in several historical events such as the Salem Witch Trials or the Holocaust, this concept illustrates the idea that nonconformity will get punished or suppressed. During the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler’s populist regime led to subservience out of fear because resistance was too dangerous.

Read More
746 Words | 3 Pages

What would become of the world, if our current societal flaws, such as sexism, racism, and classism were ingrained and executed at a systematic level? This is exactly what The Handmaid’s Tale set out to explore. The novel, which claims to be speculative fiction, is set in the theocratic Republic of Gilead (formerly the USA), where birth rates are rapidly declining and women have been marginalized by the patriarchal regime, forbidden to read, write or love and valued only if they are able to procreate. They are separated into classes, including Wives, Marthas, Aunts, Unwomen, and Handmaids, distinguishable only by the color of their clothing. The Handmaids are renamed by combining ‘of’ and the name of the Commander that they have been assigned to, stripping them of any individuality.

Read More
1203 Words | 5 Pages

Regina Carla L. Silva 2015-01293 The Handmaid’s Tale The novel is set in the Republic of Gilead which is formerly the United States of America. The name comes from a place from the Bible. It is a totalitarian, theocratic government.

Read More
801 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
312 Words | 2 Pages

The Renaissance, which started in the 14th century and ended in the 17th century, was a time of changes in culture and philosophy. It started in Italy as the Medieval period was ending and eventually made its way through the rest of Europe. The main change the Renaissance made was changing more religious views in the philosophy of humanism, which helped make cultural changes. This is shows from Aristotle pointing to the ground, holding his book Ethics, which signifies a change in philosophy through ethics. This change in philosophy increased the interest in education during the Renaissance.

Read More
783 Words | 4 Pages

The entire Ceremony, while used as a form of reproduction, is a way to strip the Handmaids of their entire sense of self-worth and their humanity. Margaret Atwood also portrayed dehumanization and objectification outside of the

Read More
1251 Words | 6 Pages

The Handmaid 's Tale is one of Margaret Atwood most famous novels written during the spring of 1984, when the Berlin wall was still standing. Atwood creates a dystopia, which mostly consists of gender gap and oppression. The Handmaid 's Tale effectively portrays the United States as the modern-day totalitarian society of Gilead, which was illustrated as perfect by using the book of Genesis. Although the authors ideas are inherently and completely fictional, several concepts throughout his book have common links to the past and present society which the author herself calls a speculative fiction. The author uses a totalitarian system which includes aspects of Soviet system, to describe, deprivation, repression and terror with the use of

Read More
1122 Words | 5 Pages

Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, argues that women are instruments of the patriarchy, that women know this, and that women allow the system of oppression to live on. Her fictions ask, “What stories do women tell about themselves? What happens when their stories run counter to literary conventions or society’s expectations?” (Lecker 1). The Handmaid’s Tale is told through the protagonist, Offred, and allows readers to follow through her life as a handmaid while looking back on how life used to be prior to the societal changes.

Read More
613 Words | 3 Pages

Some might argue that India’s Caste system is closely related to However, Caste and social hierarchy were more different because Caste happens over different lifetimes, and social hierarchy can happen over one. In the caste system people could move their position in their current life, however they could have moved up or down depending on how they acted in their last life. In the Social hierarchy, men could move up or down depending on whom they married, however women could not move throughout the chain. “Women were generally seen as inferior to men, dominated by their bodies rather than their minds.” (McKay pg

Read More

More about The Caste System In The Handmaid's Tale

Related Topics

Open Document