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The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

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In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood portrays a dystopian society which forces women into reproductive slavery to warn of the dangers of a Christian fundamentalist patriarchal government. These women, handmaids, have no rights and are raped by their owners, otherwise known as Commanders, every month in hopes of elevating the depleting birth rates. Offred, the main character and handmaid, only wants two things: her freedom and her daughter, but both were stolen from her. Women in Gilead, like Offred, are not seen as individuals, but resources with their most valuable asset lying between their legs. This demeaning viewpoint of women is horrifying in that it shares perspective with current misogynists and politicians. The most horrifying element about The Handmaid’s …show more content…

In Gilead, excerpts from the Bible have been cherry picked to forward Gilead's propaganda and oppress women. This fundamentally Christian society places a higher interest in the birth of newborns than of the birthing mothers (handmaids). The most prevalent text used to suppress the handmaids is from Genesis 30:1-3, “And she said Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees that I may also have children by her”. This text refers a story in the Bible in which Rachel is not able to bear Jacob’s children and asks him to bear her children through a handmaid called Bilhah. The Republic of Gilead has taken this excerpt and applied it to be the law of the land. Although the Republic does not talk about how Rachel later births a son and names him Joseph. Along with using the Bible to justify raping women they also use the Bible to justify the hanging of gay people and doctors who have performed abortions. Their use of cherry picking, from the Bible, has helped them to further their agenda and justify their actions. In “Religion as a Front for Tyranny”, Patricia Miller states

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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.

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Margaret Atwood (1939-) is a poet and novelist who, still to this day, has a passionate belief in equality and a love of nature. Margaret was a trailblazer for women fighting for equal rights. She grew up as a young woman in the 1950s with a mother who constantly taught her that she could be anything she wanted to be; not just the typical roles that were seen as ‘acceptable’ for women of Margaret’s generation. She channeled her anger towards the status quo in her many poems and books such as “The Handmaid’s Tale,” that appealed to feminists like herself in the 20th century. Atwood’s father was a zoologist at the University of Toronto where Margaret would coincidentally later go on to study and receive her bachelor’s degree.

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998 Words | 4 Pages

In The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood wishes to modify the traditional attitudes and beliefs surrounding gender roles, reproductive rights, and power dynamics within relationships and society. Through the use of various literary techniques: imagery, irony, characterization, and more, Atwood seeks to influence the reader's or audience's views and encourage them to question and challenge these societal norms. One traditional attitude that Atwood wishes to modify is the rigid gender roles and expectations placed upon men and women. In the dystopian society of Gilead, men are expected to be the dominant, powerful figures, and women are relegated to subservient roles, with their values and worth based solely on their ability to bear children.

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770 Words | 4 Pages

Kyra Wright Ms. Milliner EES21QH05 October 19,2016 Novel Based Essay “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood is a novel that displays the life of women in Gilead . This novel shows how women of Gilead have no freedom. Atwood’s use of language symbolizes power .

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1562 Words | 7 Pages

The Religion Influences in The Handmaid’s Tale Word Count: 1563 This purpose of this essay is to establish and explain connections between the Christian Religion and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. It is not attempting to point out flaws or discriminate against the religion. Margret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is a dystopian novel, that centres around the themes of corruption, oppression, and theocracy. Told in the first person, the novel follows the female ‘Offred’ in her daily life/activities and past experiences in the newly founded “Republic of Gilead”.

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1983 Words | 8 Pages

The Imprisoned Fertility Gender roles and stereotypes cause bondages physically and mentally because of the expectations that people cannot free themselves out of. In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the reproductive system was the reason for Offred’s captivity, restrictions and routine. She was confined within strict regulations that the government put in place to protect their women and their chance to bear children. They protected them physically by having mandatory medical check-ups, making cigarettes illegal, and the rule for Handmaids to elevate their lower body after the Ceremony. They put a strict dress code regime, to theoretically protect women from men’s prying eyes.

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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.

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981 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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783 Words | 4 Pages

“No woman can call herself free who does not control her own body”. When Margaret Sanger spoke these words, she was expressing her belief on a woman’s right to have an abortion. This quote, however, speaks to the fact that women are oppressed on more than just abortions. In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Atwood portrays the dehumanization of sexuality through both the characters and events within the novel, therefore proving that women will always be considered less than men will. Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1939.

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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

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1035 Words | 5 Pages

This year is the 30th anniversary of the publication of Margaret Atwood 's dystopian classic, The Handmaid 's Tale. The novel is told from a first person account of a young woman, Offred. In an age of declining births, she is forced to become a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, the imagined future in the United States. The Handmaids are to provide children by the substitution of infertile women of a higher social status. Through the creation of different characteristics of female characters – ones who are submissive yet rebellious, and like to take advantage of their power - Margaret Atwood portray themes of love, theocracy, rebellion, and gender roles.

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857 Words | 4 Pages

These texts demonstrate the societal issues involving oppression of women, women’s sexual role and their status. The Handmaid’s Tale depicts the rigid societal structure whereby women are forced to serve in various aspects and functions in the society. The boundaries of the context set are in Gilead, a totalitarian state dominated by Christian fundamentalists, indicating that Gilead enforces conformity among its citizens. In a simply put manner, one’s social position is fixed. The permanent social statuses are clearly evident from the colour-coding of the women wherein “some [are] in red, some in dull green of

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996 Words | 4 Pages

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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1101 Words | 5 Pages

Imagine a nation in which its government commands by a religion where women are separated into different titles and must conceive children for their commander. Their rights from before this regime, and anything deemed unholy by the government, are a thing of the past. This situation is the one represent in the Republic of Gilead, where the rules of society and its traditions are not taken lightly if broken. In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood shows that an oppressive government leads to the inevitable neglect and remiss of the rules through Offred’s characterization, irony, and flashbacks. Offred 's character development can show that her actions change .

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988 Words | 4 Pages

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the novel critiques gender inequality and autocratic authority. The hierarchical class of men consists of Commanders, Angels, and Guardians. In particular, the Commanders are the highest-ranking social group in Gileadean society. The Commanders are represented as powerful men. They have leadership roles, autocratic governance, and are oppressors controlling the Gilead regime.

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