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Social influence of The Handmaid's Tale
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This stain in the American justice system is clearly stated within the case of Candace Newmaker. Doctors can violate the rights of patients in many ways and their penalties are less severe than that happens to a regular murder case. Doctors have violated patient’s rights in many ways and have gotten away with this unlawful act. In the case of Candace Newmaker,
This quote was chosen because it shows the connection between the type of freedom that co-exist before the Republic of Gilead and after wards. Aunty Lydia emphases on what the world was like before the world of the Republic of Gilead was established. The old societies is one that was filled with freedom because there were no rules or restrictions for women to earn their money, wear what they wish to wear, and go places they wish to go. In other words, this type of freedom has some disapproval as well.
In the Novel, “The Handmaid's Tale”, by Margaret Atwood, the purpose of the wall was to feed fear into the people of Gilead. For example, Atwood states in her story that, “Were supposed to look: this is what they are there for, hanging on the wall.” (Atwood 32). With this being said the narrator shows how the people from Gilead all went to see the fearful wall because of the hanging of people. People were hung for their mistakes.
Ankita Singh Ms. Beca ENG4U1-02 15 January 2018 The Handmaid’s Tale Literary Paragraph Throughout the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, it is evident that being a man in Gilead is just as hard as being a woman in Gilead. Although most may disagree with this statement, many examples from the novel can be shown to prove this statement. Firstly, it is hard to be a man in Gilead because men are not allowed to act upon romantic feelings and have relationships.
The historical notes are really pushing the audience to think relative to the society they are examining. It is an old Greek philosophical method known as moral relativism. We live in a society that is founded on natural law which is considered to be god given or unalienable as the declaration states. Societal truths are based on the laws that govern the culture of society and decide what is right and wrong. There is a huge difference between natural law and code law.
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 this society, men have more power than women; however, Atwood uses the narrator’s point of view to portray her argument that gender should not be the determining factor in the balance of power. In Gilead, the futuristic setting of the dystopian society, the government and church are one in another, making laws and regulations to oppress women and stating that it’s the ’word of god’. Along with many biblical allusions, Atwood shows us how the men in power would discourage women, using them for reproduction and housework, a literal slave to these men to do what they want, whenever they wanted it done. Women were forced into having meaningless sex with men they have no connection, and usually no interest in, because the government (men) wants
Gilead is a totalitarian government, a government that wants complete control and devotion from it’s citizens. In Gilead you have no religious freedom, no control of what you can do, you always have eyes on you, and always live in fear of the government. For these reason my family would not fare well living in Gilead. In Gilead the government wants complete devotion from its citizens, any other devotion would be a risk to the government.
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.
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.
Margaret Atwood has seamlessly woven a tapestry of feminist elements - mainly regarding gender oppression - within her works. With that, using two of Atwood’s texts, The Handmaid’s Tale and The Year of The Flood, as the foundation for our literary research, we will be focusing on the commodification of the female flesh in both similar dystopian contexts. Commodification refers to the action or process of treating an object, or a person, as a raw material or product that can be bought and sold, or even treated as an object of which sovereignty can be held over by one. In both works, women are victimized and treated as sexual beings whose bodies and physical expressions can be freely used by the men who have power over them against their will. The two texts illustrate how society brings about the oppression of women and this exacerbates the commodification of women.
I have decided to transform Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel ‘The Handmaids Tale’ into a museum brochure that would be available long after the events in the book. The novel highlights a focus on the repression and domination of women for example “such freedom now seems weightless”. This is something I channelled into my museum brochure as it is a theme that is emphasised (example: “Women had one duty which was to reproduce”. Furthermore, I decided to incorporate a charity “US voice for all women” in which the museum regularly donates to. This is to emphasise the treatment of women within Gilead whilst still keeping to the genre format as through research I discovered many museums offer donations to charities they sponsor.
Feminism has always been one of the most controversial issues in history. It is the ideology that women should be equal to men in terms of political, economic, personal, and social rights, and many feminist movements have been started worldwide in order to define, establish, and achieve those rights for women. Margaret Atwood is one of the writers who fully support feminism, and she has shown many different aspects of feminism throughout her novels. As one of the most notable novels of Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale depicts feminism through an antifeminist environment where female characters are dominated by patriarchy, giving readers multidimensional feminist viewpoints.
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.
In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Atwood Margaret, the main character Offred recalls her life as a handmaid in Gilead. Atwood uses populous themes to foreshadow the Handmaids’ beliefs and their power. One of the most prominent themes in the novel, which shows in chapter 6 titled “Shopping”, is the theme fertility vs infertility in Gilead, which fertility is Offred source of strength and her captivity. This theme is shown in Chapter 6, when Ofglen and Offred are returning from shopping, Oflen wants to pass by the church because it will take them longer to get to their location. While they are passing by the church, which is now a museum, they have a quick view about the natural world.
