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The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

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Rationale For Part 4, we studied The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood. In this written task, I have decided to write a blog, from the view point of a tourist who is a character within the book. I discuss about how Gilead seems so perfect but actually isn’t. My primary source will be the current situation of Gilead and Moira. This shall link to the first learning outcome of Part 4 which is, exploring literary works in detail. My character is going to be of a female tourist, like the one in Chapter 5. I intend to explore the effect of the rules that are placed on women, and how they are oppressed in various different ways. By placing a third person persona, I intended to create an effect where the readers see the situation of Gilead from a tourist’s point of view, rather than Offred’s point of view. The main focus of this …show more content…

This place was a pub and a place where most of the higher class people would come. You could easily tell by the clothes they wore. In this club, I saw a woman whose eyes were swollen and had marks on her hand. I asked if we could talk because I wanted to know how she got those marks. She took some time but finally agreed and we went to a room. From talking to her, I found out that her name was Moira, who was a handmaid and tried to escape but got caught and had to work here or be sent off to the colonies. Now I know, all of you must be thinking, what are handmaids, and what are the colonies? All that this state wanted from these women was for them to produce babies, the women that were responsible for that were known as handmaids. In other words, the handmaids were baby producers. If they aren't able to then they are sent off to the colonies. A land where death awaits them. She expressed about how these handmaids we oppressed, kept ignorantly, and how Gilead turned them so that they could easily spy on each other and report on their

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Throughout the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, the protagonist Offred expresses how exposed beliefs and practices by the Gilead government affect the lives of Handmaids, relaying

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The late 19th century was period of repressive Victorian era societal and gender roles that plagued and deprived women of their agency and rights. This was period of patriarchal hegemony that impacted women in both the private and public sphere of society. By, attempting to navigate through this malaise of despondency and loneliness, Moreover, Gilman not only faces an existential crisis, but the narrator had to confront her depression as well as evaluate the conflicting relationship with her

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The protagonist handmaid, Offred finds herself submerging into a pit of obstacles. A pit, that stations itself in the ruins of the Republic of Gilead, where all the handmaids (like Offred herself) are used for one single purpose, getting pregnant. Offred gets assigned to the home of the Commander and his “particular” wife, Serena Joy. Upon entering the scene in this fragile marriage, Offred first meets the Commander’s wife. In doing so, she over-analysis the different tasks Joy does as in taking care of the garden and having a somewhat “privilege” to knit.

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Firstly, Offred's inner reflections on her past life from the disparity between her former freedoms and her current restrictive reality, attest to her resilience in handling the oppressive regime. Alone in her room, Offred’s mind starts to reminisce about her old life, stating “I want Luke here so badly. I want to be held and told my name. I want to be valued, in ways that I am not; I want to be more than valuable” It is evident that Offred misses her past life, situations and relationships, particularly her moments with Luke. These thoughts further encapsulate the emotional toll of Offred living under Gilead's regime, as she is aware she is not seen with value.

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Atwood reveals details about Gilead slowly to the reader. Through most of the text, I found this frustrating. I wanted to know every detail of what had happened, how it happened, who Gilead was at war with. However, he read is only let in slowly, and with only partial information. My interest always perked up when details were given about Gilead, its systems, and rules, or the coup that overthrew the American government.

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In Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, the author introduces a dystopian future in which a second American Civil War has broken out due to declining birth rates and environmental disasters. Resulting in the rise of the Republic of Gilead, that enforces rigid social roles and enslaves the few remaining fertile women. In an effort to educate and warn those who listen to her story, the narrator tells of her experiences and thoughts during a time when she was deprived of all freedoms. Atwood conveys the theme, status defines worth within this totalitarian regime; this message is shown through the significance of the title, point of view, and symbolism throughout the novel.

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In the beginning of the novel The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, Atwood immediately captures our attention by focusing on women’s freedom and humanity being taken away, especially that of the protagonist Offred. In the novel, Offred narrates the story of her life in part of the country that used to be the United States, but now it is called Gilead, a country that denies the freedom of individuals, especially women. The regime is a nightmarish reality where the women are forced into specific roles: The Handmaids, who have to conceive and carry the commanders’ children and wear a uniform that consists a red dress with white bonnet; the Wives, married to the commanders, are infertile and wear blue dresses to show their status; the Marthas, older women who serve as domestic servants in green attire; the aunts train the Handmaids for their role; and the Econowives who have a lower status, and do everything for themselves, but still have Offred’s (Of Fred) name signifies her role as a Handmaid, showing she belongs to a commander named Fred.

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Throughout history, oppressive regimes have existed to expand the power of a few at the cost of many. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale tells the tale of Offred, a handmaid in the oppressive Republic of Gilead. Gilead strictly controls the actions of its people, especially its women, to expand the power of the men in control and combat falling birth rates. Their control consists of literal force and the use of psychology. Krickel, a psychologist, uses repression as a way to explain implicit biases.

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In face of severe situation, people often feel relief when they think of happier, simpler times in order to alleviate the severity. In the fiction novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood, a theocracy government controls every aspect of life in order to produce the best result of its plans. At the beginning of chapter 12, Offred takes a required, but luxurious bath because she can take off the burdensome wings and veils. While she bathes, Offred remembers her daughter from the past and a time with her family. Atwood compares Offred’s past and present through imagery, tone, similes, and symbolism combined with parallel structure to highlight the vulnerability of women to their surroundings.

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The suffocating society of Gilead is presented where individualism is completely taken away from them, and what it means to be human has been completely eroded away from what we know today. To be human today means, to be honest, affectionate, caring, understanding and to have passions. However, being too passionate for something only leads to chaos as seen through Victor 's overpowering desire for knowledge that led to chaotic results. Offred 's identity and individualism have been completely stripped away from her as he legal rights, name and clothes have been destroyed. She 's just another cog in a machine as she is labeled as a handmaid, only valued for her "viable ovaries".

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Aunt Lydia’s more relevant quote in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, is the two freedoms, who gives the reader an accurate insight of the Gilead society. This quote exposes the contrast between the freedom before and after the settlement of the Republic of Gilead, and the mentality of the brainwashed nation. It is well known that the Gileadean era is a dystopia, but the reader must study deeper into both societies –Gileadean and pre-Gileadean- to understand which one is really worse. Before the appearing of the Republic of Gilead, freedom was seen as a person’s desire, however, on the Gileadean era, freedom is a collective idea. On the current community, freedom is settled by laws based on moral and social values, but ignoring the

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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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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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Furthermore, the author displays a dystopian society completely dominated by a totalitarian and theocratic state. The main subject of this novel is the role assigned to women, mainly represented by the handmaids. In Gilead, the made-up country where the novel takes place, women are completely subjected by the government, and especially by men, who clearly have a higher status than women. Moreover, women’s freedom is entirely restricted, as they cannot leave their house at their will, they are forbidden to hold properties or jobs, they cannot read or write, and they are treated as sexual slaves whose only purpose in life is to bear children for elite spouses. The other option is a miserable, short life at the Colonies (a type of concentration camp), and death.

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Alaz Kanber İngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatı 132401005 Shakespeare II Existentialist Problems and Themes in Hamlet Existentialism is a term used for the work of specific 19th and 20th century philosophers who believed that the human subject is in the center of thinking. The human, according to these philosophers, is not a subject only capable of thinking, but also acting, feeling and living as a individual. The existentialist attitude, as the starting point is named in existentialism, is a micro cosmos which is absurd and seems to have no meaning. The lack of meaning in life and the absurdity creates a complicated pattern that is cannot be considered as usual. This means in other words that existentialism transforms your behaviors.

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