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The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

1596 Words7 Pages

Throughout the course of history, people have observed a wide variety of social class breakdowns. Often formed by differences in socioeconomic status, social classes have been integral in the diversification of one culture from another, be it for better or for worse. While some nations have their hierarchy established by bloodline and relationships, others base social status on jobs, and few divide the general population based on gender. The social classes within communities serve as a double-edged sword. Although social classes, when well-balanced, may provide political stability to a nation due to traditions and norms, when poorly kept, social classes can be a source for violence and issue. Many authors throughout history have explored the …show more content…

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the social breakdown of the society is a piecewise social ladder built upon gender and wealth differences. First, the population as a whole is split into two distinct groupings by gender, with males being superior to females. The nation in which The Handmaid’s Tale is set places an exorbitant amount of emphasis on the fertility of women in order to breed a healthy and thriving population filled with favorable genes. In order to “protect” the “fragility” of women, males predominantly make up the power-holding positions within the society, be they in vending, medicine, government, media etc., whereas the females are condemned to the stereotypical household requirements. The social breakdown further continues amongst the two aforementioned subdivisions (by gender) into more of a common social class ladder based on the monetary niches in which a member of society fills. Most specifically, the female sector is broken into four different subsections: Wives, Handmaids, Marthas, and Econowives, in descending order. Unlike in history where groups of women, despite the social class, have banned together to rise up against the patriarchy, the distinct social classes within the female sub-demographic of the population help to highlight how the lack of cohesivity between a group can prohibit social progress for that subjugated

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The next chapter highlights the gendered division of labor and the difficulty to keep a family as a slave. Chapter six and seven moves on to the eighteenth century and shows how women have improved in areas such as more political participation and increasing social class of

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In The Handmaid's Tale by Margret Atwood, the Republic of Gilead was formed from extreme religious views. In Gilead, what the government has decided should be taken from the Bible has become absolute law. The authority the Bible already had pre-Gilead becomes even more powerful. Strange, small pieces of Biblical text show up frequently throughout the book to enforce the new rule of Gilead and the leaders. This is particularly evident in place names throughout Gilead, for example the names of the bakery or butchers have been replaced by biblical names such as "Loaves and Fishes, "All Flesh,” "

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The Handmaid’s Tale Text-to-text “The Angels stood outside it with their backs to us. They were objects of fear to us” (Atwood 4). This quote strongly relates to the peacekeepers in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

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The Innocent and The Evil Categories are everywhere, within schools and novels. Society tends to have the imagery of innocent and harmful people, those who suffer and who benefit. “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood and “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak both show prime examples of innocent and harmful people. In these novels, two adjectives are shown throughout in different ways by three key points: overpowerment of a government, loss of individualism, and young love.

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“That was the last, Odysseus told Penelope, just as sleep overcame him…sleep losing his limbs, slipping the toils of anguish from his mind,(Homer, 466)” The jubilant day suddenly felt somber to the still awake maid, Eurycleia; a draft abruptly traveled through her room, blowing out her once glowing candle. Fear of an evil spirit engrossed her, so she enveloped herself in the woolen blanket, and attempted pleasant sleep once more. Her candle suddenly went aglow again though. A man with a wry smile and antipathy in his eyes lingered before her: “I am Poseidon,” he whispered.

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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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The Handmaid’s Tale: How Realistic it is There is a feeling of relief after watching a horror movie because the viewer understands that what they just watched was not real. It could not occur in the real world. While reading The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the reader is not left with that relief. Atwood has a way of writing which makes the reader believe in everything that is happening during the novel and its ability to happen in real life.

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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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In the Handmaid 's Tale power is used to control the women and sort them into certain gender roles. Each women in the society of Gilead is assigned a certain job that is stereotypical of a woman 's job such as cooking, sex, and reproduction. These women are the lowest class in Gilead and have no control. The men have superior power of the women but the women such as Ofgeln and Offred gain control in power in their lives. Men have an upper hand in the control of these women.

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Nearly 300 years ago, a prince stood prisoner before three people traitors: Kishan, his brother; Yesubai, his betrothed; Lokesh, Yesubai's father and raja of a neighboring kingdom. After returning home from battle, the prisoner discovered his brother and his fiancée had been seeing each other while he was gone. Lokesh promised Yesubai to Kishan on one condition: that he and his brother each give the raja their amulets. If the prince did not obey, he would die. When the prisoner did not comply, Lokesh grabbed the prince and slit his wrist with a dagger.

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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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Throughout history, women have often been subjected to prejudice and an inferior status to men. Due to sexist ideologies of men believing that women are not capable of controlling their own lives, women have often been reduced to the status of property. This concept is prominent in many pieces of literature to demonstrate the struggles women have to go through in a predominantly, male structured world. In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, the author illustrates a woman’s battle in an extreme society ruled by men to express the misogyny occurring in the time period when it was written, 1894. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia summarizes Atwood’s story as one that “depicts one woman’s chilling struggle to survive in a society ruled by misogynistic fascism, by which women are reduced to the condition of property.”

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Most cultures have traditional tales about wishes that don’t work out because most people’s wishes are to improve their own life and possibly affecting to those included in the wish. These wishes are usually selfish and have unknown consequences. For instance, a man receives a wish, and he uses it to wish for a wife, but his life and possibly the wife’s life (if altered from something else) can be changed forever. The phrase, “Be careful what you wish for” is a great statement that influences this. One change, like popularity, can change how people view you but in an abnormal way.

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This society is governed by men, the Commanders with the assistance of Aunts, then comes the Wives, Handmaid’s and Moira. Gilead was formed as a response to the dramatic decreasing birth rates, thus women called Handmaid’s are used to rejuvenate the population. How and why are different social groups represented in a particular way in The Handmaid’s Tale? In Handmaid’s Tale, women are objectified and used only for their reproductive attribute.

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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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