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The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

574 Words3 Pages

Women must be respected. Equality for women is an essential and wonderful part of democracy. One of the themes present in Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale is that theocracy is unacceptable because it limits women’s rights. Atwood uses symbolism to communicate how the evil theocratic regime in the story is the antagonist against women.
One of the most important symbols in the book is the setting. The book is set in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This is the area that the Puritans settled before the creation of the United States. This setting symbolizes the theocracy and oppression of women practiced there many years ago. History repeats itself in the story. The democratic government of the United States overthrown. The U.S. Constitution …show more content…

There are eyes all over Gilead. These eyes symbolize the watchfulness of the oppressive government. The secret police officers are even called Eyes. These spies are situated in many places, and cause paranoia amongst the handmaids. The handmaids worry constantly about being watched. Offred even feels paranoid when the chauffeur Nick winks at her. Offred thinks to herself, “Perhaps he was merely being friendly… Perhaps it was a test, to see what I would do… Perhaps he is an Eye” (Atwood 18). Fear is being spread by the government, and it is used to control the masses. Even a friendly wink could make a woman worry about being observed by a government spy. The handmaids are not allowed to even talk to each other out of fear of being turned in by their fellow handmaid. Offred is also scared to talk to a handmaid named Ofglen because, “It occurs to me [Offred] that she [Ofglen] may be a spy, a plant, set to trap me…” (Atwood 169). Cleary, the theocratic government’s tactic of causing paranoia works. Offred worries about the people around her, thinking they could be secret informants trying to trap her. Immediately following this, a black van with an eye painted on it stops directly in front of them. Two agents get out and kidnap someone: “They [Eyes] grab a man who is walking along… They pick him up and heave him into the back of the van like a sack of mail” (Atwood 169-170). This would be a chilling experience for anyone, and it

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