Theme Of Control In The Handmaid's Tale

Control. This is something all humans naturally hope to obtain whether it be over their life or others. This control, however, is built off most times off their own opinions and thinking. This is one of the growing problems within our society today but also in the dystopian society of The
Republic of Gilead in the book written by Margret Atwood, The Handmaids Tale. In The
Handmaids Tale, Atwood describes the ignorance of a rising government when coming to the birth-rate issue within their society and their inability to rethink will cause a whole society to forget their once ordinary lives to only being controlled. The books “Thinking Fast and Slow:
The Illusion of Validity” and “The Hidden Brain” are both sources that contribute to the ideas

This crumbling them to a society that no one thinks and if they do it isn’t their own thinking. “Sometimes we don’t even realize our thinking has been manipulated. We think we’re making decisions based on our own beliefs and values, but really, we’re being led in a certain direction by the way the information is presented to us” (Vedantam). In The Hidden Brain, Vedantam states how vulnerable and easily manipulated our minds can be. This is clearly presented within The Handmaids Tale. The women are told to be bodies for the men every month and that is only what their life amounts too. They only know and remember this new society making them vulnerable to the government's manipulation. “This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary”
(Atwood 12). Aunt Lydia says this to Offred when speaking about the old life compared to the new life. This new society is an adjustment for Offred because she still remembers some parts of
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the old life and society. “A general limitation of the human minds is its imperfect ability to reconstruct past states of knowledge, or beliefs that have changed. Once, you adopt a new

Kadhim author of the article “A Dystopian Future: Social Oppression and
Religious Extremism in Margaret Atwoods The Handmaid’s Tale” states how religion played a great deal into the women being so easily manipulated and their thinking overall being changed.
The idea the women not bearing children was their fault not the mans and women will only ever be at fault takes a toll on a human's mind. In our own world religion is such a hot topic. Whether one religion is better than the other or justifying our own actions using religion whether good or bad. This also shows how religion can force humans thinking to be more easily manipulated and be ignorant of ones thinking before told this information. Religion in our society today can cause
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several humans to be ignorant of rethinking. It is very evident within our own society and
Offred’s society.
In conclusion, The Handmaids Tale can be used to show the ignorance of a society and use of manipulation can cause women to no longer be able to control their thinking or rethinking abilities. This is comparable to humans in our own society. When manipulated, ignorant, or forced with the use of religion it is evident how easily we lose our ability to think for