Feminism in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale In The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood explores the role that women play in society and the consequences of a countryís value system. She reveals that values held in the United States are a threat to the livelihood and status of women. As one critic writes, “the author has concluded that present social trends are dangerous to individual welfare” (Prescott 151). The novel is set in the near future in Gilead, formerly the U.S., at a time when the population rate is rapidly declining. A religious regime has taken over, and women are used as breeders to boost the declining birth rate among the Caucasian race. Women are owned by men and are breeders. In the New World Order love doesnít exist, but the act of love is the only form of intimacy. Atwood gives readers a firsthand look at the second class treatment of women through the eyes of Offred, the handmaid. Offred has been ripped away from her husband and daughter to become a breeder for someone whom she doesnít love. How does a person respond to this type of situation? Atwood reveals Offredís struggle by introducing the foil character, Moira. Moira doesnít get to tell the reader her story; rather, it is told through Offred. This narrative choice accentuates the difference between the two women. Both women dislike the situation in Gilead. However, while Offred resigns herself to her lot, Moira rebels against the regime. Moiraís character unfolds with her escape from the rehabilitation centerña risk none of the other handmaids, including Offred, would ever dare to take. In fact, Offred is frightened with the idea of escaping, not because of the consequences, but more because she is ìlosing the taste of freedomî and findi... ... middle of paper ... ... voice their wants and needs. In this particular exchange, Atwood reveals both the difference between the sexes and their need to be on a more intimate and equal platform. While The Handmaid's Tale conveys the oppression of women, it also reveals the significant role women have in society. Atwood gets the point across that just as they can be oppressed by men, women can equally oppress themselves. Through Offred's eyes, comparisons between today's society and the possible consequences of one's attitudes are examined. The Handmaid's Tale slowly uncovers the many facets of women and the vital role they have as members of society. Works Cited Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. Anchor Books: New York, New York, 1985. Prescott, Peter S. "A long road to liberation". Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jean C. Steve. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1984.
mother is supposed to feel simply elated, fully competent, and even calm, many women are
...not fair to execute them. Instead prison and possible rehabilitation are the better choices for criminals in the United States.
The genre of this album can be described as pop and rock. Yet the album has the musical styles of Alternative Pop/Rock, Punk Rock, and somewhat Indie/Underground. When I first heard this album I already had some knowledge about the songs, but I never took the time to notice how the music sounded. The introduction seems faster than the rest of the album and has a more upbeat sound to it. Although it is not completely rock because they do not seem to be rocking out like some of the other past rockers in the class. Many of the s...
...s still evidence of two social classes in today's society. While not as distinct as those described by Margaret Atwood, men are more often in positions of power, they are often paid more, and there is less pressure on males to have a specific body type. Women are still viewed as conquest and recent events such as the video and shootings by Elliot Rodger is enough proof that a large group of people still believe that women owe them sex. However, media coverage has not focused on the well documented misogynist opinions of the shooter, instead focusing on his suspected mental illness. The warnings from a book written 30 years ago still ring true in today's society. In The Handmaids Tale, Atwood portrays two distinct social classes through her choice of words and uses her novel as an warning against the treatment and perception of modern day women by conservative men.
Offred, among other women depicted in this novel, tries to overcome this dominion. In her own way, she attempts to do this by ensuring the Commander’s expectations of her behavior which could result in her freedom. Thus, there is a present power struggle between the Commander and Offred throughout The Handmaid’s
In Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, social turmoil after a staged terrorist attack has led to a totalitarian Christian regime. In this dystopian future, the roles of men and women are much different than in today’s society. In The Handmaid’s Tale, women are unequal because they have no choice about their bodies, their dress, or their relationships.
...ue to be manageable. Additionally, the Medicaid system leaves much open room for users to commit fraud undetected. Medicare would be a more ideal system if costs were based like those of the Medicaid system; many times the Medicare population are on limited incomes, so small co pays and lower medical costs would be more ideal.
Throughout time women have been oppressed. The journey women have had has been a long one. Women were oppressed from choosing whom to love, speaking against her husband or any male, getting jobs outside household duties, voting, etc. Women were looked at as the weaker sex. The oppression in Gilead is no different. These women are oppressed by the patriarchy. In Gilead women are valuable, but not all are treated as such. Handmaids play a role for the greater good, but the Wives are treated above the Handmaids, even though the Handmaids, such as the narrator Offred, are the ones giving society a chance. The patriarchal society set in place makes all of the decisions over the greater women populations. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale examines the overall effect of a patriarchal society on
The sixties and seventies were a time of war, peace and revolution, with “hippies” leading anti-war movements, and protests happening across the nation due to the administration of Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War. John Lennon originally a member of The Beatles, became a star in the anti-war subculture, and a hero to many, not only for his musicianship and the Beatle-mania that was spread across the country but for being a voice of the people. The Beatles were at the time, the voices of their generation and eventually became a product of their generation, with their songs highlighting the issues of the time. Even with the disbanding of The Beatles in 1969, Lennon continued to be a force in the culture, with his wife Yoko Ono and himself taking a prominent role in the media and movement against the war.
The water wars began proper in 1898 when Frederick Eaton was elected as the mayor of Los Angeles. One of Eaton’s first business matters was to appoint his friend William Mulholland as the superintendent of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The two held a grand vision that Los Angeles could become one of the nation’s great cities if given the proper time and care to expand. The one factor that seriously limited growth was a lack of a water supply that could support such a massive undertaking. The solution was simple- to build an aqueduct, which would become the world’s largest water system at the time, from the Owens Valley 223 miles away. The val...
In order to examine the titular character and his desire, you must first understand the underlying concepts of Lacanian psychoanalysis. The Lacanian school of psychology is a stark departure from the earlier Freudian school of psychology as it is concerned with the relationship to culture as opposed to biology (Eagleton 142). The main tenet of this ideology, according to Lacan in the eleventh of his seminars, states that humans are born into a condition of ‘lack’ (IX). This ‘lack’ is to mean an absence of something important. This object is referred to as the ‘real’, which can in turn described as the existence we inhabited before birth (Eagleton 161). According to these ideals, the ultimate goal in life is to chase after the ‘real’ by finding ‘signifiers’ that signify the ‘real’ (Eagleton 161).This means that throughout your life you will try and find the ‘real’ you once had using the different ‘signifiers’ that are encountered acting as waypoints on the journey to your ‘desire’.
The Handmaid's Tale presents an extreme example of sexism and misogyny by featuring the complete objectification of women in the society of Gilead. Yet by also highlighting the mistreatment of women in the cultures that precede and follow the Gileadean era, Margaret Atwood is suggesting that sexism and misogyny are deeply embedded in any society and that serious and deliberate attention must be given to these forms of discrimination in order to eliminate them.
... is only alive in her dreams, she aches for her and fears that her child will not remember or even she is dead. Atwood writes about motherhood, and the irony lies in the fact that Offred did not have an ideal relationship with her mother even though Gilead’s system was not established, yet Offred who is separated for her daughter shows affection towards her child by constantly thinking and dreaming about her. Even though Offred felt pressured from her mother, she still misses her, ‘I want her back’ and she even reminisces about when she used to visit her and Luke.
Head and facial injuries are very dangerous need to be prevented. Head injuries can cause death or permanent damage to an athlete for the rest of their lives. Facial injuries like hyphema can affect an athletes everyday life due to the decrease in visual performance. That’s why goggles or protective eyewear should be worn when playing a sport that has small round objects. These injuries can be prevented.
Language differs significantly even when they are closely related. The form, meaning, and distribution of the grammatical structures can make it easier of harder to learn the structure of a foreign language. If the structures are similar it will be easier to learn the language because you can transfer from your native language to the foreign language. However, if the structures are different it will be difficult to transfer and if you do transfer it may not work the same. My goal in this paper is to make a comparison of two different languages, and to show how the structure of one can make the learning process of the other much easier or harder.