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Feminism in the handmaid's tale book
Feminism in the handmaid's tale book
Position of women in societal literature
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In Night, the Jews were confined and imprisoned in the concentration camps because they were destined to be murdered in a systematic manner by the Nazis. An example of the systematic murdering tactic used is the selection process. This was the process in which the Jews had their age and fitness checked to determine who was old and fit enough to work, and who was to be murdered. An example of this is when Elie and his father first arrived to Birkenau an inmate said, “Not fifty. You're forty. Do you hear? Eighteen and forty”(Wiesel 30). The inmate said this so the father and son could avoid death upon entry. In Night, The Jews represented resentfulness and disgust in the eyes of the Nazis. However in The Handmaid’s Tale the Handmaids are Kamal …show more content…
In the novel, the Handmaids represent stability and importance, and completely contradict the symbolism of the Jews in the concentration camps. Even though both patriarchal societies abuse its power and confine its prisoners, the reasoning between the confinements varies significantly. Similarly, the oppression put upon the masses by the patriarchal systems causes the oppressed to lose their belief in God and the idea of religion as a whole. Both novels clearly describe the negative consequences that oppression has on an individual’s beliefs in a higher power. In Night we begin the story with Elie, who is a young boy in a predominantly Jewish community who is eager to learn about his religion despite resistance from his father. In the beginning Ellie’s actions prove that he is very devoted to his religious practices and they hold significance to him. An example of this is when the Jews in Night were about to begin their journey to the first concentration camp Elie is quoted saying, “I was up at dawn. I wanted to have time to pray before leaving” (Wiesel 18). This proves that …show more content…
Additionally, in The Handmaid’s Tale all of the females were banned from reading the bible. Only the commander was allowed to read the bible, while the rest of the home listened. This was damaging to Offred’s connection with her beliefs because she recalled, “I would watch the Growing Souls Gospel Hour, where they would tell Bible stories for children and sing hymns. One of the women was called Serena Joy” (Atwood 20). This shows that Offred was likely a devoted Christian and taking away her ability to read the bible separated her from her faith and thus her beliefs and values. The oppressive behavior by the systems in control significantly influences the daily lives and practices of the oppressed. Continuous struggle and torture enhances the separation between the individual and a higher being. Although both novels describe the affect that abuse of power has on an individual’s beliefs and values, both novels did not intend for this shift in mindset to take place. In Night the separation from religion was not an intended goal for the Nazis as far as the novel describes it. However, the treatment upon the Jews within the concentration camps by the Nazis was so terrible that many Jews could not comprehend why an all knowing God could let this happen to them, thus they become distant from their religion. The Nazis ultimate goal was not to erase the faith of the Jews but to erase the Jews themselves. Conversely, in The Handmaid’s Tale the system in
The section in the novel night that painted a dark and angry picture of human nature is when the Jews were fleeing Buna and hundreds of them were packed in a roofless cattle car. The Jews were only provided with a blanket that soon became soaked by the snowfall. They spent days in the bitter cold temperatures and all they ate was snow. For these reasons, many suffered and died. When they stopped in German towns, the people stared at that cattle cars filled with soulless bodies. “They would stop and look at [the Jews] without surprise.” It was a regular occasion for the German people to see suffering Jews and not feel pity. The dark and angry picture of human nature was when a German worker “took a piece of bread out of his bag and threw it
The book, Night, by Eliezer (Elie) Wiesel, entails the story of his childhood in Nazi concentration camps all around Europe. Around the middle of the 20th century in the early 1940s, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi army traveled around Europe in an effort to exterminate the Jewish population. As they went to through different countries in order to enforce this policy, Nazi officers sent every Jewish person they found to a concentration camp. Often called death camps, the main purpose was to dispose of people through intense work hours and terrible living conditions. Wiesel writes about his journey from a normal, happy life to a horrifying environment surrounded by death in the Nazi concentration camps. Night is an amazingly
In the memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel remembers his time at Auschwitz during the Holocaust. Elie begins to lose his faith in God after his faith is tested many times while at the concentration camp. Elie conveys to us how horrific events have changed the way he looks at his faith and God. Through comments such as, “Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God, my soul, and turned my dreams into dust,” he reveals the toll that the Holocaust has taken on him. The novel begins during the years of 1942-1944 in Sighet, Transylvannia, Romania. Elie Wiesel and his family are deported and Elie is forced to live through many horrific events. Several events such as deportation, seeing dead bodies while at Auschwitz, and separation from his mother and sisters, make Elie start to question his absolute faith in God.
The book Night is about the holocaust as experienced by Elie Weisel from inside the concentration camps. During World War II millions of innocent Jews were taken from their homes to concentration camps, resulting in the deaths of 6 million people. There were many methods of survival for the prisoners of the holocaust during World War II. In the book Night, there were three main modes of survival, faith, family, and food. From the examples in the book Night, faith proved to be the most successful in helping people survive the holocaust.
This understanding and viewpoint influences a reader’s comprehension and analysis of Night. As Elie matures, his concept of justice and his understanding of the lack of equity shown by Hitler and the Nazi leaders towards the Jews matures greatly, causing him successfully to find the injustice in the concentration camps. Works Cited Wiesel, Elie, and Helen Colijn. Night and related readings. New York, N.Y.: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2000.
Night is a story about young Eliezer who had to face the ugly side of war and hatred. A topic that is commonly seen in this book people dehumanizing other people. In this case it would be the Nazis dehumanizing Jewish people.
In the memoir Night, Elie Wiesel recounts a moment when “They had orders to shoot anyone who could not sustain the pace. Their fingers on the triggers, they did not deprive themselves of the pleasure. If one of us stopped for a second, a quick shot would eliminate the filthy dog” (Wiesel 85). This shows how cruel and heartless the guards were to the jews. They were what influenced the two main inhumanities that occurred in this novel. Two significant themes related to inhumanity discussed in the book Night by Elie Wiesel are Loss of Faith and becoming closer to love ones.
Night. A novel was written by Elie Wiesel, who reveals his experience as a young Jewish boy during the Holocaust. The Nazis captured people that are not of Aryan race and put them in concentration camps, where they suffer extreme torture, abuse, and dehumanizing treatments. These treatments caused physical and psychological changes on these innocent prisoners. The Prisoners in Night had to undergo harsh treatments that left them acting and thinking like animals. Dehumanization. The story begins with Eliezer, a young Jewish boy, describing his life in a concentration camp. The Jews are forced to abandon all their possessions, separate from their families and lose their freedom. The Jews survive
The Holocaust survivor Abel Herzberg has said, “ There were not six million Jews murdered; there was one murder, six million times.” The Holocaust is one of the most horrific events in the history of mankind, consisting of the genocide of Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, mentally handicapped and many others during World War II. Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany, and his army of Nazis and SS troops carried out the terrible proceedings of the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel is a Jewish survivor of the Nazi death camps, and suffers a relentless “night” of terror and torture in which humans were treated as animals. Wiesel discovers the “Kingdom of Night” (118), in which the history of the Jewish people is altered. This is Wiesel’s “dark time of life” and through his journey into night he can’t see the “light” at the end of the tunnel, only continuous dread and darkness. Night is a memoir that is written in the style of a bildungsroman, a loss of innocence and a sad coming of age. This memoir reveals how Eliezer (Elie Wiesel) gradually loses his faith and his relationships with both his father (dad), and his Father (God). Sickened by the torment he must endure, Wiesel questions if God really exists, “Why, but why should I bless him? Because he in his great might, had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many other factories of death? (67). Throughout the Holocaust, Wiesel’s faith is not permanently shattered. Although after his father dies, his faith in god and religion is shaken to the core, and arguably gone. Wiesel, along with most prisoners, lose their faith in God. Wiesel’s loss of religion becomes the loss of identity, humanity, selfishness, and decency.
Throughout the Handmaid’s Tale, we come across a plethora of biblical references; also many aspects of the stories’ plot are based on biblical passages. The story is based in the republic of Gilead, a futuristic and dystopian America. This futuristic government isn’t based on loving peaceful messages from scripture; rather, it takes snippets from the violent passages and adopts them to suit their choke-hold of society. We first take notice of this oppressive government in the first few pages of the book when we read “Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled; they had electric cattle-prods slung on thongs from electric belts.” ( 4) These “Aunts” are older women, who wear habits, whose man function is to brain wash and rule over the “handmaids”. Often referencing from the Old Testament, they encourage a very bleak outlook at life outside of government rule. To meet this end, they often times force the handmaids to view pornos and gratuitous violent acts. The main character in the story is a handmaid named Offred (of Fred), who’s purpose in life, imposed on by the government, is to bear children.
In Night, by Elie Wiesel, there is an underlying theme of anger. Anger not directed where it seems most appropriate- at the Nazis- but rather a deeper, inbred anger directed towards God. Having once been a role model of everything a “good Jew” should be, Wiesel slowly transforms into a faithless human being. He cannot comprehend why the God who is supposed to love and care for His people would refuse to protect them from the Germans. This anger grows as Wiesel does and is a constant theme throughout the book.
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
As you read through the handmaid’s tale you see the relationships of the characters develop and the fight for power, however small that glimpse of power may be. The images of power can be seen through out the novel, but there are major parts that stand out to the reader from the aunt’s in the training centre to the secret meetings between the Commander and Offred.
Throughout The Handmaid’s Tale, the author Margaret Atwood gives the reader an understanding of what life would be like in a theocratic society that controls women’s lives. The narrator, Offred, gives the reader her perspective on the many injustices she faces as a handmaid. Offred is a woman who lived before this society was established and when she undergoes the transition to her new status she has a hard time coping with the new laws she must follow. There are many laws in this government that degrade women and give men the authority to own their household. All women are placed in each household for a reason and if they do not follow their duties they are sent away or killed.
As The Handmaid’s Tale is considered an allegory of the social injustice women face against traditional expectations of their role in society, the symbolism of the Handmaids and other women as a whole for repressed feminine liberty and sexuality allows Atwood to connect her work to the theme between gender and expectations in her society. As Handmaids in the Republic of Gilead, females are stripped of their previous identity and are defined as a tool of reproduction for the men who is assigned them. At its core, these females are forced against their will to be mere tools, experiencing unwanted sex at least once a month, which Gilead names “The Ceremony”, hiding its true nature as a form of rape. Offred