Throughout the novels The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier, the authors have a variety of unique forms by using different vocabulary and storytelling to interrupt their own meaning. For example, in The Handmaid's Tale Atwood uses words such as birth mobile meaning a vehicle to transport handmaids to a birthing and encourage their fellow handmaids. Another example, being used in the novel We All Fall Down, Cormier's unique form is not censoring his writing "Did you touch me when you tied me up? Feel my chest? Eleven- year-old boys don't do that, either" (Cormier 178). These techniques are allowing the reader to be drawn into two completely different worlds. Atwood and Cormier are in engaging the reader …show more content…
With freedom it lets people be free with their habits and practices, the freedom to express their selves as an individual and it gives people the opportunity to make decisions for their own lifestyle. In The Handmaid's Tale, there is no freedom in their society, in the book it mentions, "Such songs are not sung anymore in public, especially the ones that use the word free"(Atwood 60). The quote has individuals thinking of freedom in their own society because the society in The Handmaid's Tale is strict on freedom that if saying the word free does not give a physical, individual and opportunity of freedom. In the society of The Handmaid's Tales women cannot be dress to a significant personality and be comfortable in what they would want to wear because society has taken away their physical and individual freedom to be whom they want to be and how to be dressed. For example, a quote from The Handmaid's Tale stating "Everything except the wings around my face is red, the colour of blood which define us." (Atwood 17). The outfits for the handmaids are a red dress and a cloak, their whole body is covered up and the cloak and dress are not appealing, and the red would symbolize the menstrual cycle for childbirth because it symbolizes fertility and the only individuals in society whom can give birth to children are the handmaid's. The handmaid's are not high on the social ranking but very low because after three births the handmaid's are particularly a nobody, the handmaid's body is just an instrument for sex and the colour red is sinful because the colour red signifies the devil and the handmaid's are committing a sin of adultery due to having sex with a women’s husband. The outfits differ because the commander's wives wore the blue colour cloak and dress which is more fitted to their body and blue, is associated with royalty which symbolizes the high status of the wives. Blue can also be related to water
Atwood uses nomenclature to place the women in The Handmaid’s Tale within the possession of the men around them. Offred, literally means Of-Fred, as in, The Handmaid Of Fred. By taking the women’s names away the society places them in the possession of their commanders. Which is exactly how the commanders see their handmaids, the commanders see the handmaids as a vessel for life that they must sleep with once a month during the ceremony. The women are forced to have sexual relations with their commanders and are sent away when they do not conceive a child. By placing the women of the society completely into the power of men, Atwood encourages the reader to see the injustice of this act and encourages the reader to identify with the cause of women. Each category of women must dress in the colour of their group so they can be identified by the outside world. Handmaids, like Offred must wear red, a colour associated both with shame and with ripeness and fertility. Similarly in The Color Purple, a period drama, based on a book with the same title by Alice Walker, women are categorised by the society they live in.
A new society is created by a group of people who strengthen and maintain their power by any means necessary including torture and death. Margaret Atwood's book, A Handmaid's Tale, can be compared to the morning after a bad fight within an abusive relationship. Being surrounded by rules that must be obeyed because of being afraid of the torture that will be received. There are no other choices because there is control over what is done, who you see and talk to, and has taken you far away from your family. You have no money or way out. The new republic of Gilead takes it laws to an even higher level because these laws are said to be of God and by disobeying them you are disobeying him. People are already likely to do anything for their God especially when they live in fear of punishment or death. The republic of Gilead is created and maintains its power structure through the use of religion, laws that isolate people from communication to one another and their families, and the fear of punishment for disobeying the law.
Within freedom should come security. Within security should come freedom. But in Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood, it seems as though there is no in between. Atwood searches throughout the novel for a medium between the two, but in my eyes fails to give justice to a woman’s body image. Today's society has created a fear of beauty and sexuality in this image. It is as though a beautiful woman can be just that, but if at the same time, if she is intelligent and motivated within acting as a sexual being, she is thought of as exploiting herself and her body. Atwood looks for a solution to this problem, but in my eyes fails to do so.
Margaret Atwood's renowned science fiction novel, The Handmaid's Tale, was written in 1986 during the rise of the opposition to the feminist movement. Atwood, a Native American, was a vigorous supporter of this movement. The battle that existed between both sides of the women's rights issue inspired her to write this work. Because it was not clear just what the end result of the feminist movement would be, the author begins at the outset to prod her reader to consider where the story will end. Her purpose in writing this serious satire is to warn women of what the female gender stands to lose if the feminist movement were to fail. Atwood envisions a society of extreme changes in governmental, social, and mental oppression to make her point.
Another way the women in The Handmaid’s Tale are unequal to men is in dress. In modern society it is normal to think of clothing as a way to express our personality and individuality. What you wear helps others know who you are. In the novel, the main character Offred grew up in a westernized world –freedoms like self expression and speech- but it was taken away from her when she became a handmaid.
There is supposed to be nothing entertaining about us, no room is to be permitted
Imagine if you can, living in a world that tells you what you are to wear, where to live, as well as your position and value to society. In Margaret Atwood's novel, The Handmaid's Tale, she shows us the Republic of Gilead does just that. Offred, the main character, is a Handmaid, whose usefulness is her ovaries. Handmaids are ordered to live in a house with a Commander, his wife, and once a month attempt to become pregnant by the Commander. Throughout Atwood's novel, you will notice she uses different colors for her characters clothing that correspond to their position and place in the Republic of Gilead. They become aware of people's statuses by the color of their garments. The colors of dress that have been used are red, blue, green, white, black, and khaki. Going into detail, I will show the social rank that each color represents in the novel, and my interpretation of them. The Handmaids are the only ones wearing red dresses, and several references are made towards the comparison of blood. "When Offred is in the room, which she refuses to call her own, she hears the bell to signal her time to go to the market. Getting up she puts on her red shoes and her red gloves, all the while thinking, everything except the wings around my face is red: the color of blood, which defines us. The dress she wears is also red, being ankle-length as well as long sleeve. The only item she wears that isn't red is the white wings around her face to keep her from seeing, as well as from being seen. Leaving the room, she walks down the hall, and heads for the stairs. She knows there is a mirror on the hall wall. If she turns her head so that the white wings framing her face direc...
In Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaids Tale’, we hear a transcribed account of one womans posting ‘Offred’ in the Republic of Gilead. A society based around Biblical philosophies as a way to validate inhumane state practises. In a society of declining birth rates, fertile women are chosen to become Handmaids, walking incubators, whose role in life is to reproduce for barren wives of commanders. Older women, gay men, and barren Handmaids are sent to the colonies to clean toxic waste.
Imagine a country where choice is not a choice. One is labeled by their age and economical status. The deep red cloaks, the blue embroidered dresses, and the pinstriped attire are all uniforms to define a person's standing in society. To be judged, not by beauty or personality or talents, but by the ability to procreate instead. To not believe in the Puritan religion is certain death. To read or write is to die. This definition is found to be true in the book, The Handmaid's Tale (1986) by Margaret Atwood. It is a heartbreaking story of one young woman and her transformation into the Gilead society, the society described above. In the book, we meet Offred, the narrator of the story. This story is not the first to create a society in which the only two important beliefs in a society are the ability to procreate and a strict belief in God. It is seen several times in the Old Testament, the Bible. The Biblical society is not as rigid as the Republic of Gilead, which Margaret Atwood has built, but it is very similar. The Handmaid's Tale holds several biblical allusions.
In The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood, Offred was taken from her husband and child, brainwashed, and then forced into a new house where her sole purpose is to be a walking uterus. In a Brave New World by Aldus Huxley, people are made in a laboratory, no one cares about family, and everyone is high on soma. These two books are both different, but are also very similar. The main thing they have in common is that they are a dystopian society, the government controls everyone, and nobody has the freedom to do/live the way they want. However, why is it that so many authors write books like this? Where the world is controlled by terrible dictatorships, only the people higher up benefit, and the normal every day citizen is screwed? I believe that
The Handmaid's Dystopia The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is a dystopian tale about a world where unrealistic things take place. The events in the novel could never actually take place in our reality." This is what most people think and assume, but they"re wrong. Look at the world today and in the recent past, and there are not only many situations that have ALMOST become a Gilead, but places that have been and ARE Gileadean societies. We're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy! Even today, there are places in the world where there is a startling similarity to this fictitious dystopia.
The Handmaid’s Tale and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? draw on different narrative techniques to establish our relationship to their protagonists. Margaret Atwood allows the reader to share the thoughts of the main character, while Philip K. Dick makes the reader explore the mysteries behind the story. Atwood’s style works because she can directly show her readers what she wants. Dick’s opposing style works for him because he can present paradoxes and mysteries and let the reader form the conclusion. Both of these styles are skillfully utilized to create complex stories without losing the reader along the way.
When Offred and Ofglen take their first walk they come upon the Wall. Hung up there are two men labeled “gender traitors”. These men were most likely gay or bisexual, and were having relations with each other. This act is unacceptable to this society; having gay sex feminizes the men performing the act, and a feminine man is worthless in this society. So worthless that the law breakers are put to death instead of separated, berated, or gently punished. The crime of not expressing one hundred percent masculinity at all times is punished by death. The same is true for women. Handmaids are expected to be silent and speak only when spoken to. They are not supposed to converse amongst themselves. Even the wives, women at the top of the hierarchy, are only allowed specific activities. Activities, interactions, and responsibilities are assigned to classes, such as Wife, Handmaid, Martha, or Angel, and there is little to no overlap between the classes. Gender roles are much less specific in today’s society, but gender roles do exist. West and Zimmerman’s “Doing Gender” explains what some of these gender roles are. People assume facts about people to be true based on the gender that they are; a man is automatically assumed to be a good leader while a woman is usually considered bossy when they work together. A baby dressed in pink is always a girl and is a “sweet princess” but a baby is blue is obviously a boy and is told that he is “strong” and “a fighter”. These gender roles follow people through their entire lives, and affect every aspect of life. Some of the same gender roles that are shown in The Handmaid’s Tale are true in today’s society as well. Women are expected to want to become mothers in both worlds. Becoming a mother is the high point in a woman’s life for both cultures, and a woman who doesn’t want to become a
Symbols and Lenses Role in The Handmaid’s Tale Makeup symbolizes the stereotypical women attributes in our modern society. Women are expected to look their best, not necessarily feel their best. In The Handmaid’s Tale, makeup plays just that. Gender roles relating to power, as well as changing appearances, loss of freedom, their past lives, and how the femininity has changed since their society was overthrown. Makeup isn’t mentioned as frequently as the word red, but it is a common theme throughout the novel.
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