With conflicting self-interests, a society may struggle to meet all expectations. In The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, portrays how mankind’s proclivity to follow their own temptations leads to the crumbling of communities. Founded on ideals exemplifying self- interest, Gilead puts the benefits of the government before those of the individual, but even the authorities begin to pursue their own desires, undermining the values of the capital. This communal deterioration due to conflicting self- interests is also evident in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, as the self -centered acts of the family send the Wingfields into a collapse. Also in Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, the selfish imposition of will onto another culture only considers the interests of the European world. In these novels and present societies, a prevalent culprit of the disintegration of communities throughout several novels is the tendency to follow one’s own self interest. Gilead was a result of the selfish nature of mankind, and continued to embody and exemplify those tendencies and ideals. Gilead was created in order to compensate for the widespread sterility of men after nuclear exposure, but the regime striped women of their property and loved ones, and later their identities to tie them to their place in society. Although Gilead was made to replenish the population, the means to do so exploited religion and ignored the interests of the individual; to deny people the right to love who they want, or anyone at all, is evidently crossing beyond what was needed to repopulate and is now a means of one’s own desires to hold power. The republic of Gilead was created to “give a solution to men’s problem: inability to feel” and to “return to na... ... middle of paper ... ...ilead is created, people continue to fall to their selfish tendencies, which ultimately leads to the collapse of the regime. Gilead was the result of the selfish nature of humankind, and also embodied and exemplified those tendencies in their ideals and values. This communal deterioration due to self-interest is not only evident in the handmaid’s tale, but in the Glass Menagerie as well. The entire Wingfield family falls due to the character’s proclivities to fulfill their own desires; The father abandons his family in pursuit of his own happiness, and Tom later follows in his footsteps to attain his own personal dreams. Similarly, in Heart of Darkness, an entire culture disintegrates due to the self- interest and greed of the Europeans. Clearly, a community cannot survive with conflicting interests present, especially when they determine the acts of the characters.
Margaret Atwood’s dystopian republic, Gilead, from her novel The Handmaid’s Tale is plagued with corrupt leadership. The oppressor of the of the protagonist Offred is The Commander: a leader and founder of this totalitarian society.
Forming everyday life in different ways. Majority of all power in Gilead has been passed to the men and
In the Gilead society the government has attempted to remove the individuality of the citizens in many ways as seen in similarity to Harrison Bergeron with the use of the handicaps. Morano has made it so society is classified into a hierarchy with assigned uniforms of specific colours to display the role within society. The handmaids wear red to symbolise fertility, the 'Wives' wear blue, to display their inability to carry children. From Morano utilising costuming, he has made it so the citizens are defined only by their social and reproductive function, stripping each woman of their identity. Where as in Harrison Bergeron they have lost their individuality due to the fact they are trying to make society equal by handicapping those who are above average "They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal in every which way.” This results in the people losing their individ-uality and their humanity. In the Hand Maids Tale, like Morano did with the costuming everyone's identity has been stripped away as although some have more privileges, everyone has been renamed and repositioned “Offred is my name now.” Their loss of individualism is symbolised by their generic titles such as the men are classed as the 'Commanders,' and the ‘Eyes’ which is different to Harrison Bergeron’s society as they are not assigned to specific roles, but are still stripped of their individuality. The two authors have utilised individuality suppression to create societies that the citizens are inter-changeable and replaceable with each other, displaying an unfavourable
Expanded and strengthened state private insurance companies are to be expected since more younger Texans enter the market thanks to the premium support. Texas can expect savings through more proper use of medical care, lower numbers in Medicaid, and savings from increased recipient cost sharing. Texas must refuse to comply with the new high-risk pools. There are many reasons Texas should not comply but the main reason is poor design. Currently, eighteen states have decided not to participate in these pools, Texas is undecided. Any person with a pre-existing medical disorder whom has been without insurance for six month will qualify. The law gave the Department of Health discretion in determining with conditions qualifies. Theoretically, the Department of Health could say the flu is a pre existing medical condition. If Texas does not refuse to comply with these pools it is only a matter of time before the demand will exceed the supply. A huge concern is when the funding is gone what do the state politicians do. I see two options. One, state officials will end the coverage all together and pull the plug. Two, continue to allow the program to run with the use of state tax dollars.
Gilead only values women for their pregnancies. In this dystopian novel, Offred experiences disembodiment. Offred proclaims, “I have failed once again to fulfill the expectations of others, which have become my own” (Atwood, 73). Discomfort grew in the speculation of her not living up to the expectations of others in her society. To Offred, living up to these expectations is her only way out. Therefore their expectancies have also become her expectancies in life. Simultaneously, these feelings of discomfort have detached her from her body. Her body is no longer her own instrument of pleas...
In life, people don’t always stand up for what they believe in in order to avoid exclusion – this is called apathy. In specific situations, people will blindly follow a primitive ideology without any regard for morality. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is an excellent example of how apathy can affect an entire population. This novel is by and large a feminist novel that addresses the ignorance in imperialistic and religious ideologies, but also addresses the issue of human apathy. In this novel, Atwood offers a disturbing look into what could be. The alterior motive of the society is to purify and improve the country as a whole. However, it is not only nationalism and imperialism
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.
After reading the Handmaid's Tale, I felt that Societal Complacency was the most critical aspect to the success of the Gilead Society. The Republic of Gilead is a run by a strict Old Testament religious doctrine. This government does not tolerate anyone who does not conform, it is run mostly by fear. Fear of death or the wall or being sent to radioactive colonies. This new government is cruel towards women, it robbed them of their humanity under the guise of protecting them. This new republic has forced women to give up jobs, forbidden them from reading, they control or regulate sexual activity as well as reproduction and birth, they have also prohibited or limited speech between women and even renamed women so that it fits in with a more biblical society. The Governments goal is to turn women into dumb subservient slaves dependent on men. The Republic of Gilead is based on "traditional values" with the households being strictly patriarchal. The sexes are strictly divided in this book both men and women have strict protocol they must follow. Both men and women are separated by class and social status defined by the color they wear.
Control dominates all aspects of Gileadian society, from minor, seemingly petty normalities such as the clothes allowed, all the way up to how and who to have sexual relations with. Unimaginable in this day, Atwood represents modern society gone sour, something which is chillingly close enough to reality to get worried about.
The setting of The Handmaid’s Tale – known as Gilead – is a totalitarian government, originally based on Old Testament patriarchy. This structure forbids rival loyalties or parties, so all loyalty must be for the group of men that govern the State. Such a structure means that women are assigned ‘roles’ according to their biological ‘usefulness’.
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.
The foundation of the Gilead’s newly implemented society is packed with biblical phrasing and connotations, but it lacks authenticity. From the names of the different social ranks to the names of the buildings and stores to the name Gilead itself, every object within the society possesses some sort of biblical significance. Peter G. Tillman says ...
Both novels treat humans as items and not as human beings. In HMT, the entire structure of the Gilead society was built around the single goal of reproduction. Gilead is a society facing a crisis of radically dropping birthrates and to solve the problem it forces state control on the means of reproduction. Controlling women's bodies can succeed only by controlling the women themselves. The society's political order requires the overthrow of women. The government strips the women of the right to vote, the right to hold property or jobs and the right to read. The women's ovaries and womb become a `national resource' to the society. Women cease to be treated as individuals and rather as potential mothers. Women internalize the state created attitude even independent women like the narrator of HMT, Offred. At one point lying in a bathtub and looking at her naked form, Offred states;
Margaret Atwood sheds light on two concepts that are intertwined; fertility and motherhood. Nevertheless in Gilead these notions are often viewed as separate. The Republic State of Gilead views women as child-bearers and nothing more. In Gilead, these women are known as handmaids, who’s function in society is to produce children for barren females of a high status. Gilead also prohibits the handmaids from being mothers to their previously born children, meaning before Gilead was created, for instance, Offred, who is separated from her daughter. Thus it is evident that Margaret Atwood generates a state that views birth only as growth in population rather than the beginning of a relationship between mother and child.
Within Gilead there is an authority that is much higher than is necessary or healthy for any nation. With such power comes corruption, which then spreads throughout the whole of society, slowly obliterating the nation’s people. This corruption of a powerful government can only be controlled by the force of the people which, in the Handmaid’s tale, is nearly non-existent, thus giving the militant Eyes – as well as the rest of the Gilead government – a stronger hold on the people by their indifference. The Eyes especially have an intimidating vigor which holds down the people by means of threat of punishment, in addition to the allusion of freedom to keep the people pacified. As stated in the novel, “A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.” (Atwood 165). This shows how the government keeps ultimate control over the nation by way of intimidation, allusion, and roles in society. Status and class is vital in Gilead, showing the world who one is by their uniform, speaking louder than any voice. Of course, Gilead has given these roles in the society as another way to control the people, but due to their passivity, everyone decides to go along with it, never questioning the power of this supposed republic. This goes to illustrate just how corrupt a government can be if not frequently checked by its