Rough Draft The Handmaid’s Tale, a book by Margaret Atwood, is a story about the life after a nuclear war destroyed most of the world. It takes place in The Republic of Gilead a totalitarian government that replaced The United States of America. In this new republic, most women cannot have babies because of the nuclear radiation, so women that are not sterile are deemed handmaids and given a Commander to try to conceive a baby. This gave other women basically no power (“Oppression in The Handmaid’s Tale”).This new society is much different from the old as the new government is aggressive and has strict views and beliefs. Most people have barely any rights, especially women. This new society causes many problems that Atwood goes over in the …show more content…
There are numerous examples of this throughout the story. First off, women are treated very badly, were not free and barely had any rights. After a nuclear war, most women have been made sterile by the radiation. So, the leaders felt it the best way to live after the war was to enslave all women and the fertile women would be turned into Handmaid’s to solely to be made pregnant (“The Handmaids Tale” 72). In the story, the main character Offred was a Handmaid who the reader readers about. In Chapter seventeen she begins to talk compare how the Handmaids are just considered vanities. “We are containers, it’s only the insides of our bodies that are important” (Atwood 96). The leaders of the new society really have the Handmaids believing that Women are just good for making babies. Women were also treated a lot worse than men, especially Handmaids. Handmaids had a certain dress code that they had to follow. They had to wear long dresses, had to cover their face, wear gloves and all red (Dunn 76). Women were also brainwashed to think that a good woman was on who can reproduce. This was so much so that a stereotype of sterile women are “inhuman” was created in the story (Gardiner51). Women could not read, work, or own anything, therefore; women were treated worse than men creating a social issue. Even though men barely had rights women had less. Women also could not work. They had to stay in the house cook and clean and take care of the kids (“Gender in the Handmaids Tale”). Women also could not read. All sign were pictures so that women could understand (“The Handmaid’s Tale” 72). Another reason there are sexual social issues in the story is how men and commanders treat women. Commanders had the right to use and abuse Handmaids to reach the purpose of survival of the species (“Gender in The Handmaid’s Tale”). This abuse by the commanders is a social issue that Atwood implements in the
Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale is a story heavily influenced by the Bible and has many biblical themes that are used to prove Atwood’s belief in balance. The novel is set in the Republic of Gilead, which was formerly the United States. The story is told through the perspective of a handmaid named Offred and begins when she is placed at her third assignment as a housemaid. Offred describes her society as a fundamentalist theocracy where the Christian God is seen as the divine Ruler over the Republic of Gilead.
The novel “The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood shows the way of life for women in the
Gender inequality has existed all around the world for many centuries. Women were seen as property of men and their purpose of existence was to provide for the men in their lives. Men would play the role of being the breadwinners, whereas women played the role of being the caregiver of the family and household and must obey the men around her. The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood portrays how women in society are controlled and demeaned by men, and how men feel they are more superior over women.
An example from the text describes Offred going to the store to get supplies and it says, “The store has a huge wooden sign outside it, in the shape of a golden lily...the lettering was painted out...they decided that even the names of shops were too much temptation for us. Now places are known by their signs alone.” (Atwood, 25). We can substantiate that men made it their mission in this society to prevent women from being educated. Not even reading was allowed, as they feared that it would tempt women into wanting to learn how to read. If you think about education in a woman’s perspective, you will see that you have a slightly smaller disadvantage compared to men. There have been instances presently where a woman wouldn’t get into college because she was a woman. Just like Atwood’s dystopian society women are being denied the access to education, a necessary asset when you go into the “real
The Handmaids Tale is a poetic tale of a woman's survival as a Handmaid in the male dominated Republic of Gilead. Offred portrayed the struggle living as a Handmaid, essentially becoming a walking womb and a slave to mankind. Women throughout Gilead are oppressed because they are seen as "potentially threatening and subversive and therefore require strict control" (Callaway 48). The fear of women rebelling and taking control of society is stopped through acts such as the caste system, the ceremony and the creation of the Handmaids. The Republic of Gilead is surrounded with people being oppressed. In order for the Republic to continue running the way it is, a sense of control needs to be felt by the government. Without control Gilead will collapse.
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.
The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel in which Atwood creates a world which seems absurd and near impossible. Women being kept in slavery only to create babies, cult like religious control over the population, and the deportation of an entire race, these things all seem like fiction. However Atwood's novel is closer to fact than fiction; all the events which take place in the story have a base in the real world as well as a historical precedent. Atwood establishes the world of Gilead on historical events as well as the social and political trends which were taking place during her life time in the 1980's. Atwood shows her audience through political and historical reference that Gilead was and is closer than most people realize.
The Handmaid's Tale, being science fiction, is based around the future of our society today. Margaret Atwood is predicting what our world will be like if we continue on the way we are. She uses common problems throughout the world, such as pollution of the environment, to relate people from all walks of life to what has happened in Gilead. By exaggerating these potential disasters, she shows us our future in order to shock us into awareness that our present activities are not only endangering the environment and the animals whose habitats we are destroying but also jeopardizing the survival of the human race. The way the new regime is enforced also makes us look at our society with a critical eye.
Feminism as we know it began in the mid 1960's as the Women's Liberation Movement. Among its chief tenants is the idea of women's empowerment, the idea that women are capable of doing and should be allowed to do anything men can do. Feminists believe that neither sex is naturally superior. They stand behind the idea that women are inherently just as strong and intelligent as the so-called stronger sex. Many writers have taken up the cause of feminism in their work. One of the most well known writers to deal with feminist themes is Margaret Atwood. Her work is clearly influenced by the movement and many literary critics, as well as Atwood herself, have identified her as a feminist writer. However, one of Atwood's most successful books, The Handmaid's Tale, stands in stark contrast to the ideas of feminism. In fact, the female characters in the novel are portrayed in such a way that they directly conflict with the idea of women's empowerment.
In Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale, women are subjected to unthinkable oppression. Practically every aspect of their life is controlled, and they are taught to believe that their only purpose is to bear children for their commander. These “handmaids” are not allowed to read, write or speak freely. Any type of expression would be dangerous to the order of the Gilead’s strict society. They are conditioned to believe that they are safer in this new society. Women are supposedly no longer exploited or disrespected (pornography, rape, etc.) as they once were. Romantic relationships are strongly prohibited because involving emotion would defeat the handmaid’s sole purpose of reproducing. Of course not all women who were taken into Gilead believed right what was happening to their way of life. Through the process of storytelling, remembering, and rebellion, Offred and other handmaids cease to completely submit to Gilead’s repressive culture.
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.
There is supposed to be nothing entertaining about us, no room is to be permitted
The Handmaid’s Tale is a riveting series from the start. Based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood, Bruce Miller tells the story of the handmaids through the eyes of Offred (June). In a corrupt society laced with twisted scripture, sexist discrimination, and insane amounts of abuse, the handmaids are doing whatever they possibly can to survive. Imagine waking up and going about the day in your usual way at the café after a run. “Insufficient funds,” the new male barista says from behind the counter.
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 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.