Dystopian novels are often used to array compelling political arguments and messages during periods of reform and influential eras. One notable, prize-winning dystopian novel is Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale, which addresses the discrimination and feminist backlash faced by the women of the 1980’s. It is depicted through the story of Offred, a fertile sex slave, called a handmaid, whose sole purpose is to become pregnant and repopulate the disease and pollution stricken society of Gilead. Atwood’s persuasive novel has shown resolute influence throughout the years, displayed through Jennifer Hodson’s analytical thesis, “American Trends and American Fears: An Analysis of the Women's Movement and the Religious Right as Envisioned in Margaret …show more content…
(Hodson 1). As a result of Reagan’s political views, he manufactured women and their bodies into mere political instruments through anti-abortion and reproductive rights campaigns thus repudiating women the choice of managing their bodies and sexuality. Atwood voices her boundless concern of these anti-feminist politics conducted by men through the handmaids in her novel by examining several debates embodied in the feminist movement (Hodson 1). In the novel, the handmaids have been stripped of many of their rights and sexuality leading to the constant dehumanization of women. This dehumanization is portrayed when Offred mentions that she has lost her rights of socializing and having a family: “There's nobody here I can love… They might as well be nowhere, as I am for them. I too am a missing person." (Atwood 103). The ruling Gileadean men have deprived the handmaids of their rights by not only tearing them from their prior lives and turning them into slaves of reproduction, but have even taken away their names, exhibiting more of the subhuman treatment of women that Atwood was trying to portray. This is proven when Offred says “All the people I could
Margaret Atwood is famous for many things. She is a poet, novelist, story writer, essayist, and an environmental activist. Her books are usually bestsellers and have received high praises in the United States, Europe, and her native country, Canada. She has also received many Literary awards, like the Booker Prize, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the two Governor General’s Awards (“Margaret Atwood” Poetry). Through her books, she has written about what she sees in society towards women. She discusses how gender equality was corrupted in the past, but still is far from being reached, and women’s roles in society (“Spotty-handed”). Atwood also takes events in her life; like the Great Depression, Communism, and World War II; and applies it to her works. Margaret Atwood's works, including her novel The Handmaid's Tale, reflects women’s fight in equality, how society determines
In "The Handmaid's Tale", Margaret Atwood tells a saddening story about a not-to-distant future where toxic chemicals and abuses of the human body have resulted in many men and women alike becoming sterile. The main character, Offred, gives a first person encounter about her subservient life as a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, a republic formed after a bloody coup against the United States government. She and her fellow handmaids are fertile women that the leaders of Gilead, the Commanders, enslave to ensure their power and the population of the Republic. While the laws governing women and others who are not in control of Gilead seem oppressive, outlandish and ridiculous, they are merely a caricature of past and present laws and traditions of Western civilization. "The Handmaid's Tale" is an accurate and feasible description of what society could be like if a strict and oppressive religious organization gained dominant power over the political system in the United States.
Dystopian novels are a dime a dozen and the majority of them focus on the overuse of technology causing the demise of humanity. However, with The Handmaids Tale, written in 1986, Margaret Atwood uses her dystopian novel as a warning against patriarchal societies. Atwood’s novel portrays a world undone by pollution and infertility, reflecting 1980s fears about declining birthrates, environmental degradation and nuclear war during the Cold War. The novel was written shortly after the elections of Ronald Reagan in the United States and Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain, during a period of conservative revival that was partly fueled by a strong, well-organized movement of powerful religious conservatives who criticized what they perceived as the remnants of the “sexual revolution” of the 1960s and 1970s. The growing power of this “religious right” heightened feminist fears that the gains women had made in the previous few decades would be reversed ("Historical Context"). In The Handmaids Tale, Atwood portrays two distinct social classes through her choice of diction and uses her novel as an allegory for the treatment and perception of modern day women by conservative men.
Throughout The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, Offred persistently deals with the political and social issues of the Republic of Gilead. Gilead is a completely new society that lacks love, expression of ideas, and advanced technology. Throughout the novel, Atwood uses symbolism and flashbacks to explore the political and social problems within the Republic, which include a lack of individualism and the restriction of emotion. These issues further emphasize her central message, which is a warning to future societies to beware of communism and dehumanization.
The Handmaid’s Tale is a feminism novel written by Canadian, Margret Atwood in 1986. The novel is set in the future of the United States, that no longer exists; and the futuristic Republic of Gilead is in control. The protagonist/narrator is Offred, a handmaid whose job is to lie on her back once a month to try to conceive from the commander. Offred and the other handmaids are allowed to leave their commander’s house once a day to go to the food market, where the signs are pictures instead of words because women are not allowed to read. This wake of independency makes Offred and the other handmaids think of escaping, and when Offred thinks about it the first person that comes to mind is her lesbian best friend from college, Moria. Moira is vivacious, rebellious and deliberately outrageous. The role in Republic of Gilead leads Moira to her feministic actions, and in contrast, it leads her to the handmaids from hope to hopelessness In accordance with the novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood symbolizes Moria as unconfirmed, seditious, courageous, and defeated.
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale deals with how women are forced to accept roles based on extreme biblical laws distorted by a male dominated society; yet, there are women who willing participate in the reinforcement of these sexist and misogynistic values that subdue women. Gilead's government controls and shapes women's identities through oppression, however, indoctrinates women into believing that the roles stripping them of their independence are designed to protect and support them in fulfilling their biological purpose; fear of the Colonies and the Salvaging has intimidated women into becoming passive in order to survive, and forces them to report anyone failing to comply to the imposed hierarchical society. The new regime claims that it has given women more freedom than it has taken away, and since women are better protected they can become mothers without the fear of rape or being degraded by men or society; women are viewed as “functionaries” that must remain invisible by having matching uniforms, new names, and forgetting past identities in exchange for new ones consistent with the morals of Gilead (261). Handmaids fulfil no other purpose than to bear children, while barren wives must provide companionship for their husbands, perform domestic duties, and raise the children; every women’s body becomes a replaceable object controlled by Gilead, and all liberties and individuality are taken away, yet the Aunts justify and appear to encourage the subjugation of women. The utopian society employs fear as a powerful motivator to coerce its citizens to live a life of forced compliance and mental enslavement, by being passive and refusing to resist one is able to temporarily remain alive by escaping brutal punishment an...
In Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale, the human spirit has evolved to such a point that it cannot be subdued by complacency. Atwood shows Gilead as an extremist state with strong religious connotations. We see the outcome of the reversal of women’s rights and a totalitarian government which is based on reproduction. Not only is the government oppressive, but we see the female roles support and enable the oppression of other female characters. “This is an open ended text,…conscious of the possibilities of deconstruction, reconstruction, and reinterpretation … Atwood engages in metafictional commentary …in her storytelling and by the time the reader arrives at the text, Atwood has already told and retold the story, questioned and hedged, changed the context, deconstructed and reconstructed the narrative.” (Univ of Toronto)
Many texts that were published from different authors have introduced topics that can be related in today’s society, but Margaret Atwood’s creation called, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, gives voice to the thoughts and revolves around the narrator Offred, a woman whose rights have been deprived due to political issues. However, the information shared by Offred to the reader to the text is not reliable for the reason that she only touches upon her own perspective. Through the text, Atwood depicted what the United States of America would be in the future based on the actions of humanity during 1980’s. The text is set up in an androcentric and totalitarian country called Gilead, where the government attempts to create a utopian society. Thus, in order to attain this society, the authorities generated their legislation from the teachings of the Holy Bible in an attempt to control humanity. The governing
In this dystopian society, freedom was taken away from everyone, especially women and the only way to keep sane was to hope for the best, even if that meant risking your own life. Women were encaged and had their liberties taken away and the Author, Margaret Atwood, focused on the perspective of a single handmaid (Offred) that experienced this
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.
The book “The Handmaid’s Tale” written by Margaret Atwood takes place in a dystopian society in which men are seen as being superior than women. Besides the obvious remarks that this book shows such as sexism, this book also gives a more concealed message in which it satirizes the ridiculousness of the fact that many women of the present generation do not want to be considered and do not wish to join the feminist movement. This idea is explored throughout the whole book, in which the main character, Offred, does not believe that feminism is needed and even ridiculed her mom when she talked about feminism and how is still needed. Ironically, as a result of that believe, a religious group was able to easily manipulate people and get control over
Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid's Tale,” is overflowing with references to overpowering masculinity, negative sexualization and oppressive authority, obviously lacking any slight expression of femininity. The most relevant mention of femininity can be found in the recurring references to the diverse flowers. A flower, is often seens as a symbol of beauty, fertility or femininity. However, in “The Handmaid’s Tale” the presences of certain flowers seem to reflect objects that have the ability to bloom or grow, unlike the woman, potentially symbolizing a sense of freedom or self-growth. Additionally, in a more literal way a flower can be seen as the part of the plant that hosts the reproductive organs, thus drawing attention to the woman who lack
In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale women are given very little control or freedom, this makes friends stand out even more, as they risk being punished and sent off to death islands. The main character Offred has lost everything she once knew, he family, her job, her freedom, and she is made to live as a handmaid, whose sole purpose is to help the human population reproduce. The regime known as Gilead says they promote the solidarity of women, but in fact because of the way the society is set up and the idea that a woman is only useful if she produces a baby causes a lot of jealousy and distrust, especially among the handmaids. This is precisely what makes Offred and Moria’s friendship so special, as bonds like their do not exist in GIlead, no one dares to get close to another
In her novel, Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood conceives a dystopian society, set sixteen years from now, in which the United States has become the New Republic of Gilead. This version of the future takes root because of a nuclear and biological war that leaves many women unable to reproduce. Thus, those who are still fertile are treated as illicit liaisons for rich older couples who want a child but cannot. These fertile women are called “handmaids,” a term referring to a story in the Bible, where Rachel sends her handmaid to Jacob to bear him a child in her stead. Although it is arguable that Margaret Atwood fails to create a convincing dystopian society in her novel, it is plausible that today’s current events, laden with war, sexism, and
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.