The Handmaid's Tale The novel, The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood focuses on the choices made by the society of Gilead in which the preservation and security of mankind is more highly regarded than freedom or happiness. This society has undergone many physical changes that have led to extreme psychological ramifications. I think that Ms. Atwood believes that the possibility of our society becoming as that of Gilead is very evident in the choices that we make today and from what has occured in the past. Our actions will inevitably catch up to us when we are most vulnerable. "We are for breeding purposes..There is supposed to be nothing entertaining about us, no room is to be permitted for the flowering of secret lusts..We are two-legged wombs, that's all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices (p. 176)." In the society of Gilead, the most highly valued aspect of life is giving birth to a healthy child without deformities. Gilead was the aftermath of a nuclear world war (or some type of chemical mishap involving most of the world). As a result of this, some women and men are left sterile and unable to increase the significantly decreased population. The women who are fertile are placed in institutions where they are trained in the process of pregnancy and child bearing, those who are not are left to die in areas with concentrated radiation. This society has undergone a change so extraordinary that it has taken us from one extreme to the next, leaving many people wondering what happened to make it so. The things that were most highly honored and respect are now treated with disdain. These changes were not all detrimental but the majority of them we could have done without. Ms. Atwood poses that humankind has a nature to develope, whether that development is for the empowerment or destruction of our society is unknown until the consequences take place. "I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will...There were limits, but my body was nevertheless lithe, single, solid, one with me...Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I'm a cloud, congealed around a central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and more real than I am and glows red within its translucent wrapping (p.
Canada suffered its longest and most terrible economic depression in its history between 1929 and 1939. It is now known as the Great Depression. This essay will demonstrate the major causes, political, economic and social consequences, and the government’s solutions from the Great Depression. The Great Depression affected all of Canada and is a key part of our history. It is important that we learn from it so we can prevent it from happening again.
In the dystopian novel "The Handmaid's Tale" written by Margaret Atwood, the recurrent appearance of the color red draws an interesting yet perverse parallel between femininity and violence. The dominant color of the novel, red is associated with all things female. However, red is also the color of blood; death and violence therefore are closely associated with women in this male-dominated ultraconservative government.
First, the government used a dangerous literal interpretation of a Biblical passage as justification for adultery under the guise of reproduction. Second, the state constantly reinforced its falsified morality by saturating daily routines with religious expressions. Lastly, the regime altered Biblical references to further its political goals, and then prohibited language to prevent exposing its duplicity. Although Gilead rather effectively erased women’s values to construct a hyper-patriarchy, The Handmaid’s Tale provides a voice for this silenced population.
Perhaps the most frightening aspect of Offred's world is not even its proximity, but its occasional attractiveness. The idea that women need strict protection from harm is not one espoused solely by the likes of Rush Limbaugh or Pat Buchanan, but also by women like Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon. This protectionist variety of feminism is incorporated in the character of Offred's mother, and to a certain degree in Aunt Lydia. Offred's mother is just as harsh in her censorship of pornography as any James Dobson. By burning the works which offend her, she too is contributing to the notion that women's safety is contingent on squelching the Bill of Rights. The restriction of sexually explicit pictures places the blame for sex crimes on women, again -- the women in the photographs who supposedly drive men to rape. Where have we heard this before? Who else refuses to hold rapists responsible for their own actions, choosing instead to restrict the behavior of those they consider the catalysts?
Theodor Seuss Geisel or as known as Dr.seuss is famous cartoonist , writer and author who was born 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He is one of the most favorite children’s authors of the twentieth century. Although he is well known of children’s books like “The cat in the hat “and Green Eggs and Ham”. Theodor also has sold many copies of political cartoons, poems, and even film scripts not only in the united states but also worldwide. Poems, Political cartoons, and film scripts were some of his work as well. The power of writing he used brought joy and happiness to all people, especially kids. There is No doubt of a successful writer is he, brought such morals and lessons to real life. Whether he was drawing or writing, his work was
Margaret Atwood's futuristic “The Handmaid's Tale” refuses categorization into a single style, or genre. To me it blends a few approaches away from a predictable sci-fi or thriller fiction. Throughout the novel their were a few determinants or factors that decisively affect the nature or outcomes of certain events and how people behave or interact with one another.
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.
The oxford dictionary refers to the word “utopia” as being a place of “paradise, heaven on earth” as well as perfection. It can be labeled as a place that is the most desirable in any nation on earth and can sum up what we as humans search for. “A Handmaid’s Tale” depicts a twisted, yet not to far off, version of our country not to long ago when we lived in the opposite of this so-called paradise. No word can describe this story better than the opposite of utopia, a “dystopian” society. The entire U.S. government fell into a dystopian-type ruling when the very laws created by the government served to treat women as no more than maids and harlots. In this chaotic story, Margaret Atwood depicts a society where men and women fall into the rules of the old testament based on older beliefs describing women as lesser individuals compared to men. Atwood shows the similarities between the Republic of Gilead and the way we used to see the roles of women as well as some aspects of society today. Her overall reason for creating this story is to show her readers around the world the scary truth and effects of the belittlement of women and disregarding them as more than just wives and housemaids.
The ability to create life is an amazing thing but being forced to have children for strangers is not so amazing. Offred is a handmaid, handmaid's have children for government officials, such as Commander Waterford. Offred used to be married to Luke and together they had a daughter but then everything changed; Offred was separated from her family and assigned to a family as their handmaid. The society which Offred is forced to live in shaped her in many ways. In The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood uses cultural and geographical surroundings to shape Offred's psychological and moral traits as she tries to survive the society that she is forced to live, in hopes that she can rebel and make change.
On January 15th, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, a very influential mind was born (Marcelo and David B.). This person was Martin Luther King, Jr. As King grew older he began to realize his family's work. They had been part of a long line of pastors at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (Nobel Foundation). He began to realize what was going on in his very eventful life and recognized it as segregation.
The Handmaid's Tale This is a futuristic novel that takes place in the northern part of the USA sometime in the beginning of the twenty-first century, in the oppressive and totalitarian Republic of Gilead. The regime demands high moral retribution and a virtuous lifestyle. The Bible is the guiding principle. As a result of the sexual freedom, free abortion and high increase of venereal diseases at the end of the twentieth century, many women, (and men also, but that is forbidden to say), are sterile. The women who are still fertile are recruited as Handmaids, and their only mission in life is to give birth to the offspring of their Commander, whose wife is infertile.
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;
"The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is a dystopia 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 any more, Dorothy!
I cannot expect others to only adapt for me, but I need to also try to adapt for others and meet them in the middle. Employers also need to consider cultural requirements of their employees. For example, in my culture, Islam is the common religion and so prayer times and religious holidays need to be accommodated for. During the month of Ramadan, it would be inconsiderate of someone to constantly eat in front of us or make statements like, “Just take a bite. I won’t tell.” By taking these coping methods of culture differences into consideration, we can become better
Caspar David Friedrich was a German painter, and helped define and shape the Romantic Movement in Germany. According to The Tate, Friedrich had a primary interest in the contemplation of the natural world (Wyss, “The Whispering Zeitgeist”). This no doubt transferred over to much of his artwork, as The Monk by The Sea immediately evokes emotion and contemplation from the viewer. In addition, Freidrich derived much of his inspiration from religion, which centered on nature as a metaphor for God’s power and anonymity. The portrait itself is named after the monk, but a vast expansive sea drowns out any thought that the monk is the actual subject of the painting; rather it alludes to how man truly occupies little space in this world and a need to heel to the divine.