“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any”-Alice Walker. What this quote really means is that people are hopeless and they don’t realize on what they could do. They only focus on what’s going to happen next and about their safety, but they don’t notice that they are giving up their power to the government, leaving them powerless. Margaret Atwood examines power and peoples attempts to control each other. People in Gilead are viewed based on their social classes. This includes the Handmaids, Wives, Commanders, Aunts, Angles, Eyes, Martha’s, and the Econowives. It’s either they have power in their hands, or they don’t have power at all.
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
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.
In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale there is a threat of physical, emotional, and mental abuse if you disagree with the established group or party. The Handmaid’s Tale is a book about a “woman victimized by a totalitarian system that attempts to control her thoughts and deny her humanity” (Thomas 90). In The Handmaid’s Tale there are differences between all the women. There are the wives, who are married to the commanders. The commanders are in charge of all the other women. There are the econowives, which are the wives of the low-ranking officials. The Martha’s are in charge of the upkeep of the commander’s house. The Handmaid’s are in charge of having the commander’s baby. Each woman has to listen to their husband or commander. No woman can think for herself. The men are in charge of everything. (Atwood, Thomas)
In Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale, the character of Offred is restricted by the severe regulations of her society. The once democratic United States of America with equality for all has been turned into the theocratic and totalitarian Republic of Gilead. When Offred is affected by the strict standards of this society, she responds in audacious, yet furtive ways in order to not attract the attention of the omniscient Eyes who control the society and punish offenders
Prayers and Powers: Religion and Feminism in The Handmaid’s Tale
Being a transcript of the Thirteenth Symposium on Gileadean Studies, June 25, 2196.
Keynote speaker: Professor Maryann Crescent Moon, Department of Caucasian Anthropology, University of Denay, Nunavit.
(Applause).
Thank you, and I promise that I will keep within my time period, in both senses of the phrase, of course (Laughter).
Handmaids did not know they would end up where they are but now they are all in the same boat with different strategies to stay afloat. Some women rebel from the status quo, from what’s expected, and others fall in line to avoid the consequence of attempting to acquire what they truly desire which is freedom. Freedom to dream, love, express, and to be what they desire to be. This internal conflict is similar between a handmaid and housewife. Offred describes a moment where she thinks of stealing something from the Commanders room.” It would make me feel that I have power. But such a feeling would be an illusion, and too risky.” (81, Atwood) Offred yearns for merely the idea of power, the ability to makes one’s own decisions. In the article “A feminist 1984” by Cathy N. Davidson, she describes Atwood’s world where women were objectified. “Democratic freedom is replaced by brutal coercion, and women are reduced to a strictly biological role as two legged wombs” said Cathy Davidson, this quote supports the fact that women’s qualities only included their ability to reproduce. In the 1960’s this held true as well. Women were only expected to maintain the household and take care of children. In this dystopian novel reality is stretched to a point but the main truths still lie within the
Andrew Tubbin
Senior Inquiry
6/7/17
Handmaid’s Tale Essay
Is it fair to say that we still live in a world where everyone isn’t equal? Or some are treated with more respect than others? Do you think society will ever have the urge to change?
Much like women worldwide, the handmaids are alike in that they face a mutual dilemma. They are forced to accept an unjust reality and are changed greatly because of it. First Offred is forced to abandon her family and her societal role to assume a new one, she “[yearns] for the future,” where this reality no longer exists. The reds have a “talent for insatiability” that always remains “in the air”(3-4). Yet, this fundamental longing for change, for the progress of women, is one that has been present in culture for many centuries. Atwood’s depiction of Offred’s desire for a new reality is one that many individuals in society already aspire to obtain, for they currently face dystopian-like circumstances of being silenced much like the handmaids. Offred “[tries] not to think too much” because while she is intelligent
Before the war handmaids had their own lives, families, and jobs but that’s all gone now; They have all been separated from their families and assigned to A Commander and his wife to have their child. Handmaids did not choose this life but it was forced upon them. 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