Similarities Between Children Of Men And The Handmaid's Tale

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Like death and taxes, the power and politics continues to be one of the constants in modern life. As such, it is not surprising that the theme of power and politics is often present in works of literature. This theme is especially prevalent in the two dystopian novels Children of Men by P. D. James and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Both novels depict a similar totalitarian state formed in a once-democratic nations, though the strength and success of each regime was very different. As the strength of a totalitarian government is most easily measured by the power they wield over their people, it can be assumed that the government that exerts the most control over their people will be the strongest. Unlike the Council, Gilead assigns specific roles to …show more content…

Therefore, Gilead from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is a more successful totalitarian regime than the Council from P. D. James' Children of Men due to the differences in their means of maintaining political power. Unlike the Council, Gilead gives every member of society a specific role and duty to which they must conform to. The Council exerts no control over the roles of citizens in society, and gives people freedom to do as they please, even if it is of no real value to the state. Theo is allowed to continue his work as a history professor, despite the futility of it and the fact that "history...is the least rewarding discipline for a dying species" (James 11). The Five Fishes also seemingly have no profession, or at least no profession which occupies enough of their time to prevent them from creating a pamphlet and planning a rebellion against the government. If citizens were

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