The Nonconformist
The Handmaid’s Tale is an award winning best seller dystopian novel written in 1998 by Harvard graduate Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid’s Tale is narrated from a first-person point of view by a Handmaid named Offred. Offred lives in The Republic of Gilead. Gilead was formed when the United States democratic government was overthrown and replaced by a totalitarian government by the name of “The Sons of Jacob.” Gilead is divided into many different social classes including: The Commanders, Eyes, Guardians, Angels, Aunts, Martha’s, Wife’s, Econowifes and Handmaids. You are placed into these social classes according to gender and skills. Nearly all individuals are regulated by dress laws, the certain color of their uniforms reflects
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Moira plays the role of a nonconformist in the novel, she went against Gilead and its strict rules attempting multiple escapes, she is a leader and a role model to the women, as the story progress Moira’s mentality changes as she becomes content with her job and enjoys her life …show more content…
In this quotation Offred is describing how Moira’s once rebellious attitude has changed. “Moira,” I say. “You don’t mean that.” She is frightening me now, because what I hear in her voice is indifference, a lack of violation. Have they really done it to her then, taken away something – what? – that used to be so central to her? But how can I expect her to go on, with my idea of her courage, live it through, act it out, when I myself do not? I do not want her to be like me. Give in go along, save her skin. That’s what it comes down to. I want gallantry from her, swashbuckling, heroism, single-handed combat. Something I lack…. Anyway, look at it this way: it’s not bad, there’s a lot of women around. Butch paradise, you might call it.” (Atwood 249). Moira was captured after her escape she now works at a night club as a prostitute, because she was too dangerous to be allowed to return to the red center. Moira is content with her life and is giving up. She enjoys her work calling it a paradise. Offred misses the old rebellious Moira saying she has lost her voice and gallantry. This disappoints Offred stating “I’d like to tell a story about how Moira escaped, for good this time… I’d like to say she blew up Jezebel’s, with fifty Commanders inside it. I’d like her to end with something daring and spectacular, some outrage, something that would benefit her.” (Atwood 250). Moira conforming upset Offred,
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
The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood is a novel about a totalitarian state called Republic of Gilead that has replaced the United States in which the women of society have been taken away from their families and forced to be
The Handmaid 's Tale is set in Republic of Gilead in Cambridge, MA. The narrator/protagonist is Offred she is a handmaid for the Commander and his wife Serena Joy. Offred like other handmaids in the Republic of Gilead main obligation is to bare a child for the couples they are assigned to.
Moira is presented through her actions as rebellious - through her escape.This shows the importance of the hope for handmaids that they can escape because one of them already has. The reader also finds out through Moira that if the handmaids are caught they are severely punished. "The feet they'd do for a first offence. They used steel cables...they didn't care what they did to your feet or hands. Even if it was permanent." Her escape gave offred hope Moira was free she might be able to set the other handmaids free. "Moira had power now...she was now a loose woman"- although over the time the handmaids would lose this taste of freedom but Moira would always be their "fantasy." Loose woman was an odd way of wording this means a woman adulterer; this could also be taken to mean she is loose in talking very gossipy. Or even loose as in a "tart" or a prostitute which is really what the handmaids could be seen to be doing.
Throughout the majority of the novel, Offred recounts on her mother’s character, whom she thinks is dead. She was a single mother and a proud feminist. In the first quarter, Offred recounts on a flashback of her mother burning porn magazines, claiming that they are degrading to women. However, towards the end of the novel, Offred learns that she is in fact alive, yet is living in the Colonies. Moira had seen her in a video about women living the Colonies, which is completely contrasted from the beginning, when Offred viewed her mother in a documentary protesting. This shows how Gilead has significantly changed her as a person. Living in the Colonies is just as bad as death because although she is alive she is required to do menial and even dangerous labour like cleaning radioactive waste. Earlier in the book, during Offred’s flashbacks, her mother was always a strong female character. She was always speaking and acting on behalf of women’s rights, yet now she has not fulfilled these expectations. She has been subjugated and indifferent like the rest of the women, not at all optimistic and energetic like she was in her previous life. Her complicity shows the reader how oppressive the society is and how even the toughest characters become
This makes her distinct from the other women in the book and is another example of her individuality. Another role of Moira's rebellious nature is to give hope to Offred and help her to survive. Following Moir... ... middle of paper ... ... was so important to Offred, and is no longer the stronger character, as she is also now trying to "save her skin" (P261). Although she has lost her rebelliousness, she retains her humour and teases Offred, "there's lot's of women around.
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
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.
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.
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.
Throughout The Handmaid’s Tale, the author Margaret Atwood gives the reader an understanding of what life would be like in a theocratic society that controls women’s lives. The narrator, Offred gives the reader her perspective on the many injustices she faces as a handmaid. Offred is a woman who lived before this society was established and when she undergoes the transition to her new status she has a hard time coping with the new laws she must follow. There are many laws in this government that degrade women and give men the authority of each household. All women are placed in each household for a reason and if they do not follow their duties they are sent away or killed. Atwood bases the irrational laws in the Gilead republic on the many
"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!
Though Offred is developed as a character through her opinions on female sexuality, she is further characterized by her individuality and willingness to defy her social expectations as a female, assigned to her by her government. In Atwood’s work, the narrative is told by an intelligent individual named Offred who is oppressed by Gilead’s female expectations but is not afraid to defy these assigned roles despite not being a traditional heroine (Nakamura). Even as Offred’s previous identity is stripped away from her, she retains small pieces of her womenhood and individuality through defiant actions such as manipulating men with her feminity from swaying her hips slighty in their line of sight to making direct eye contact with certain men, which she is forbidden from. On the other hand, a major act of rebellion from