Questions need answers. But in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the answers expected to come at the end of the story are left to the reader’s imagination. Offred’s story ends abruptly, with her supposedly escaping the horrific Republic of Gilead. The readers do not get the reassurance from Atwood that Offred thrived after her time in Gilead. Creatively, Atwood includes a final section of her novel titled “Historical Notes.” These notes present a transcript of a talk given by Professor Pieixoto at a conference in 2195. The Historical Notes offer an historical perspective on Offred’s story. They juxtapose Offred’s deeply personal experience with an objective view on the function of the Republic of Gilead. The Notes provide clarification …show more content…
For example, Professor Maryann Crescent Moon is the chair of the academic conference and introduces the keynote speaker, Professor Pieixoto. It appears the regime of Gilead left little harmful effects on the present-day society. Although this is the case, Pieixoto approaches Offred’s story with a seemly unsympathetic view. This comes as a shock to the reader because Offred’s account of the story attacks the cruel Gileadean government and does not support any of the tough decisions made by the society’s original leaders. The professor disregards Offred’s traumatic personal experience and simply studies Gilead from an historical viewpoint. He also blames Offred for the holes in her story by saying, “...had she had the instincts of a reporter or a spy. What would we not give, now, to even twenty pages or so of printout from [the Commander’s] private computer!” (Atwood 310). Pieixoto’s speech focuses on finding out who the Commander is, rather than analyzing, or even acknowledging, the horror the Handmaids had experienced. Instead, there is a sense of minor respect for the formation of the Republic of Gilead by the professor. “Its genius was synthesis” (Atwood 307). This statement comes after a lengthy report of how different historical groups, such as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, contributed to the structure of Gilead. True, Gilead was a creative solution for a …show more content…
“As for the ultimate fate of our narrator, it remains obscure” (Atwood 310). Atwood purposefully leaves the readers with an unsatisfactory ending to manufacture a fear that this terrifying story continues past the end of the novel, although she believes reality will not fall to a tragedy like Gilead as she mentions in the introduction: “Let us hope it doesn’t come to that. I trust it will not” (Atwood XIX). The introduction reveals that Atwood is often asked if The Handmaid’s Tale is a prediction of the future. She creates such a realistically scary novel that it evokes a deep fear in the readers of what is to
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.
Although Offred is the heroine of this story, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the hero’s journey can be found in many characters in the story as well. This story is breaking into shambles between the past and the present, however, through the story, readers can still see the signs of the hero’s journey that Joseph Campbell has studied. Offred, being a handmaid, has been thrown into a world where women are powerless and stripped away of their rights to read and write. Atwood illustrates a dystopian world where equality is a part of history, not in the present day Gilead. However, Offred is one of the main characters who ceased to live in a degrading world and find means to escape. Thus, Offred begins on her Hero’s Journey, which occurs
This is one point amidst many which I will discuss in this essay. One of the most important issues that the “jezebels” sequence offers contrasting to the rest of the novel, is the alternative view regarding the roles of women. In the chapters prior to jezebels Atwood illustrates that in Gilead women are just items and objects and that they only function in society is to give birth.
In The Handmaid 's Tale by Margaret Atwood, readers are introduced to Offred, who is a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. As this novel is
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
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 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.
The people in conflict of Gilead are fundamentalist Christians who run a dictatorship lead country called Gilead. Atwood herself has said that Gilead is not an ideal place to live but it is not in fact out of the realm of possibility, it is in fact a mimic of the Islamic Republic after the revolution in the late 1970s, and Gilead is a place close to reality for many countries in the future. The radiation and pollution has gotten so bad in America that women are failing to conceive, men are failing to stay fertile and babies are failing to stay alive. Gilead's ruling class is in trouble with the low birth rates, if they want to maintain power they need to raise their next generation to carry on with the country. To keep children flowing into the system the state sends each couple of the ruling class a handmaid which is responsible for giving birth to the commanders baby for them to raise.
“We learned to whisper almost without sound. In the semidarkness we would stretch out our arms, when the Aunts weren’t looking, and touch each other’s hands across space. We learned to lip-read, our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, watching each other’s mouths.” (Atwood, p4) The handmaids whisper to each other to exchange information. They engage in this conversation to keep alive the nature of relationships between people. It is very lonely for these women, for they cannot say what is on their mind, they are only allowed pre-approved phrases from Gilead’s authorities Without this contact it would be impossible for the women to reminisce and be comforted. Another way of keeping the past real to Offred is to remember old stories from before the revolution. She spends a lot of her time thinking about her husband Luke and how the city used to look before, “Lilies used to be a movie theater here, before. Students went there a lot; every spring they had a Humphrey Bogart festival with Lauren Bacall or Katherine Hepburn, women on their own, making up their own minds” (Atwood, 25). These small rebellions that Offred and other handmaids participate in are very significant. The simple fact that they choose to engage in these insurgences shows that they still cling on to their more just and free past. They still have a notion of truth and are keeping it alive. Having these passions and feelings causes the structure of Gilead to truly not work, and will probably (The Handmaid’s Tale was left open ended) lead to its demise.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a dystopian novel told through the eyes of Offred, the main character. Within the novel, a totalitarian style government called the Republic of Gilead takes over the United States. The new established government restricts the freedom of citizens in many ways. As a result from being oppressed, people within society rebel against the government secretly. It is inevitable for people to want freedom; therefore, people will always find a way to obtain this freedom even if they must keep it hidden.
Essentially, the only way to prevent modern society from falling on a path eerily similar to Gilead’s oppressive regime “to give voice to suppressed histories” (Dodson 18). Offred, though not alone,
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.
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 to own their 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.
However, as Margaret Atwood warns in her novel The Handmaid’s Tale our reality is a dangerous one in which our complacency can result in the loss of every single one of these freedoms. Offred’s journey gives us a glimpse into what lies ahead for this country if we don’t take action. Her rights have been stolen from her and her family is taken away from her all as she is pushed into the role of a sex slave for the Gilead. Such a grisly depiction of the future is closer to the truth than what meets the eye. The inability to take a stand against this adversity is what is allowing it to begin with. Collectively, we must not stop the fight for actual justice for the oppressed of this country until we see them come to fruition. Inaction now will result in our own
The end of the book is not the usual ending as compared to most novels; Atwood decides it to end the whole story with some Historical notes which give information on the Gileadean regime and era. The ending of the book can be categorized as postmodern by its ambiguity, but this ambiguity also holds a strong approach into understanding the theme of the book. The ending allows the reader to question and know “what is the real essence and theme of the book?” Atwood’s use of Historical notes at the end forces that the reader understands the relation between history and stories and how both of them correlate to larger understanding of the themes in the story and in time. Questions arise within in a reader of “why they feel the way they do?” or the perspective given in the book, one can only judge from that perspective and the purpose of unusual ending in Handmaids tale allows the reader to re-examine and question judgements that are made in the story and life. Atwood’s ending puts question to the moral and philosophical issues that were also in the theme of the book, a vivid example of a postmodern text. The whole structure and form of the novel from beginning to end also reveals its themes in the relation between Offred and the reader. The first person point-of-view throughout