The Oppression Of Women

It’s hard to believe, three women living in different countries, centuries and even realities can live parallel lives. The authors of The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood, Secret Daughter, Shilpi Somaya Gowda and The Rapture of Canaan, Sheri Reynolds, each work to illustrate how their protagonist’s experience oppression due to their gender. The Handmaid’s Tale, set in a dystopian world, tells the story of Offred, a woman who is caught trying to escape and thus forced to become a handmaiden for a couple who is unable to conceive. Forced to become indistinguishable among crowds, she fears losing who she is but never loses sight of her goal to be reunited with her daughter. Secret Daughter tells the story of Asha, a young Indian girl whose mother, Kavita, gives her away before her father can murder her for being a girl. Adopted by an American couple, she grows up not knowing who she truly is, only to find out the biological

Grandpa Herman “had a habit of altering the [Bible] verses to make them match his beliefs” (Reynolds 14). Herman dictates how everyone dresses, speaks, acts, and even worships. He writes ludicrous laws that if broken, will endear punishments such as sleeping in a cemetery grave for being unholy. Not only is Ninah smothered by her Grandfathers laws, but she also finds herself with less freedom than the men of the community. The men treat the women as if they were beneath them. She tells the reader of the time her uncle “made a motion to his chest as if to say [that girl’s] got big breasts” at dinner time, “and how the men laughed while the women pretended not to notice” (Reynolds 86). She’s unimpressed with how men are allowed to say whatever they want while women have to bite their tongues. Ninah is immersed in a culture where men are superior to women and she is continuously reminded of this