The central to Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is the theme of hope. Hope is having the feeling of expectation or desire for something to happen. Jacob from Water for Elephants and Offred from The Handmaid’s Tale, both had the feeling of desire for happiness to come into their lives. This hope is what connected both protagonist together. Whereas they both live in different times, the feeling and need for hope was still the same. Both protagonists hoped for happiness, while losing everything, going through oppression and facing forbidden love. Jacob and Offred were able to go through rough times because of the hope that they both held. First, losing everything to tragic events still lead to the hope of finding happiness. In Gruen’s Water for Elephants, Jacob Jankowski is struck with multiple events that lead him to feeling overwhelmed. Jacob being a final year student in university, was preparing for his final exams to become a veterinarian, when he received devastating news. His parent were killed in a car accident. Added to this news was that, because of the depression, Jacob’s father was accepting pay by trading instead of money. Which caused Jacob to also lose the family house to the bank. With all of these tragic events happening to Jacob, he was still forced to go take his final exam. But because of the mental breakdown Jacob had during the exam, he couldn't continue, with the thoughts of his dead parents. “I blink, unable to focus. A second later I cross the room and toss the exam booklet on the proctor’s desk. Finished already? he says, reaching for it. I hear paper rustling as I head for the door. Wait! he calls after me.” (30) Jacob knowing he had no place to head to, continued... ... middle of paper ... ...with Nick, Offred was able to tell him everything, along with her past life and her real name that isn't known by anyone, anymore. She trusted Nick with everything even though she did have doubts about trusting him. But being with Nick did find her the happy ending. Offred was taken away by a black van that was disguised as a government van. “ Instead, he called in a rescue team of Eyes, who may or may not have been authentic but in any case were under his orders.” (388) What happened to Offred after the rescue was not known, but the fact that she was able to get away by trusting Nick, did give her the freedom and happiness she had hoped for. Forbidden love made both Jacob and Offred realized that by overcoming problems, they would be able to find hope. In conclusion, both protagonists were still able to find hope through tragedy, oppression and forbidden love.
One of the main characters that suffers is Rosie, the circus’ elephant, her owner abuses her because he thinks she is a poorly trained animal. In reality Rosie doesn’t understand English. “August marches off, I turn back to Rosie. She stares at me, a look of unspeakable sadness on her face. Her amber eyes are filled with tears” (Gruen 268). Rosie is abused and has no method of escaping from her oppression. Emotional pain is shown in Water for Elephants through negative events in Jacob’s life. “I sink to the floor, overcome with grief and guilt. I throw a book at the wall” (Gruen 299). Jacob suffers as he tries to control his emotions. He suffers as he tries to overcome the loss of his companions, Walter and Camel. The two characters died as a result of being thrown off of the moving circus train because they could no longer afford to pay their wages. This also shows the pain involved in trying to earn a living during the Great Depression era. Furthermore, pain and suffering is tied into being confined, as one is suffering due to their confined
In both The Color Purple, and The Handmaid’s Tale, Steven Spielberg and Margaret Atwood explore the everyday struggles faced by women within societies ruled by men. While The Color Purple is a film and The Handmaid’s Tale a book, both authors use techniques associated with their text type to explore the structures of the societies and how the societies can be damaging to the women within them. Setting is explored by both authors in different ways, as The Color Purple is based on events in US history, while The Handmaid’s Tale is an imagined future. The two authors have also used their respective protagonists as a narrative voice throughout their texts as a way to explore the injustice that the women face and to influence the audience to identify
Comparing The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and Anthem by Ayn Rand The two novels, ‘The Handmaid's Tale’ and ‘Anthem‘, are both haunting, first person tales of personal hardship in a closed and controlled society. In this essay I will point out many important similarities and differences between the two books, mainly the setting and the similarities between the two societies in which the stories take place, as well as more important differences between the main characters. To start, I would like to compare the settings of the two books.
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
end. This essay will further show how both stories shared similar endings, while at the same time
In The Handmaid’s Tale, much use is made of imagery; to enable the reader to create a more detailed mental picture of the novel’s action and also to intensify the emotive language used. In particular, Atwood uses many images involving flowers and plants.
Thesis Statement: Both 1984 by George Orwell and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood are similar as they are placed in dystopian societies with governments that have complete control over their citizens, however, the roles of the narrator in both novels contrast with each other. In 1984, the point of view is Limited Omniscient while the point of view in The Handmaid's Tale is first person. 1. Topic Sentence: As there are differences in the narration of both the novels, 1984 and the Handmaid’s Tale, the role of the narrators will be quite different as readers see different perspectives in each novel. In The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, readers are introduced to Offred, who is a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead.
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.
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
Offred, among other women depicted in this novel, tries to overcome this dominion. In her own way, she attempts to do this by ensuring the Commander’s expectations of her behavior which could result in her freedom. Thus, there is a present power struggle between the Commander and Offred throughout The Handmaid’s
Prior to meeting Nick, Offred abhorred her life as a handmaid. She was depressed and she even mentions thoughts of killing herself. Even though the Commander spends time with her, Offred still did not grew to love him or find comfort in him, as seen during the night the Commander slept with Offred; Even the commander was disappointed by Offred’s lack of enthusiasm. However, ever since Offred slept with Nick, she became enamoured with him. Nick became her source of content and joy; she idolized him. Even though she hated her role as a handmaid, she became used to it if it means she can stay with
Offred from The Handmaid's Tale uses different tactics to cope with her situation. She is trapped within a distopian society comprised of a community riddled by despair. Though she is not physically tortured, the overwhelming and ridiculously powerful government mentally enslaves her. Offred lives in a horrific society, which prevents her from being freed. Essentially, the government enslaves her because she is a female and she is fertile. Offred memories about the way life used to be with her husband, Luke, her daughter, and her best friend Moira provides her with temporary relief from her binding situation. Also, Offred befriends the Commander's aide, Nick. Offred longs to be with her husband and she feels that she can find his love by being with Nick. She risks her life several times just to be with Nick. Feeling loved by Nick gives her a window of hope in her otherwise miserable life.
The Handmaid’s Tale and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? draw on different narrative techniques to establish our relationship to their protagonists. Margaret Atwood allows the reader to share the thoughts of the main character, while Philip K. Dick makes the reader explore the mysteries behind the story. Atwood’s style works because she can directly show her readers what she wants. Dick’s opposing style works for him because he can present paradoxes and mysteries and let the reader form the conclusion. Both of these styles are skillfully utilized to create complex stories without losing the reader along the way.
Offred had been though many mixed feelings throughout this entire book. She has been able to feel, experience and thinks thoughts that she had not ever imagined that she would have. Offred can not escape the fact that in spite of the treatment from Serena Joy and the commander, that they both will have if not already have an impact on her life. Not to mention Nick also. Nick gave her the comfort and the security that she wanted, and at the end nothing done to her by the commander or his wife mattered to her. Living in the Republic of Gilead will always be a memory that she will probably try to forget.
Throughout the novel the reader often gets forced into or tends to question him/herself about what really a fictional novel is. Handmaid’s tale is a novel that is fragmented in its plot and theme, and often this leaves the reader to play the role of piecing together and looking at the larger picture of the theme and plot, but often this causes certain times in the novel involving ambiguity. This type of fragmentation is part of postmodern literature. This novel unlike the conventional structure of novel, often points out to the reader itself that the story is somehow linked with the main character and the reader, and this link is where the main theme and the intellectual knowledge of the character in the story lies. The evidence of this unconventional structure lies in the thoughts are quotes said by Offred, the main character, “I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off “(49 Atwood). This quote is in the end of chapter 7 and it reveals the underlying connection between