Society & The Submissive Margaret Atwood’s book “The Handmaid’s Tale”, Offred ( The main Character) struggles with expressing Individualism among a society that constrains a woman by labelling her for her duties and worth. Offred is a “Handmaid” which is a group of women who are used for reproduction, being a “Handmaid” is considered to be very degrading because these women are seen for only their bodies to provide children and nothing more. An article previously read, written by “Frieda Fordham” discusses Jungian Archetypes and one that best correlates with the book is “The Persona”. The Persona is defined as “A collective phenomenon, a facet of the personality that might equally well belong to somebody else, but it is often mistaken for …show more content…
One quote that shows a woman having to change her individualism is when Offred is getting ready to take a bath and she looks down at her body and says “My nakedness is strange to me already. My body seems outdated. Did I really wear bathing suits to the beach? I did, without thought, among men, without caring that my legs, my arms, my thighs, and back were on display, could be seen. Shameful, Immodest. I avoid looking down at my body, not because it’s shameful or immodest, but because I don't want to see it. I don't want to look at something that determines me so completely” (Atwood, 63). This shows a change of individualism because in today’s day women are encouraged to love and accept their bodies, but Offred doesn’t because she knows that her body is only being used and not loved. Aguilera’s quote act’s as an encouragement to the women of today but the same can not be said for the women in …show more content…
That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet” (Shakespeare). Aname holds so much uniqueness and so many connotations whether positive or negative. Your name is one of the big factors that makes a person an individual as well as very self confident. Unfortunately as i’ve said before women were stripped of their names which played a huge part in losing a part of who they were. A quote that displays personality is when offred gets in the car that Saturday morning in September and she says “My name isn’t Offred, I have another name, which nobody ever uses now because it is forbidden. I tell myself it doesn’t matter, your name is like your telephone number, useful only to others; but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter” (Atwood, 84). This shows a different personality because of the role that she has in society her name was changed to represent property to Fred. This displays a different personality because she doesn't like her name and struggles with Emotional Labor, she has to subside her emotions and feelings of wanting to be addressed and use her real name but has to be obedient and follow the rules of society but referring back to Shakespeare and the quote, when Offred is called anything other than what her real name she knows that it’s not the “Real” her rather it is the person who society enforced a role upon and molded her to be society expects her to
Offred is a handmaid, in the novel The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood, who no longer desired to rebel against the government of Gilead after they separated her from her family. When Offred was taken away from her family the Government of Gilead placed her in an institution known as the Red Center where they trained her along with other women unwillingly to be handmaids. The handmaid’s task was to repopulate the society because of the dramatic decrease in population form lack of childbirth. Handmaids are women who are put into the homes of the commanders who were unable to have kids with their own wives. The Handmaids had very little freedom and were not allowed to do simple tasks by themselves or without supervision like taking baths or going to the store. There was an uprising against the government of Gilead and many people who lived in this society including some handmaids looked for a way to escape to get their freedom back which was taken away from them and to reunited with their families which they lost contact with. Offred was one of the handmaids who was against the government of Gilead before she was put in the Red Center, but she joined the uprising after she became a
In life, people don’t always stand up for what they believe in in order to avoid exclusion – this is called apathy. In specific situations, people will blindly follow a primitive ideology without any regard for morality. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is an excellent example of how apathy can affect an entire population. This novel is by and large a feminist novel that addresses the ignorance in imperialistic and religious ideologies, but also addresses the issue of human apathy. In this novel, Atwood offers a disturbing look into what could be. The alterior motive of the society is to purify and improve the country as a whole. However, it is not only nationalism and imperialism
Character Analysis of The Handmaid's Tale Moira = == == We first meet Moira "breezing into" (P65) Offred's room at college.
As the saying goes, 'history repeats itself.' If one of the goals of Margaret Atwood was to prove this particular point, she certainly succeeded in her novel A Handmaid's Tale. In her Note to the Reader, she writes, " The thing to remember is that there is nothing new about the society depicted in The Handmaiden's Tale except the time and place. All of the things I have written about ...have been done before, more than once..." (316). Atwood seems to choose only the most threatening, frightening, and atrocious events in history to parallel her book by--specifically the enslavement of African Americans in the United States. She traces the development of this institution, but from the perspective of a different group of oppressed people: women.
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 words control and Gilead, the setting for the novel "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood, are interchangeable. Not only is control a pivotal feature of the novel and its plot, it consequently creates the subplots, the characters and the whole world because of its enormity in the Republic of Gilead. Resistance also features heavily, as does its results, mainly represented in the salvagings, particicution and the threat of the colonies.
Feminism as we know it began in the mid 1960's as the Women's Liberation Movement. Among its chief tenants is the idea of women's empowerment, the idea that women are capable of doing and should be allowed to do anything men can do. Feminists believe that neither sex is naturally superior. They stand behind the idea that women are inherently just as strong and intelligent as the so-called stronger sex. Many writers have taken up the cause of feminism in their work. One of the most well known writers to deal with feminist themes is Margaret Atwood. Her work is clearly influenced by the movement and many literary critics, as well as Atwood herself, have identified her as a feminist writer. However, one of Atwood's most successful books, The Handmaid's Tale, stands in stark contrast to the ideas of feminism. In fact, the female characters in the novel are portrayed in such a way that they directly conflict with the idea of women's empowerment.
In Night, the Jews were confined and imprisoned in the concentration camps because they were destined to be murdered in a systematic manner by the Nazis. An example of the systematic murdering tactic used is the selection process. This was the process in which the Jews had their age and fitness checked to determine who was old and fit enough to work, and who was to be murdered. An example of this is when Elie and his father first arrived to Birkenau an inmate said, “Not fifty. You're forty. Do you hear? Eighteen and forty”(Wiesel 30). The inmate said this so the father and son could avoid death upon entry. In Night, The Jews represented resentfulness and disgust in the eyes of the Nazis. However in The Handmaid’s Tale the Handmaids are
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.
The Handmaid’s Tale shows acts of rebellion throughout, but when we as an audience first see a sort of rebellion push through the strict control of Gileadean society is when the Commander and Offred have their first evening together. Offred’s metaphor “If I press my eye to it, this weakness of his, I may be able to see myself clear.” is a foreshadowing of the idea that maybe through these evenings with the Commander she may be able to ease her way out of Gileadean society. “It’s like a small crack in the wall, before now impenetrable.” Use of simile in her language gives the audience a glimpse into the hope she feels, that maybe she may be able to escape, maybe she has another chance at a normal life. Offred’s first time seeing the Commander’s
Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaids Tale belongs to the genre of anti-utopian (dystopian) science fiction where we read about a woman's fictive autobiography of a nightmarish United States at the end of the twentieth century when democratic institutions have been violently overthrown and replaced by the new fundamentalist republic of Gilead. In the novel the majority of the population are suppressed by using a "Bible-based" religion as an excuse for the suppression. How does this work and why can the girls, the so called Handmaids, be considered the victims of society? Also, in what way does Gilead use biblical allusions? That is some of the questions this essay will give answers for.
The Marxist theory “is the belief that the struggle between social classes is a major force in history and that there should eventually be a society in which there are no classes” – Karl Marx In the book “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood there are significant examples of the Marxist theory because of the way social classes are represented, how religion is manipulated in the society, and what values the text reinforces in the reader.
In a world where women have no freedom, it is essential to discover one’s self. Margaret Atwood portrays this idea in The Handmaid’s Tale. The protagonist, Offred, is an imprisoned Handmaid in this new world of the Republic of Gilead and has to rediscover her own past for the benefit for finding herself. There are various moments in this book when Offred is reminded of her past. When this happens, it helps herdiscoverer herself a little more. This is hard for her considering the fact that the new government says it is a sin to remember anything from the past life. While being stuck in this harsh new life, Offred struggles to remember her past and find out who she really is.
What exactly is your identity, and where does it lie? What makes you, you and what does it mean to be yourself? These are many questions that come up when discussing and questioning one’s identity. Most answers come up include gender, preferences, beliefs, etc. In The Handmaid’s Tale, the identities of all women were stripped away and given new identities, beliefs, dress code, and rules to follow. The author of The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood used Offred’s character to show the theme of individual’s loss of identity in the Gileadean society. Atwood was able to plant this image in the reader's mind with every detail explaining the conditions of Gilead. Having to lose an identity is like being brainwashed. The people of Gilead are brainwashed
Symbols and Lenses Role in The Handmaid’s Tale Makeup symbolizes the stereotypical women attributes in our modern society. Women are expected to look their best, not necessarily feel their best. In The Handmaid’s Tale, makeup plays just that. Gender roles relating to power, as well as changing appearances, loss of freedom, their past lives, and how the femininity has changed since their society was overthrown. Makeup isn’t mentioned as frequently as the word red, but it is a common theme throughout the novel.