Margaret Atwood 's The Handmaid 's Tale

In today’s news we see many disruptions and inconsistencies in society, and, according to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, humankind might be headed in that direction. The deterioration of society is a concept often explored biologically in novels, but less common, is the effect on everyday social constructs such as the position of women as a item that can be distributed and traded-in for a ‘better’ product. The Handmaid’s Tale elaborates the concept that, as societal discrimination towards women intensifies, gender equality deteriorates and certain aspects of societal freedoms are lost. Offred’s experience with serving Gilead demonstrates a victim’s perspective and shows how the occurring changes develope the Republic.

Mary Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale describes a Christian society in the Republic of Gilead whereby the lives of women are controlled and governed by men. In this society, power is concentrated in the hands of certain religious extremist men and thus, leading to the restriction of women freedom. Offred, a leading character in the novel, describes the lifestyle of people living in the Republic of Gilead. Additionally, she portrays the political situation in the Republic of Gilead prior to the installation of the new Christian government. The important issues in the novel comprises of the political condition and gender inequality of the Republic of Gilead. Feminist groups wanted liberation from customary gender roles and suppression of women by men. The use of contraception, abortion and voting rights for women were all prohibited. Similarly, reading and writing were altogether outlawed. In the Republic of Gilead, women were subjugated to oppression and abuse and were made to obey gender roles assigned to them. Atwood is not optimistic about the situation of women and power and a means of fighting oppression against men. In this paper, I will argue that the main purpose of Margaret Atwood’s novel is to raise attention to feminine issues in the

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

In “The Handmaid 's Tale” by Margaret Atwood, there is the addressing of freedom, abuse of power, feminism, rebellion and sexuality. The audience is transported to a disparate time where things normalized in our current society are almost indistinguishable. Atwood uses each character carefully to display the set of theme of rebellion within the writing, really giving the reader a taste of what the environment is like by explaining detailed interactions, and consequences as well as their role in society.

THE OPPRESSION OF WOMEN IN ATWOOD’S THE HANDMAID’S TALE AND THEIR WAYS OF RESISTING THE REGIME

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood explores how societies, such as Gilead, exist as a result of complacency as the novel serves as a cautionary tale to future societies. Through ‘The Historical Notes’, Atwood explores the continuation of patriarchy and how the female voice is constantly undermined by the male gaze. Dominick Grace’s analysis of ‘The Historical Notes’ ‘questions … the authenticity’ of Offred’s account as it relies purely on the reliability of memories, which are subjective.

The Handmaid's Tale, a film based on Margaret Atwood’s book depicts a dystopia, where pollution and radiation have rendered innumerable women sterile, and the birthrates of North America have plummeted to dangerously low levels. To make matters worse, the nation’s plummeting birth rates are blamed on its women. The United States, now renamed the Republic of Gilead, retains power the use of piousness, purges, and violence. A Puritan theocracy, the Republic of Gilead, with its religious trappings and rigid class, gender, and racial castes is built around the singular desire to control reproduction. Despite this, the republic is inhabited by characters who would not seem out of place in today's society. They plant flowers in the yard, live in suburban houses, drink whiskey in the den and follow a far off a war on the television. The film leaves the conditions of the war and the society vague, but this is not a political tale, like Fahrenheit 451, but rather a feminist one. As such, the film, isolates, exaggerates and dramatizes the systems in which women are the 'handmaidens' of today's society in general and men in particular.

By exploring settings societies governed by political and social patriarchies, both Arthur Miller’s the Crucible and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaids Tale provide commentary on women’s role in society. Both texts are set against a backdrop in which women are seen as a ‘second class’ and are subject to male dominance. The similarities in the two texts lie within their separate discussions of gender roles in society, but they differ on the intricacies of this. From a theocratic standpoint, the play and the novel dissect the faults in an oppressive society, with Miller making it abundantly clear that it can in fact be challenged instead of conformed to. Atwood also somewhat entertains this concept, but both writers have different perceptions on identity and individuality in worlds that don’t seem much unlike our own.

A woman’s power and privileges depend on which societal class she is in. In Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale each group of women are each represented in a different way. The three classes of women from the novel are the Handmaids, the Marthas and the Wives. The ways in which the women are portrayed reflect their societal power and their privileges that they bestow.

Emily Salazar Junior Research Paper 5 June 2018 Offred's Oppression: Societies Restraints on Women In The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood depicts a society which is full of sexism, oppression, hatred, and negativity. Throughout the book, the reader sees Atwood describing the immense amount of oppression that the women in this society are living under. Atwood purposefully shines a light on this topic in an attempt to spark the minds of the readers and create a real world debate on the issues women face in the modern world..

Margaret Atwood’s harrowing novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, follows the story of a woman marginalized by the theocratic oligarchy she lives in; in the Republic of Gilead, this woman has been reduced to a reproductive object who has her body used to bear children to the upper class. From the perspective of the modern reader, the act of blatant mistreatment of women is obvious and disturbing; however, current life is not without its own shocking abuses. Just as the Gileadian handmaid was subject to varied kinds of abuse, many modern women too face varied kinds of abuses that include psychological, sexual, and financial abuse.

Throughout history, women have always struggled with maintaining a status equal to that of men in both the workforce as well as home life. Traditionally, women have been forced to be shut into the house performing grotesquely dull action such as constantly cooking, cleaning and caretaking while the man is out bringing home the money due to the female’s ability to reproduce readily. This outdated status of women, however, is taken to an extreme in The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood where the women are demoted as practically slaves to the system. While numerous pieces of literature have addressed slavery across the world in different lights, very few have explored the enslavement felt by women to men in the ages prior to present day. By

Atwood's focus on sexism shows readers the importance of feminism and equality. For example, on page 72, the author writes, "This week Janine doesn't wait for us to jeer at her. It was my fault, she says. It was my fault. I led them on. I deserved the pain." This quote shows that the women are being conditioned into blaming themselves if something such as sexual assault were to happen to them. It's important because readers should recognize the unjust way of thinking and oppose sexism such as this. Continually, in the novel it says, "Women can't hold property anymore, she said. It's the new law" (178). In the story, when society abruptly changed, women had their rights taken away as displayed in the quote. This illustrates how sexist the society is in the novel and how Atwood believes life would turn out if people were to disregard equality. Finally, the job and treatment of the handmaids throughout the story is very unjust. The handmaids are used for couples who can't have children on their own and must follow strict rules and complete their job or else they face severe consequences. This conveys, yet again, the inhumane way a lot of the women are treated and the wrongs of sexism. Ultimately, this theme of sexism

In The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood explores the role that women play in society and the consequences of a countryís value system. She reveals that values held in the United States are a threat to the livelihood and status of women. As one critic writes, “the author has concluded that present social trends are dangerous to individual welfare” (Prescott 151).

“There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from,” (Atwood 24). The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood, is a novel set in the near future where societal roles have severely changed. The most notable change is that concerning women. Whereas, in the past, women have been gaining rights and earning more “freedom to’s”, the women in the society of The Handmaid’s Tale have “freedom froms”. They have the freedom from being abused and having sexist phrases yelled at them by strangers. While this may seem like a safer society, all of the “safeness” comes at a drastic cost. Atwood depicts a dystopia in The Handmaid’s Tale