Sacrifice In Margaret Atwood's 'Spelling'

Everyday we all make sacrifices for people we love and in rare cases those we do not. The book Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver illuminates one family and the sacrifice they make to journey from their comfortable home in Georgia to the untamed jungle of Africa’s Congo to preach as Baptist missionaries. The story takes place in the 1960s during the withdrawal of Belgian influence in the Congo. One of the family members Orleanna Price the wife and mother of the family sacrifices everything she has to make this journey that her husband so willfully accepted. Through her sacrifice it shows us what she values. This is shown through the sacrifice of her agency, way of life and her happiness.

‘The Historical Notes’ highlights that Offred’s story of patriarchal attitudes which does not only exist in the past, it threatens the future as well through Professor Piexioto’s dismissal of Offred as a figure belonging to a vanished past and his sexist attitudes. ‘The Historical Notes’ highlights the fact that the objectification of women has a cyclical nature as ‘The Future’ dehumanises and objectifies women, just like ‘The Republic of Gilead’. This is evident through the use of puns, where Professor Pieixoto compares Professor Crescent Moon, the ‘Arctic Chair’, to an ‘Arctic Char.’ The word ‘Char’ is slang for a domestic servant, once again highlighting the dehumanisation of women. The reference of Professor Crescent Moon to the ‘Arctic Char’ fish, belittles the female gender and emphasises the notion of consumption, the recurring idea that women are food, which is continuously used throughout the novel. Furthermore, the ‘laughter’ that follows, exemplifies the fact that sexism is funny and acceptable. Additionally, The Handmaid’s Tale’s ‘homage to the great Geoffrey Chaucer’ who wrote The Canterbury Tales trivialises Offred’s story and undermines the female authorship, thus accentuating the imposition of the male voice. Moreover, this ‘reconstruction’ of her story by men silences the female voice and removes Offred’s authority over her own life story by rending it in a gesture similar to Gilead’s suppression of a woman’s identity. This deconstruction of her story in such a scientific manner sanitises the importance of connecting emotionally to Offred’s story as well as silences the female voice by the dominating male gaze. Therefore, it is evident that through the use of her novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood is attempting to warn us against female subjugation in a patriarchal

The Romantic Period built an environment where women were painted with flowery diction (Wollstonecraft, 216) and were incapable of independence. The Rights of Woman became a crucial topic, particularly in poetry which allowed women the freedom of expression. Accordingly, during the early eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, women writers did not need the prop of their male contemporaries like suggested. Evidently, women were able, successful, and professional writers in their own right. In fact, women often influenced male writers (Dustin, 42). Both Mary Wollstonecraft and Anna Letitia Barbauld are evidence that women did not need to rely on their male peers to become successful poets. Consequently, many poets took inspiration from them (Dustin, 32). In The Rights of Woman and Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Anna Letitia Barbauld and Mary Wollstonecraft had contrasting ideas. Barbauld’s The Rights of Woman was a documented reaction towards Wollstonecraft’s extremely controversial Vindication. Henceforth, both indicate a separate message for the Rights of the Woman. Assumedly, Barbauld misinterpreted Wollstonecraft and readings of The Rights of Woman in the twenty-first century appear antifeminist as a result.

Akin to intersectional romance fiction, poetry is equivalently as radical. Poetry magnifies the significance of language as a revolutionary tool, one that liberates women and cultivates an environment in which women are free to address their aspirations and anxieties while condemning the ideals of a society that operates under the canons of male chauvinism. In a collection of letters published as a tribute to the late Audre Lorde in Off Our Backs, a feminist newspaper journal written for women by women, one anonymous contributor discusses how Lorde “encourages all women to find their own means of expression, their own poetry to value and to use” (Tyler 32) in her piece “Poetry Is Not a Luxury”. In the piece, Lorde discusses how for women, poetry is not a nonessential indulgence, as Caucasian men throughout history have suggested through how they render poetry as an opportunity to “cover [a] desperate wish for imagination without insight” (Lorde, “Poetry Is Not a Luxury” 36). Lorde contends that poetry is a “vital necessity of [the] existence” (Lorde, “Poetry Is Not a Luxury” 36) of women because it establishes the infrastructure on which women “predicate [their] hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action” (Lorde, “Poetry Is Not a Luxury” 36). Lorde’s text motivates women to exercise “the power of the word, a freedom for women greatly feared by…patriarchal society” (Tyler 32). Lorde states the poetry

Moreover, Anne Sexton uses stunning imagery to illustrate the pain society inflicts on an outcast. The speaker compares herself to a witch who has been carted off to an insane asylum and claims "I have ridden in your cart, driver, I waved my nude arms at villages going by, I learning the last bright routes" (Lines15-17). She vividly describes pain through torture methods practiced on witches during the Inquisition. For example, she feels she has been burned at the stake because society's "flames still bite my thigh" (Line 18). The speaker's "ribs crack where your wheels wind" (Line 19) on another torture device, the wheel. The words "still" in the phrase "still bite" (Line 18) stresses that tortures have not gone out of style but have merely changed shape, and society still employs them to resist the change in power towards women. Although the physical tortures are no longer obvious in America, women's success is still lagging because of the attitude of society. The public supposes that she is "not

Altogether, Margaret Atwood successfully conveys gender inequality and social class issues of the 1800's. Specifically, her presentation of the unjust treatment of woman and their devastating effects, encourage people to understand her view and develop their own reasoning for why this is inhumane. Thus, that's why her feminist literature is so widely revered as it does not directly force an already formed opinion onto readers, but allow readers to understand for themselves the plight of women. In other words, her literature it does not compromise the beliefs of the author or

Margaret Atwood uses allusions and symbolism to convey the idea that society strips women of their full potential in order to justify their oppression. This can be seen in her novels through the constraints placed on the main female characters. In “The Handmaid’s Tale” Atwood depicts a dystopian society which appears to be an extreme version of the oppression present in today’s society; whereas, in “The Blind Assassin” Atwood analyzes oppression through a more realistic lens.

Have you ever done something for someone without thinking about yourself? In the book “Summer's trade” a boy named Tony made a big sacrifice for his grandma. In another book called “The Ch’i-lin Purse” a young girl also made a sacrifice. These sacrifices changed some people's lives. Here are two of them.

Women yearn for their voices to speak loud enough for the entire world to hear. Women crave for their voices to travel the nations in a society where they are expected to turn the volume all the way down. The world expects females to stay quiet and ignore the pain brought onto them from sexual crime. They do not dare stand up for what they believe in or discuss their experiences that bring them pain. Poets such as Ana Castillo and Lawrence Ferlinghetti describe parts of life that society often ignores. E. E. Cummings supports the ideas of Castillo and Ferlinghetti by appropriating a more disturbing mindset. These poets demonstrate the way in which women obtained a supposable to behave and react to situations that have caused them harm or have the potential to.

Despite the achievements of women in many different fields, society still attempts to limit women to certain roles. Furthermore, in the poem, women “… are defined […] by what [they] never will be,” (lines 19 - 21); once again, the author claims that women are defined by what they are unable to do because of gender bias. Instead of being given the chance to be influential, they are continually limited to staying at home or doing jobs “meant for women.” Finally, Boland tells the tutor that women “…were never on the scene of crime,” (lines 27 - 28). This serves as a metaphor for how women are never allowed to do important jobs; instead, they are left at the sidelines due to the repeatedly ignored restrictions placed on women by our gender-biased society.

First of all, Margaret Atwood is well known for writing fiction with strong female characters that critics categorize her as feminist. Her initial works, ”The Edible Woman”, “Dancing Girls”, “The Robber Bride”, and “The Handmaid’s Tale” are some of examples of her works that are categorize as feminist. Those novels of strong woman describe, “The main characters variously indulge in self-invention, self-mythologising, role-playing, and self-division, while identity is presented as unstable and duplicitous throughout the novels” (McCarthy 3). Atwood has that unique style to describe her characters. She elucidates the woman as their own self to invent their life and their environment through the entire novel. Atwood has a twisted technique for giving her work a jubilant name when the words describe the opposite. One example of that is her short story collection, “Dancing Girls”, Atwood, “bears a surprisingly joyful title for a series of narratives shot through with anxiety and fear, with images of death, deformity, lifelessness and contained rage” (Murray 1). Atwood has an incredible way to write stories where the characters go through gruesome obstacles or experiences that define

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.

The concepts of love and sacrifice are closely related and feature consistently throughout literature. To study the relationship between these ideas in more depth I have selected a range of texts over an extensive time period, these include Romeo and Juliet by Sir William Shakespeare, Titanic by James Cameron, Saint Joan by Bernard Shaw and Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson. The different eras that these texts explore will be instrumental in establishing the type of connection the two concepts hold in literature. The type of love and sacrifice varies however the underlying message is the same right through the texts, that humans in the right context will make sacrifices for love. How this is portrayed in the texts also differs yet

Every author, poet, playwright has a subtle message that they would like present to their audience. It may be a lifelong struggle that they have put into words, or a multiple page book that took a lifetime to write. A poet by the name of Anne Sexton sought out to challenge society’s views of women by writing “Her Kind”. A poet, a playwright, and an author of children’s books, Anne Sexton writes about the conflicts of a social outcast living in modern times. She voices the hardships she faces through three different speakers in her poem. At the end of the poem, the woman is not ashamed nor afraid of whom she is and is ready to die in peace. In Anne Sexton’s poem “Her Kind”, the main idea the speaker is depicting is the multiple stereotypes placed on a woman, by society. Sexton’s vivid use of imagery paints a picture of the witch, house wife, and mother cliché, while also implying the poem is autobiographical as Sexton went through her own personal struggles during her life.

Contrary to to traditional Mother roles in gothic literature, the Mother in ‘The Bloody Chamber’ embodies Strength and Courage. Through Carters feminist style of writing, the mother is seen as a knight in shining armour. The ‘indomitable’ (p1) woman is a figure of strength and courage; she has shot ‘a man – eating tiger with her own hand” (p2), and holding all the traits of a masculine hero. Traditionally, these traits symbolise her possession of the power traditionally possessed by men. Moreover, her overwhelming power is influential; she is in the position of true power, in no way passive or innocent. The passing down of her husband’s “antique service revolver” (p2) contradicts societies expectation of women. Traditionally, possessions are handed down to a fathers heir, however the mother receives this symbolic item instead. This item represents both the mothers strength and her physical power. Yet she is equipped with ‘maternal telepathy’(p41), which adds another dimension to her empowerment as it is a feminine strength, suggesting Carter is employing the notion that women may embrace their femininity whilst still retaining an advantage over men. However, her masculine qualities cannot be ignored. The windswept image is one of strength, portrayed towards the end of the novel, when she saves the damsel in distress, a role usually dominated by men. Her ‘white mane’ (p40) and “wild” appearance alludes to the image of a hunting lioness, a symbol of strength. She is the embodiment of “furious justice”. This