The Handmaid 's Tale By Margaret Atwood

Language, arguably mankind’s most influential invention, not only forms the foundation for human culture, but is also embedded within every aspect of our cyclical lives. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood skillfully portrays the systematic oppression in the Republic of Gilead, as seen through the array of forms that language encompasses. Ultimately, Atwood depicts language as a manipulative tool used by the totalitarian regime to undermine its perceivably dystopian nature by spreading a false sense of organization and order. This is evident with the regime’s employment of naming systems, the misuse of religious texts, and the controlled limitations of language for women.

Atwood uses dehumanisation throughout this extract as a form of control, by reducing someone to something lower than you would imply you had more power over them and could control them. When Offred referred to herself and the other women as ‘wild animals’, a creature that could not think for themselves, would suggest that they would be needed to be controlled. By using animals as a reference to women Atwood was indirectly foretelling Offred’s fate of fundamentally becoming a caged ‘animal’ who serves to breed. Alternatively, because this extract was a flashback it could suggest that men were still able to dehumanise women even before the regime, which therefore suggests that years’ worth of society conditioning men that they had superior power over women led to centuries of women under the control of men. An example of this conditioning would be when the unknown man replaced the ‘usual women’ at the shop, ‘you do that he said indifferently’ his apathetic response suggests he already had control over Offred’s because she could no longer use her card.

The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, explores the idea of physical and mental oppression through hierarchy, patriarchy, manipulation of history, surveillance and finally, community identity; hence the main character’s name “Offred” or ‘Of-Fred’ if you will. 1984, by George Orwell, covers this by including configuration of language; the characters have a new language called “Newspeak” and are also constantly watched by the government and the “Thought Police.”

In a time when complacency is commonplace; A Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, is an important read. The dangers of not paying attention to the occurrences of injustice are front and center throughout the entire story of a woman suddenly stuck in a world ruled by religious zealots. Offred, as she's known now, speaks of the small signs that everyone ignored, constantly looking the other way on any infractions that didn't personally affect them.

In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, The theme of gender, sexuality, and desire reigns throughout the novel as it follows the life of Offred and other characters. Attwood begins the novel with Offred, a first person narrator who feels as if she is misplaced when she is describing her sleeping scenery at the decaying school gymnasium. The narrator, Offred, explains how for her job she is assigned to a married Commander’s house where she is obligated to have sex with him on a daily basis, so that she can become pregnant and supply the Commander with a child. In addition, the uniform that Offred along with the other handmaids are required to wear is a red dress, which symbolizes blood. Offred has little to no freedom as she has duties assigned daily making her feel as if she is in prison. When she occasionally leaves the room she is confined to, Offred is always being watched over by someone else so that she is never alone when she is outside of her room. All through the novel, Offred has habitual flashbacks to different parts in her life. For example, she is nostalgic about her relationship and time spent with her mother, daughter, and husband Luke as she compares her new life to how it was before the regime. Furthermore, the regime denies public access towards acquiring new knowledge and language, limiting Offred’s potential. The Gileadean regime’s primary focus is rule over gender, sexuality, and desire.

What will the future bring? What will happen as feminists speak out, women work out of home, pornography spreads and is battled, and the desire for children dwindles? Perhaps life on Earth will improve. Maybe women will have the rights they demand, porn will be defeated, and people will respect women’s bodies. Maybe mothers will miraculously have the perfect number of children: just the right amount to keep the population within its limits. Or perhaps a deterioration will occur, as Margaret Atwood predicted in The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood’s setting is futuristic, compelling, and terrifyingly believable. Her main character relates to the readers as real people. Her themes laced in the plot, from exposition to resolution, stem from conflicts with other characters, inner struggles, and heart wrenching losses. Readers are captivated as Atwood intertwines her literary elements, and warns the audience of a possible reality. Margaret Atwood tells the tale of a handmaid, and Atwood enlightens those partaking of her vision to the potential of such a degenerate future.

“But who can remember pain, once it’s over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind.” (Atwood 125), is a beautiful quote by Margaret Atwood used to portray the struggles and the agonies of women suffering from the unequal Gileadean hierarchy, which indirectly connects to our modern world issues with feminism such as pay gaps and property ownership laws. In the book The Handmaid’s Tale, it is not difficult to spot from the beginning that women are treated inhumanely. They are seen locked up in a gymnasium surrounded by gunmen and other groups of women called ‘Aunts’ with electric tasers, and the names all seem to be pre-made, as all names mentioned at the end of the first chapter possess polysyllabic first names and monosyllabic last names, except one, June. It seems that the new groups of people called Sons of Jacob overthrew

Margaret Atwood is the author of both Lady Oracle and The Handmaid’s Tale. Both of these novels follow the conventions of the oppression of women. Lady Oracle is the narrative in which Joan Foster, the first-person narrator, tells the story of her life. Spanning the time period of the early 1940s through 1970s, Joan’s story describes her growing up in Toronto, becoming an author of gothic romances, marrying and faking her suicide to escape the complicated turmoil of her life. The Handmaid’s Tale takes place in a city what used to be in the United States, now called the Republic of Gilead. In this alternative future state, the democratic government has been overthrown and replaced by an authoritarian one. In this book, the narrator, Offred, acts as the reader’s eyes and ears. People who have read this novel see Gilead as she sees it; they interpret it as she interprets it; and their only knowledge of it comes from the information she gives to them. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Lady Oracle both portray the theme of the roles of women in society. This will be discussed by analyzing and contrasting the conflicts that Offred and Joan are faced with, and how they react to these conflicts.

Women deserve freedom as much as men. They are both humans, therefore, must have the same rights. Margaret Atwood addresses this topic with her book The Handmaid’s Tale. The story takes place in a future dystopia called Gilead. Women lose all rights and become objects for men. The Handmaids are a great example. All of their names start with Of followed by their master’s name. The main character’s name, Offred, means of Fred’s property. She is one of many women who are downgraded to objects. She breaks minor laws as acts of defiance. She is constantly remembering her pasts when she had a daughter and a lover. She continues her disobedient acts and is interested in joining a group of rebels, Mayday. As she struggles to survive, she falls in love with Nick. After the Eyes take her away, she has never seen ever again.

In the novel, “The Handmaid 's Tale”, the author Margret Atwood introduces a dystopian America where everything that once was is no more. In this society there is a change in the state 's entire structure, it has returned to its traditional ways or in other words a religious trap; both women and men are sorted into categories, and each plays their part. Men can be Angles, Commanders or Guardians. Angles are unknown but they are the ones who run society, commanders are slightly lower in rank with wives, and the guardians are guards of the city and make sure the woman do not step out of line. The woman can either be Wives of commanders, Martha’s, who are domestic workers, and Handmaids who are the most fertile of women. In this developing

The novel under discussion here is “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood. It is a fictional story about a state of Gilead which formulated after the crises of birthrates decreasing dramatically. The United States of America has been replaced by Gilead. The state is governed by theocratic and totalitarian groups, which claim to take things under control. They use religion as a tool to imply what they wish.

The display of a dystopian society is distinctively shown in The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood. Featuring the Republic of Gilead, women are categorized by their differing statuses and readers get an insight into this twisted society through the lenses of the narrator; Offred. Categorized as a handmaid, Offred’s sole purpose in living is to simply and continuously play the role of a child-bearing vessel. That being the case, there is a persistent notion that is relatively brought up by those leading the Gileadean regime; women have gained more than they have lost. Yet, this is a clearly distorted idea being that women in this society are excessively restricted from freedom. Women are restricted to the freedoms that they once had.

Lisbet Ward wakes up with no recollection of her past identity;what she does know is that she is now the cyborg clone of the most cunning gladiator inside the walls of Artemisia. Lisbet's mission is simple. One, take the gladiator's place once she wins the Trial held annually for the ones seeking a chance at royalty or freedom. Two, only instead of choosing the obvious option of freedom like any level-headed gladiator would, she chooses royalty. Three, she is wedded to the bastard king and kills him in his sleep. Four, start a

Hellen, The story was about the murders of three people and the clues surrounding the purpose of those murders. In what way does the clues identify the story as being fictional? What is a numeric puzzle? I believe the outcome was very realistic. A vengeful criminal trying to get back at a law enforcement officer for what he perceived as an injustice to his brother. Basically good over evil. I like your assessment that the man was being absorbed by the novel and therefore, he became the novel. I do not believe there was a twist in the novel but a natural occurrence of a "dream" becoming reality. It was a suspenseful turn of events at the end. The young woman wanting to attend to the young man's doubts about what he was about to do and him knowing

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).