Margret Atwood’s novel the handmaid’s tale conveys a futuristic society that restrains basic human rights to its people. The republic of Gilead maintains and justifies its power structure through extreme interpretation of religion. As a result of a drastic drop in birth rate, the regime holds women captive for their ability to reproduce. To avoid rebellion Gilead censors all information and sets up an undercover policing unit called the Eyes. The population mindlessly follows the regime making knowledge and reason very rare. In addition, women experience worse censorship because of their reproductive value, and if women had the power of knowledge they might be able to rebel. Margret Atwood uses repetition to amplify Offred’s ability to think and reason by herself, which marks a shift toward Offred gradually gaining her own power and identity. This section illustrates Offred going through a transitional period in her life. Offred is conflicted between escaping Gilead, and living a life of desperation. Margret Atwood chose to use repetition as a vessel to carry this message. For instance, Atwood starts the chapter using epistrophe. “This is a reconstruction. All of it is a reconstruction. It’s a reconstruction now” (134). The despondent tone along with the repetition of “reconstruction” signals, and foreshadows, that Offred uncovers the truth about Gilead and becomes cynical toward Gilead. The significance is not that Offred wants to escape, but more importantly
Throughout the course of world history on Earth, humans have always worked harder and harder in order to improve society and make it more perfect, although it still hasn’t been done quite yet, because it is merely impossible to achieve perfection in a world with close to seven billion people. There is a very distinct difference between a utopia, which can also be known as perfection, and a dystopia, which can also be known as a tragedy; and the outcomes normally generate from the people in charge or the authority that sets up the foundation, the rules, and the regulations for a society. In the Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Republic of Gilead is created by a powerful authority group called the Eyes after a huge government take over and the assassination of the US president. It’s very strict rules and goals are set up to protect women, to increase childbirth, and to keep all violence, men, and powerful social media under control. The novel is set in a first person point of view and the narrator, Offred, tells her story to us readers about her experiences as a handmaid and how her life was completely turned upside down. Throughout the course of the novel Offred reveals many sides of herself; although her thoughts do not remain consistent, her personality and opinion tends to change revealing, that she is hesitant and strong because she learns to make the best of what she has and silently overcome the system of the Republic of Gilead.
In the book The Handmaid 's Tale by Margaret Atwood, the foremost theme is identity, due to the fact that the city where the entire novel takes place in, the city known as the Republic of Gilead, often shortened to Gilead, strips fertile women of their identities. Gilead is a society that demands the women who are able to have offspring be stripped of all the identity and rights. By demeaning these women, they no longer view themselves as an individual, but rather as a group- the group of Handmaids. It is because of the laws that have been established that individuality has been demolished. From these points that will be raised, it can be concluded that a handmaid’s role in Gilead is more important than their happiness, and mental wellbeing.
In Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale, the character of Offred is restricted by the severe regulations of her society. The once democratic United States of America with equality for all has been turned into the theocratic and totalitarian Republic of Gilead. When Offred is affected by the strict standards of this society, she responds in audacious, yet furtive ways in order to not attract the attention of the omniscient Eyes who control the society and punish offenders
In Margaret Atwood’s novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale, she narrates how women are abused mentally and physically by the hands of men. Also, women were forced to become prostitutes or sent to colonies. During the Republic of Gilead which is ruled by men and surrounded by corruption, lust, prostitution, and violence towards women who were punished by hanging or being sent to colonies for exile if they break the rules. According to the government, women, who cannot follow the rules or have babies, were considered worthless. Women were strongly identified by coded languages that were mainly hidden within their clothing and were manipulated to act within Gilead.
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.
Power: a simple five-letter word with numerous definitions. Power a noun. Power meaning the ability or right to control people or things (“Power”). Throughout the history of human existence it has been human nature to crave and want power. The feeling of being in control and not having to answer to anybody is an indescribable feeling. But being in power can also lead to undesirable decisions. In the 19th century, Lord Acton a British historian said “Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely”. In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, readers are exposed to a dystopic novel where individuals use the influence of their societal roles to manipulate others. There is no coincidence that Atwood’s novel can be considered a speculative fiction. Nor is it a coincidence that The Handmaid’s Tale is still relevant today. Abuse of power is relevant in not only Atwood’s novel, but also present in numerous societies today across the globe.
The government enforces laws and regulations in order to maintain peace and harmony in society. Laws are meant to ensure the safety of all citizens however; women can be forced to face extremities if the laws and the government are patriarchal. The novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood tells the story of a totalitarian government that consists strictly of men who dominate women based on Christian ideologies. The government uses fertile women called “handmaids” for breeding purposes because of a decrease in birth rate. The nation of the Republic of Gilead is a dystopian society in which women have limited freedom and are restrained by the male authorities in their lives. Freedom is a term by which the identity of a person or nation
This dystopian novel is written by Margaret Atwood. The title is The Handmaid’s Tale. What was once known as the United States to most people is now known as Gilead. Gilead came about by people who were trying to fix the world so they took power into their own hands to try and stop a declining birthrate and fertility. Handmaids are given to people of high status whose wives can’t have children, so their job is to give the family a child. The government thinks that these handmaids are the perfect people for this because they have viable eggs. Even though they live in such a place where you have no power over yourself any more, and are being watched where you go, Offred, main character survives day to day in the hopes that she will one day see
The significant elements that make a literature interesting and attractive are not only a plot, settings, and characters but also the style and tone of the story. They are the main keys that propel the purpose of the story and the attitude of the author by passing through the language methods, which include rhetorical devices and figurative language, that he or she is using. The Handmaid’s Tale, which is written by Margaret Atwood, is the novel that the author uses several different devices and techniques to convey her attitude and her points of view by running the story with a narrator Offred, whose social status in the Republic of Gilead is Handmaid and who is belongings of the Commander. Atwood creates her novel The Handmaid’s Tale to be more powerful tones by using imagery to make a visibleness, hyperbole to create more effective, simile for comparison, and allusion to make references.
The Women's Rights movement in America has been a consistent struggle since its founding in the early twentieth century. The social revolution received its greatest opposition in the nineteen sixties to the late nineteen eighties. It was during this time Margaret Atwood published her novel The Handmaid's Tale, the story tells of a futuristic utopian society in America, religiously based, that has effectively taken all human rights from women to accomplish their goal. In the now country of Gilead, the feminist American movement has been reversed completely.
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 first chapter we are introduced to our narrator, Offred, along with her situation. She is a handmaid who will go to different homes trying to conceive a child. But before she is put into a home, she is trained on how to be a proper handmaid. She is conditioned to believe in what the government deems acceptable and is punished with an electric cattle prod when she steps out of line. She does not have a say in what happens to her and as a women who experienced life before this traditional reform, she longs for her old lifestyle. She wishes for an escape though she knows that could not happen with the Angels guarding the fence that surrounds the building. With that knowledge, she thinks about making a deal with the Angles. She does not have money, a position of power in society, or goods to exchange, but she does have her body. This is where the idea of the body becoming control stems from. As long as she has her body, she has something to bargain with, a tool to use to get her what she wants most. Her body is an object of power to her because it arouses men and it is something they want, so in order for her to get something from them, she must give her body in exchange. The first chapter is crucial when discussing the theme because it is constantly brought up throughout the novel. The narrator’s body will get her what she wants, whether it is revenge, freedom, or even a
The Handmaid’s Tale is one of the most prestigious books of Margaret Atwood, and many readers believe that this is a feminist novel. Also, like the author, Margaret Atwood, indicated in the preamble of the book: “If you mean a novel in which women are human beings- with all the variety of character and behavior that implies- and are also interesting and important…then yes. In this case, many books are feminist.” Actually, her words were accepted by many people, the Handmaid tale is a feminist book because the book is described from the side of the women and shows the discrepancies of women, the book demonstrates how women suffer the cruel state actions of Gilead, and the book reveals a series of stereotypes on women as well.
The Handmaid’s Tale is about a young girl whose name is Offred. Living in the political dystopia known as Gilead, men force Offred and the other women to become exactly like one another and only focus on becoming pregnant. Scared and alone, Offred struggles to survive in the political dystopia being enforced by Commanders and secret police forces which control a society basing itself on false principle, subjugating the people by color, represses a woman’s individuality, and treats women like objects instead of people. Women are assigned to live with a Commander in which take part in monthly “Ceremonies” in an attempt to impregnate the Handmaid of the house. Women are forced
Margaret Atwood Margaret Atwood is a well-known poet and novelist, but also renowned for other positions such as literary critic, essayist, inventor, teacher and environmental activist. She was born on 18 November 1939 in Ottawa, Toronto, Canada. Until now, she published more than 40 literary works, which of those are 16 novels, 8 short fictions, 17 poems among many more. Atwood graduated in English with minors in Philosophy and French at the University of Toronto and soon established a reputation with powerful novels and poems. During a period, she also lectured at the University of Alabama, at New York University, at Macquarie University and at Trinity University.