The Handmaid's Short Story

Serena Joy is the most powerful female presence in the hierarchy of Gileadean women; she is the central character in the dystopian novel, signifying the foundation for the Gileadean regime. Atwood uses Serena Joy as a symbol for the present dystopian society, justifying why the society of Gilead arose and how its oppression had infiltrated the lives of unsuspecting people.

In conclusion, the poem is a confession from the writer for eating plums, which belonged to someone else, and then asking them to forgive the writer but never actually, after asking to be forgiven the writer then describes how delicious the plums were to the reader either in a “just wanting to let you know they were good” kind of way or “this is what you missed out

Parents typically don’t want their children reading in depth books about sex; however, The Handmaid’s Tale offers great fictional examples that teach sexism and the mistreatment of women, yet these examples can lead some in the wrong way. Therefore depending on the view in society, The Handmaid’s tale should be banned or kept to certain areas of the world because of the unfair treatment of women.

Paula Hawkins, a well-known British author, once said, “I have lost control over everything, even the places in my head.” In Margaret Atwood’s futuristic dystopia The Handmaid’s Tale, a woman named Offred feels she is losing control over everything in her life. Offred lives in the Republic of Gilead. A group of fundamentalists create the Republic of Gilead after they murder the President of the United States and members of Congress. The fundamentalists use the power to their advantage and restrict women’s freedom. As a result, each woman is assigned a specific duty to perform in society. Offred’s husband and child are taken away from her and she is now forced to live her life as a Handmaid. Offred’s role in society is to produce a child

Can human live without love? The answer is evidently no. Love can be defined as: the most spectacular, indescribable, deep euphoric feeling for someone. Margaret Atwood, the author of the outstanding dystopian fiction the handmaid 's tale (1985) had once in her book said: " nobody dies from lack of sex. It 's lack of love we die from.” In this novel, Atwood specifically depicts a society where relationships have been altered, undermined and in many ways forbidden. The key word in the issue of relationships is love. In the Republic of Gilead, a form of theocratic government, women had lost their ability to love. The protagonist Offred is a handmaid whose sole purpose in life is to reproduce a child. Gilead expects its handmaids to have faith in its commandments, but has removed love and hope from them. Women became objects and sex slaves to men. Therefore, the relationships of the protagonist Offred are unhealthy as well as abnormal, yet they are source of hope for Offred to survive from this theocratic form of government. Her relationship with the commander is strained but profitable, her relationship with Serena Joy has lots of tensions and conflicts; and her relationship with Nick is subtle as well as controversial.

In Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaids Tale’, we hear a transcribed account of one womans posting ‘Offred’ in the Republic of Gilead. A society based around Biblical philosophies as a way to validate inhumane state practises. In a society of declining birth rates, fertile women are chosen to become Handmaids, walking incubators, whose role in life is to reproduce for barren wives of commanders. Older women, gay men, and barren Handmaids are sent to the colonies to clean toxic waste.

Color-coding deprives the society of individuality and exemplifies a definite class and power system in the society. Offred embodies the handmaid’s uniform “everything except the wings around my face is red; the color of blood, which defines us”(8). Offred expresses her loss of identity in the society because her along with the other handmaids are characterized by the color they wear and by their sacred reproductive systems. The systematic oppression becomes internalized oppression as the citizens of Gilead commence to settle into their appointed roles and be impoverished of their identity. Taking away individuality causes each group of people to become more susceptible to stereotyping, discrimination and prejudices because considering the

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is set in a future time period where the United States is under the control of the Gileadean regime. A terrorist attack leads to the collapse of Congress, the suspension of the Constitution, and the establishment of a theocratic totalitarian government. Men and women are given roles within society; they are Commanders, Eyes, Handmaids, and Marthas. In this novel, Atwood explores a prominent social issue, feminism. The suppression and power of women are examined through the setting and characterization of the novel to help understand the meaning of the novel as a whole.

describes a very real reality in modern day America. In America and other parts other world,

A Critical Analysis of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” In this dystopia novel, it reveals a remarkable new world called Gilead. “The Handmaid’s Tale,” by Margaret Atwood, explores all these themes about women who are being subjugated to misogyny to a patriarchal society and had many means by which women tried to gain not only their individualism and their own independence. Her purpose of writing this novel is to warn of the price of an overly zealous religious philosophy, one that places women in such a submissive role in the family. I believe there are also statements about class in there, since the poor woman are being meant to serve the rich families need for a child. As the novel goes along the narrator Offred is going between the past and

Throughout the novel, Offred articulates a variety of stories which prove to be crucial for her survival. Specifically, the majority of her narratives center on her daily occurrences in Gilead which range from shopping with Ofglen to discovering various trifling details while exploring her room. While these stories may appear trivial at first, upon closer examination one can see that Offred’s retelling of these events acts as a survival strategy for keeping her sane and safe amidst the maddening society she resides in. Due to the restrictive nature of Gilead, Offred’s life is filled with constant paranoia and uncertainty; there is a relentless air of secrecy which

Alexia stayed home everyday tending to the house and sewing clothes for her family. She sewed so many clothes that she could fill her house with them in no time. Her crocheting needles and her sewing needles were made out of solid gold and the gold would rub off and make the clothes spectacular. When her husband came home one day. He saw the garments coming out the windows, out the door and coming out of the chimney. He fought his way through blouses, suits, pajamas, skirts and pants. When he found his wife, he told her that she would have to sell her clothes at the market and the family would make do with what ever she had left. The next day she took all of the clothes down to the market place to sell them and while she was there she would sew more clothes to

Nadia just came to class two days after the incident and I still confused with the girl who I saw at Nadia’s house. Since then, I noticed that Nadia always tried to avoid me. Whenever I bumped into her, she would low down her face and did not want to make eye contact with me. Since then, I eventually understood that the girl that I saw was actually Nadia. The reason I did not recognized her because her face was different than I used to see. At that moment, she showed up with her bare face without make-up. Her flawless face that I used to see actually had a few acne and blemish at some spots on her face. Her eyebrows which had a few hairs on it and thin made her seemed did not have eyebrows at all. She also got panda’s eyes and not clears like

A genuine identity and individuality is not possible in an oppressive environment especially when one’s daily life, actions, and thoughts are dictated by domineering societal expectations. Oppressive environments such as regimes controlled by a dictatorship and that run off a totalitarian government system strip an individual of their civil rights as a human being in order to gain ultimate control over its citizens. A government such as the Republic of Gilead in Margaret Atwood’s work, The Handmaid’s Tale, controls their citizen’s lives to the extent to where they must learn to suppress their emotions and feelings. In the Republic of

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.