The Handmaid's Tale

Procreation is a driving force that manifests itself differently within the numerous characters in Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s tale. Social classes are structured on the basis of child rearing, and sexuality is used as a tool to control the lives of citizens living within Gileadean society. People of different classes experience different motivating forces in relation to the goal of procreation rather than simply continuing the civilization. The whole class system is also based entirely off of fertility, although in private the separation of the classes may become less defined. This system is reinforced through many control tactics which affects those of a lower class in a negative manner. This is evident in many areas of the

In her book, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, Margaret Atwood describes a dystopian society in which all of the progress in the feminist movement that was made during the twentieth century is reversed and the nation is reverted back to its traditional patriarchal ways. The story is told from the point of view of Offred, a woman who was separated from her husband and child and forced into the life of a handmaid. In this book, Atwood explores the oppression of women through her use of literary tools such as figurative language, symbols, and literary allusions.

In her dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood subliminally raises the question of how one’s personality is influenced by their role in society. This question is answered through multiple characters in the novel, specifically Offred, The Commander, and Moira.

In American society, people deem it unjust to hinder someone due to their gender, race, religion, and more. However, in the past and presently, there are societies that restrict people due to these same characteristics. Atwood criticizes the idea of having these restrictions through her work, The Handmaid’s Tale. With this work, Atwood establishes connections between disparate historic events, which share similarities. Atwood’s book explicitly relates to slavery due her commentary on the power dynamic through her character, Offred. Offred resembles a slave during the 19th century through her emotional, physical, and mental conditions, commenting on the disregard society has for its imperious control over people.

In which ways and with what results do the ideologies of the dystopian society, Gilead, create an atmosphere that encourages the need for feminism? A dystopian society is a society where humans are dehumanized. A utopia, on the other hand, deals with everything perfect and good. In order for a society to turn into a dystopia, there needs to be a motive, for the said society, to make drastic changes to try and capture the idealistic utopic society. The substantial measures that Gilead takes to achieve perfection results in a dystopian society instead of a utopian one. The dystopian society has detrimental effects on the women of Gilead, both emotionally and physically. In the novel, The handmaids tale, by Margaret Atwood, the author utilizes the setting of the novel and its characters to communicate the themes of oppression and control over the female population of Gilead.

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

And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?' And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her. And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her”(Genesis 30:1-4). Unlike, Rachel the handmaids in the novel had no choice whether they wanted children or not. Reproduction was forced upon them. Due to the envy she had toward her sister Rachel desired to have children, but she wasn’t able to have them herself. In return, she gave her husband Jacob a maid to procreate with. Now Gilead gives Commanders and their Wives a handmaid, which is adultery. A man should only have intercourse, but bare children with only his wife.

In the Handmaid's tale, the story begins with Offered narrating the story. Offered is a Handmaid and we see her point of view throughout the whole story. The story starts with her and a few other handmaids in a gymnasium lying down with former US army blankets. This shows that there has been a new order upbringing.

Our narrator's brother had been walking in the direction of Chelmsford to hopefully find some of his friends and take refuge. While he was walking along a quieter path, he came across a taxing scene. Two women were being pulled from their pony chaise by several men. One of the women, a Mrs. Elphinstone, was throwing a fit merely for the plot of it all. The other lady, a slender woman, was engaged in trying to harm her attacker. The narrator’s brother quickly put himself in the fight to try and help the woman, but in the end, it was she who helped him escape the fight. The ladies told the man their story, that they were attempting to get a train once they reached Edgware. They had tried waiting for George, Mrs. Elphinstone’s husband, and that

Feminism as we know it began in the mid 1960 's as the Women 's Liberation Movement. Among its chief tenants is the idea of women 's empowerment, the idea that women are capable of doing and should be allowed to do anything men can do. Feminists believe that neither sex is naturally superior. They stand behind the idea that women are inherently just as strong and intelligent as the so-called stronger sex. Many writers have taken up the cause of feminism in their work. One of the most well known writers to deal with feminist themes is Margaret Atwood. Her work is clearly influenced by the movement and many literary critics, as well as Atwood herself, have identified her as a feminist writer. However, one of Atwood 's most successful books, The Handmaid 's Tale, stands in stark contrast to the ideas of feminism. In fact, the female characters in the novel are portrayed in such a way that they directly conflict with the idea of women 's empowerment.

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.

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.

Dystopian literature feeds off the fears present in the human psyche. The genre latches onto the concerns people hold about humanity’s state, and amplifies them to create eerie, cautionary tales. “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood and “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley both play on worries held by society on the topic of female sexual expression and control of women’s bodies. The societies in these novels differ greatly on this topic, but both represent real fears held not only by the people living during the time periods of each respective novel’s creation, but also that affect the world we live in today. To compare these novels whilst considering the topic of women, it is important to look at how the societies exercise control over

I made that up. It didn’t happen that way. Here’s what happened. – p. 301

Over the past 200 years sexual liberation and freedom have become topics of discussions prevalent within western culture and society. With the recent exploration of sexuality a new concept of sexual and gender identity has emerged and is being analyzed in various fields of study. The ideology behind what defines gender and how society explains sex beyond biology has changed at a rapid pace. In response various attempts to create specific and catch all definitions of growing gender and sexual minorities has been on going. This has resulted in the concept of gender becoming a multi- layered shifting hypothesis to which society is adapting. Since the 19th-century, philosophers and theorists have continued to scrutinize gender beyond biological and social interpretation. Margaret Atwood 's The Handmaid 's Tale captures the limitations and social implications forced upon a set gender based on societal expectations. Gender is a social construct that limits the individual to the restrictions and traditions of a society, or if it’s an individually formed self-identification of sex and sexuality that is formed autonomously. Evidence of gender establishment can be seen within literary works and supported by various schools of gender and sexuality theory.