The Handmaid's Tale: Summary

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.

The Handmaids Tale, written by Margaret Attwood, goes on to explore the consequences that come to be from the reversal of womens rights in a society called Gilead. It is what one can consider a cautionary tale. In the new world of Gilead, a group of conservative religious extremists have taken power, and have turned the sexual revolution upside down. The society of Gilead is founded on what is to be considered a return to traditional values, gender roles and the subjugation of women by men, and the Bible is used as the guiding principle. It differs completely from the society, which was once the place in which Feminists argued for liberation from the traditional gender roles. What women had worked hard for in the

Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, follows the story of Offred, the protagonist and narrator, living in a dystopian New England set in a near future America. The overthrown totalitarian government called the Republic of Gilead now concentrates on women, depriving them from their rights and ranking them by class, and returning to a more primitive time period. The handmaids, a position that Offred has been assigned to, now must serve for reproductive purposes for the barren elite ruling class. Atwood uses the female body as a theme throughout her book as a way to _.

Gawain lay on a cold, hard surface, daggers sticking into his skull, a flaming pike shoved into his midsection, and a dead rat stuffed into his mouth.

In addition, the narrator also mentions that the room she stays in used to be a nursery, “it was nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children” (479). This is significant to the setting of the story, because we are able to connect the fact that he put her in a room that used to be a nursery, with the way he treats her. Throughout the story, we see that john treats his wife as a child and degrades her maturity level. He would call her “little goose” or “little girl” which often comes across as dismissive. He treats her like a child and nothing like his wife or even an adult; therefore it’s no surprise that the narrator’s bedroom used be a nursery with a bed nailed to the floor,

Dane turned on the television inside his spaceship, distracted by his musings as walked towards his bed. The cold sensation of the cooling system did not annoy the Ausar - who was half-dog and half-human - as the fur that lined his arms kept his body warm. The hulking man plopped his body against the mattress with a sonorous sound; the impact of his four-armed fierce body, larger than eight feel tall, shook the fixture as he strove to find the most comfortable position to lie in.

With much effort, Bahauddin jumped up and grabbed the weathered wooden rungs attached to the shaft. The raging flame of the oil lantern was Bahauddin’s only source of light as he fingered his long, spindly hands across the rusted iron rungs. With much effort, Bahauddin raised himself up through the shaft, trying not to have his loose white garb with the seven keys slip off of his emaciated shoulders. Oh, why did priestly garb have to be so inefficient!

Ages ago, when the giants were numerous on the earth, there lived a big fellow named Antigonus. That was not what his mother had called him, but some one told him of a Greek general of that name; so he took this for his own. He was rough and cruel. His castle was on the Scheldt River, where the city of Antwerp now stands. Many ships sailed out of France and Holland, down this stream. They were loaded with timber, flax, iron, cheese, fish, bread, linen, and other things made in the country. It was by this trade that many merchants grew rich, and their children had plenty of toys to play with. The river was very grand, deep, and wide. The captains of the ships liked to sail on it, because there was no danger from rocks, and the country through which it flowed was so pretty.

We crept behind like inchworms across a leaf and shivered in the soggy air, listening to the trolls seethe and howl.

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

In The Handmaids Tale, Offred is a thirty-three year old woman living in the Republic of “Gilead [which has] return[ed] to the Old Testament in a reaction against abortion, sterilization and what they consider to be dangerous kinds of freedom of the modern welfare state”(Sweets & Zeitlinger 455). The women of Gilead are now forced to play secondary roles to that of the men in the community, and wear specific colored dresses to represent the role that has been assigned to them, or “In other words, the new rulers equate the value of something and someone solely with validity, usefulness, functionality, economic profit” (Sweets & Zeitlinger 457). Commanders are rich men who are the head of the household. Each Commander has a Wife who wears blue

Published in 1985, Margaret Atwood’s satirical novel The Handmaid’s Tale explores the dystopian world of Gilead through the eyes of Offred, a handmaid. As Offred acclimates to her role as handmaid, she discusses the political developments that led to her current circumstances, and the path that she was forced through as a result. Formerly known as the United States of America, Gilead was established after a massacre of the president and Congress, when a Christian fundamentalist group seized power. Gilead, transformed into a theocracy built on ideals of patriarchy, totalitarianism, and censorship, and the fundamentalist regime stripped rights from women by forbidding them to read and forcing them into traditional roles. Additionally, due

Atwood’s Novel The Handmaid’s Tale thoroughly depicts feminist and government control issues. Atwood’s intent is to warn society about the dangers surrounding such issues in order to prevent a world like Gilead. Gilead is an anti-feminist society in which women have been oppressed for the sole reason of reproduction necessities. After a nuclear war has devastated Gilead, it’s goal is to preserve the only fertile women left, as the women of Gilead were permanently harmed by the chemicals. These women that are able to bare children have been recondition to believe their only is duty is to reproduce as many children as possible in order to continue the population of their society; these women are called Handmaid’s. Nevertheless, women have been

The Handmaid's Tale was well received, but evaluations of the possible reality of its bleak dystopian future where a totalitarian government reduces its citizen to social roles and biological functions were more mixed. A New York Times book review condescendingly suggested that a Gilead-like society was unlikely to develop, but the novel raised awareness of the women's issues that the novel addresses has increased worldwide, the novel's resonance has grown.

One day, a carriage pulls up at the plantation, and a local sheriff calls out for Platt (Northup). The sheriff asks him multiple questions to confirm that Northup’s answers match up with the facts of his past life in New York. Northup recognizes the man with the sheriff as Mr. Parker, a shop owner he knew in Saratoga. Mr. Parker has come to free him, Epps is furious about this and he threatens them. The sheriff dismisses the threats and Northup gets into the carriage that will take him home safely.