The Handmaid's Tale Theme

The book is full of suspenseful moments that are sure to keep the readers on their toes. As far as theme goes, I believe that the novel’s primary overarching theme is that of man versus the wild. The wild being referred to here can be considered both natural forces as well as wild mountain men as well. The book essentially places urban life in a rural setting, and allows all chaos to ensue. Emotions of helplessness and weakness constantly influx the reader as situations arise in which they cannot do anything to assist the characters in trouble. One could argue that the definitive message and final takeaway from the book would be that as tempting and as peaceful nature can seem at first glance, it really is just as corruptive and dangerous as urban

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.

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.

     The theme of the loss of innocence covers the entire essence of the book. There are many cases in the story where people had lost their innocence of life and it was lost to them

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.

The function of religion plays a significant role in the narrative, especially the dissimilarities between the narrator's religious beliefs and the "Other" religion of her captors. More specifically the Puritan ideology of the

What if everything was done for you. You probably just thought about how that would be the coolest thing ever, but is it really? Ray Bradbury’s dystopian story “ The Veldt” takes place in a home in the future. The parents and the children have a home that does everything for them. Like making food, and dressing, to bathing, and painting.

Sin - The theme of sin is present in various ways in the first five chapters. It is the reason for the birth of the prison (the Black Flower), it is what the Puritan society thrives on, and it is what is embodied by Hester Prynne in the beginning of the novel.

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.

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.

Hungry for power. Metaphorically querulous. Weak. The Commander is the representation of male insecurity. This character is derived from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood’s novel reveals that hunger for control can lead to the oppression of women, this is demonstrated through the Commander’s characterization, the Aunts attitudes, and some of the Gileadean rules/laws.

Desire is a powerful and dangerous emotion which has the ability to overtake and disregards any rational state of mind, creating disorder and life-threatening consequences, thus making it feared as a form of disorder or misdirected imagination. However, desire cannot exist without a lack of satisfaction, allowing the once forbidden to become desirable. These illicit desires which are in conflict with social laws and norms are often repressed into the unconscious. Emerging in forms which are disguised so that they may be unrecognisable to the conscious mind due to the dangerous, forces and consequences they present. Such desires can be identified in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) which mirrors post-war social and political issues, portraying the devastation, destruction and control on the outer limits of humanity in a dystopian world. In a world where thought, history and relationships are manipulated and governed, romantic and autonomies desire become a means of rebellion in order to maintain sanity, truth, and an objective reality as a means of resistance against the governing party. Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) is a speculative fiction which explores the need for a sustained political, feminist consciousness and activity among woman by exploring the political and social consequence of their absence. In The Handmaid’s Tale, we see illicit desire through the use of language and literature in a dystopian world which governs class

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.

Events and ideas circulating in a writer’s environment shift and mold his perspective, and ultimately provide the basis for his works of literature. Writers who experience similar socialization often have similar writing styles and themes they strive to convey. Modernism stretched from the late nineteenth century to the early 1940s. Modernist writers criticized tradition and institutions, attempting to find meaning and individuality in a chaotic world. Postmodernists tend to mock modernist styles, and the very possibility of meaning and absolute truth. Postmodernism began around 1939-1945, at the beginning of World War II. Writers from the period embrace chaos and the constant change and subjectivity of the universe. The Handmaid’s Tale and Brave New World both clearly articulate the common themes and styles of their respective times. Written by Aldous Huxley in 1943, Brave New World uses literary techniques typical to modernism and more often postmodernism to convey Huxley’s conviction that people find happiness in their ability to make their own choices as individuals within society. Human impulses, which drive individuality and choice, are necessary, though when uncontrolled they bring chaos to society. The Handmaid’s Tale was written about forty years later, and although Margaret Atwood borrows some stylistic techniques from modernism (similarly to Brave New World), the four-decade gap is still evident as she has clearly moved into the heart of postmodernism. Through

The theme most easily interpreted from the book is the never ending conflict of good vs. evil. Through the conflict we see a recurring theme of good vs. evil. For example, whether it was a good side of a person vs. the dark side, an evil person vs. the innocent civilized society, or a wretched scientist vs. a practical ethical doctor, we see it used in all three previously given examples of conflict. Another example is although there is good in Dr. Jekyll, we see as the book goes on that he cannot hide his dark and evil alter ego. Even through science it is deemed to be impossible to erase the devilish and foul urges the doctor possesses. It seems that evil seems to win more than good which is why the book tends to give off a creepy dark vibe.