The Handmaid's Tale Theme

Religion was a very important theme in the novel because when the plague hit Eyam, many of the townspeople believed that God was testing their faith. Families were not able to feel safe even in their own homes. Anys and Mem Gowdie got their lives taken away because they believed that they were

Religion is a major theme in this novel. These themes have been developed by her introductions to Mr. Brocklehurst, Helen Burns, and St. John Rivers. They all have differing views of the afterlife and they both help and harm what she believes will happen after death.

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.

It has many major themes but the one i'm going to talk about is genetic breeding. The book makes it seem like genetic breeding is the only way to have a perfect world but i strongly disagree with that statement throughout the book it points out several reason why it is a flawed process. Even Though there are different levels of society is everybody acts the same way then it doesn’t bring any diversity to the world they live in. To me genetic breeding is waste of time and not the way to live your life. It’s also not morally right to me do breed people certain ways, and I agree with the book and how it points out it is okay to different in a society where everybody is the same and how you don't have to adapt to what the mainstream society tells you to

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 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.

We first start seeing the changes in the movie The Handmaid’s Tale. Before it was a movie it was a book written by Margaret Atwood in 1984 and published in 1986. The book won two awards: The Governor General's Award in 1985 and the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987. In 1990, because of the book’s popularity it was made into a movie. The movie has the same setting as the book, a dystopic world in America where religion and state are mixed while fertility is in high demand.

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.

It is necessary for the government to impose a certain amount of power and control on its citizens for a society to function properly. However, overuse and misuse of power and control in a society eliminates the freedom of the residents, forbidding them to live an ordinary life. In the dystopic futuristic novel, The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood demonstrates the idea of power and control through the oppressive society Gilead. The government establishes power and control with the Wall, the Salvagings, and military control. As well, the government’s unique use of the Aunts and “Red Centres” demonstrates the unfair oppression and indoctrination of the women and potential Handmaids within the society. This type of control can be compared to

I have identified several themes that are interwoven throughout the book. There are three main themes that are incorporated in the book; sin, knowledge, and the human condition. The first theme, sin, is depicted by the presence of the strong Judeo-Christian origin this country was built on. As evident by Hester’s form of punishment for her crime, Christianity was deeply rooted in the present time. This Christian culture reminds me of the environment that I was raised in. I was adopted into a Mormon family at the age of four. I was taught similar morals, values, and beliefs. I have made similar mistakes, and have been condemned for them. Like Hester, I was isolated from the world around me.

These two central ideas pertain to life before and after death and seeing Heaven and Hell through different eyes. The characters went through a journey of learning throughout the book because of the conflicts that they had to overcome. Not only did the presence of religion and God automatically stand out as being a main topic of the story, but also surgery, pain, suffering, and death stood out as well. The story started off with a little glimpse of the conflict yet to come between death and God by the technique of foreshadowing and flashbacks.

At the end of the short story, Conradin eats toast as the maids debate over how they should tell Conradin that his guardian is dead (paragraph 20). Conradin knows that he prayed for the death of his cousin, yet, no guilt seems to disturb his conscience. This event in the story contributes to the theme, “The human heart is naturally evil.” Conradin is just a child, but he is able to carry out evil acts as if he has no graciousness whatsoever. Conradin contributes to the plot of the story because he leads the audience to believe the story is about his imagination, however, it is based off of reality because Sredni is a real god- not some imaginative figure.

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.

Though the English language has its roots in a male-dominated society where the true meaning of words are now taken for granted. In The Handmaid’s Tale, language facilitates power. In order to effectively rule over class and gender the level of censorship on literature and control of discourses runs high. Atwood uses word choice to expose the shocking structures of the Gilead society and how faulty its foundations are as it was built upon gender inequality. The repercussions of gendered language are evident throughout the novel, implying that the sexist structure of Gilead is a result of oppressive language modern Americans accept and use in every day talk.