Atwood

Margaret Atwood Margaret Atwood is one of the most well known Canadian authors of all time. She has countless awards such as the Governor General’s Award, Los Angeles Times Fiction Award, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, and many more all for her terrific works as well as her works in activism. Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa, Ontario on November 18, 1939. Born to Margaret Dorothy a dietitian and Carl Edmund Atwood an entomologist. Atwood was born the second of their three children.

The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel which work is a speculative fiction written by Margaret Atwood. It is set in the near future, written in the 1980s where the Republic of Gilead’s only success will be to increase birth rate by gaining control over reproduction. However, the Handmaids were fertile women whose role was to bear children for the commander's wives. Handmaids, as well as other classes of women rights, were taken away, leaving them off controlled by men in the Gilead where they

The novel under discussion here is “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood. It is a fictional story about a state of Gilead which formulated after the crises of birthrates decreasing dramatically. The United States of America has been replaced by Gilead. The state is governed by theocratic and totalitarian groups, which claim to take things under control. They use religion as a tool to imply what they wish. The reproduction crisis is their main focus and they tend to control reproduction which ultimately

Margaret Atwood: a Social Activist Through Feminist Literature The 1980s signified the continuation of an era of social and political upheaval in the United States of America. At the forefront was a socially conservative agenda that aimed to rescind women’s rights only ratified less than a decade before, a marked display of the nation’s desire to uphold traditional values that defined the preceding generation (Françoise). Among the devastating political climate, however, was Margaret Atwood: a voice

Margaret Atwood: a Social Activist Through Feminist Literature The 1980s signified the continuation of an era of social and political upheaval in the United States of America. At the forefront was a socially conservative agenda that aimed to rescind women’s rights only ratified less than a decade before, a marked display of the nation’s desire to uphold traditional values that defined the preceding generation (Françoise). Among the devastating political climate, however, was Margaret Atwood: a voice

dystopian novel, published in 1985. The Handmaid’s Tale is set in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the near future. Margaret Atwood originally called the novel Offred then later named it The Handmaid’s Tale. Offred is the name of the protagonist in the novel. Atwood used the name Offred to signify of-Fred which is meant to signify that is just another object to a man. At the time when Atwood was writing the novel she lived in Germany. Her influence was based on when she went to visit the areas around West

brought up only for their meat. By comparing herself to a prize pig, Offred is mocking herself since she is placed in a similar situation; she is forced to take on the task of bearing children and only kept alive for that reason. In the same chapter, Atwood also has Offred liken herself to a pigeon, stating that “They’d peck themselves to death, rather than quit.” meaning that some handmaids would rather die than continue to live under Gilead’s conditions. In addition, this motif of animals has been

1. On page 26, Margaret Atwood first mentions the names of other Handmaids. This is from the quote: “Offwayne. No. Ofwarren.” What jumped out at me here was how all of the mentioned handmaids seem to have their names beginning with ‘Of’. First of all, the letter O looks like a womb or an egg. This possibly hints at their already evident role in society- to procreate and have children for the commanders. But, if the reader goes a step further, it is evident all the handmaids have names that begin

Chapter 23, Margaret Atwood, in her novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, allows Offred to reflect on Moira's story and to realize how impossible it is to give a full and unbiased account of certain situations in life. In addition, Atwood incorporates a WWII flashback in chapter 24, where Offred recalls seeing a film about the mistress of a prominent Nazi, who just could not accept the truth that the mister was a monster. The woman, which Offred can now remember, is most of all “make-up” (Atwood, 146) and she has

How does Atwood present the theme of control in your passage? (p185) Atwood uses dehumanisation throughout this extract as a form of control, by reducing someone to something lower than you would imply you had more power over them and could control them. When Offred referred to herself and the other women as ‘wild animals’, a creature that could not think for themselves, would suggest that they would be needed to be controlled. By using animals as a reference to women Atwood was indirectly foretelling