A Society of Oppression in A Handmaid's Tale
As the saying goes, 'history repeats itself.' If one of the goals of Margaret Atwood was to prove this particular point, she certainly succeeded in her novel A Handmaid's Tale. In her Note to the Reader, she writes, " The thing to remember is that there is nothing new about the society depicted in The Handmaiden's Tale except the time and place. All of the things I have written about ...have been done before, more than once..." (316). Atwood seems to choose only the most threatening, frightening, and atrocious events in history to parallel her book by--specifically the enslavement of African Americans in the United States. She traces the development of this institution, but from the
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That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where there was none before..." (192).
Once the oppressed group is demoted to "it," or property, freedoms can be taken away. Property cannot read or write for example, or leave their respective grounds--a plantation in the case of slaves, or the Center in the case of the Handmaids--without an escort or master. Segregation is also an issue, as blacks could not sit with the whites at church or eat at the same dinner table, the Handmaids were not permitted to sit with the Wives at assemblies or eat at their banquet tables. In addition, a Handmaid does not have any claim on her own child, who belongs to her masters, the Commander, and his wife, just as a slave mother would have no right to keep her child from her master if he wished to sell "it." Finally, there is the renting of women to men, not unlike the renting of slaves to farmers, as property of the owner (of course the rent money does not go to the worker; what could an "it " need with such a human invention?). As the Commander demonstrates to Offred when she enters the bordello," He slips around my wrist a tag...like tags for airport luggage. 'If anyone asks you, say your an evening rental,' he says..." (233). An earlier Commander set this trend by announcing," Let women learn silence, with all subjection," (221). After all, property cannot be capable of rebellion, it is merely
Furthermore, in the book Handmaid’s tale, abridgement of human rights, especially for women, is present. Offred, the protagonist of the book, is a handmaid. There is no equality in their world, especially for handmaids. Offred says, “We are given tokens with pictures of the food we are supposed to get.” Women are not allowed to read or write and are meant to be kept in their limited space. Men are allotted a disproportionate amount of personal freedom under this societal regime. The men hold the power to everything, including women; who are now their property. Offred says, “Our names are given by placing ‘of’ in front of the commander’s name. Property of Fred.” Women no longer have any rights, forced to live as bonded slaves. Handmaids are given their purpose in life, but they have no purpose in living. They are not allowed to have any sort pleasure in their life. “Kissing is not allowed during the ceremony.” There is no romance, no happiness, but men occupy all these. They go to clubs, stay with prostitutes and there is no one to stop them. The human rights of women no longer exist in this type of
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.
A genuine identity and individuality is not possible in an oppressive environment especially when one’s daily life, actions, and thoughts are dictated by domineering societal expectations. Oppressive environments such as regimes controlled by a dictatorship and that run off a totalitarian government system strip an individual of their civil rights as a human being in order to gain ultimate control over its citizens. A government such as the Republic of Gilead in Margaret Atwood’s work, The Handmaid’s Tale, controls their citizen’s lives to the extent to where they must learn to suppress their emotions and feelings. In the Republic of
Margaret Atwood's renowned science fiction novel, The Handmaid's Tale, was written in 1986 during the rise of the opposition to the feminist movement. Atwood, a Native American, was a vigorous supporter of this movement. The battle that existed between both sides of the women's rights issue inspired her to write this work. Because it was not clear just what the end result of the feminist movement would be, the author begins at the outset to prod her reader to consider where the story will end. Her purpose in writing this serious satire is to warn women of what the female gender stands to lose if the feminist movement were to fail. Atwood envisions a society of extreme changes in
It is hard to perceive Offred as a rebel. However if Offred is at all
In “The Handmaid 's Tale” by Margaret Atwood, there is the addressing of freedom, abuse of power, feminism, rebellion and sexuality. The audience is transported to a disparate time where things normalized in our current society are almost indistinguishable. Atwood uses each character carefully to display the set of theme of rebellion within the writing, really giving the reader a taste of what the environment is like by explaining detailed interactions, and consequences as well as their role in society.
THE OPPRESSION OF WOMEN IN ATWOOD’S THE HANDMAID’S TALE AND THEIR WAYS OF RESISTING THE REGIME
The words control and Gilead, the setting for the novel "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood, are interchangeable. Not only is control a pivotal feature of the novel and its plot, it consequently creates the subplots, the characters and the whole world because of its enormity in the Republic of Gilead. Resistance also features heavily, as does its results, mainly represented in the salvagings, particicution and the threat of the colonies.
Character Analysis of The Handmaid's Tale Moira = == = = We first meet Moira "breezing into" (P65) Offred's room at college.
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.
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is a disturbing novel that displays the presence and manipulation of power. This is displayed throughout the novel and is represented significantly in three ways. As the book takes place in the republic of Gilead, the elite in society are placed above every other individual who are not included in their level. Secondly, men are placed at the top of the chain and they significantly overpower women in the society (elite or not). Finally the individuals within the elite society also overpower each other and have their own separate roles. This can be interpreted as a chain. Men of the elite are placed at the top, the men who less elite
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.
The central social hierarchy within the novel is the gender hierarchy, placing men in a position of extreme power. This is evident in every aspect of the book, as the entire Gilead society is male dominated. The Commander is at the top of the hierarchy and is involved with designing and establishing the current society taking control of a nation of women, and exploiting their power by controlling what is taught, what they can teach themselves and the words that they can use. Soon all of the women will become brainwashed, simply because it is made nearly impossible to defy the rules
Lack of Difference from Women in The Handmaid’s Tale and Women in Modern Day Society
In The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood explores the role that women play in society and the consequences of a countryís value system. She reveals that values held in the United States are a threat to the livelihood and status of women. As one critic writes, “the author has concluded that present social trends are dangerous to individual welfare” (Prescott 151).