Comparison of 1984 and the Handmaid's Tale

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

In Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale she explores the concept of a not-so-distant future where toxic chemicals and abuses to the body have left many men and women alike sterile. The main character, Offred, gives the reader a first person account about her submissive life as a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. A republic that was formed after a coup against the U.S. government. She and her fellow handmaids are fertile women that the commanders of Gilead ‘enslave’ to ensure their power and to repopulate their ‘society’. While the laws that govern the people of Gilead seem outlandish and oppressive, they are merely

The Handmaid’s Tale and Fahrenheit 451 are similar novels because they both portray the disciplines in the humanities of literature and film. Both novels present issues that are related to the disciplines of government and political science. The protagonist in each novel is placed in a situation that they are powerless in which is due to the oppression of their dystopian society. Although everyone else has conformed to this new society, Offred and Montag have realized that the societies they are living in aren’t flawless. In both novels, we see the main characters approaching a point in their lives where they start to see the imperfections in the societies and wish for change because they aren’t currently satisfied with the lives they are living. They are longing for a deeper connection with people, and even though the society is trying to form them into something they are not, they refuse to be controlled by a government and a society that is not meant to be. The idea of government and political science can be explored to expose not only the ideas themselves, but the connections between literature and humanities through The Handmaid’s Tale and Fahrenheit 451.

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.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the Gilead regime oppresses women in many different ways; they take complete control over their bodies, they

Within the totalitarian society created by Margaret Atwood in the Handmaid’s Tale, there are many people and regimes centred around and reliant on the manipulation of power. The laws that are in place in the republic of Gilead are designed and implemented so as to control and restrict the rights and freedom of its inhabitants.

Throughout the course of world history on Earth, humans have always worked harder and harder in order to improve society and make it more perfect, although it still hasn’t been done quite yet, because it is merely impossible to achieve perfection in a world with close to seven billion people. There is a very distinct difference between a utopia, which can also be known as perfection, and a dystopia, which can also be known as a tragedy; and the outcomes normally generate from the people in charge or the authority that sets up the foundation, the rules, and the regulations for a society. In the Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Republic of Gilead is created by a powerful authority group called the Eyes after a huge government take over and the assassination of the US president. It’s very strict rules and goals are set up to protect women, to increase childbirth, and to keep all violence, men, and powerful social media under control. The novel is set in a first person point of view and the narrator, Offred, tells her story to us readers about her experiences as a handmaid and how her life was completely turned upside down. Throughout the course of the novel Offred reveals many sides of herself; although her thoughts do not remain consistent, her personality and opinion tends to change revealing, that she is hesitant and strong because she learns to make the best of what she has and silently overcome the system of the Republic of Gilead.

Within history, societies have to try to find a balance between gender and class. Margaret Atwood writes about a country called Gilead: a society where women are broken down into classes while men control all the power. Throughout her dystopian novel, The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood utilizes gender and class to alienate the protagonist, Offred, illustrating how women and their position within society are used as a political instrument to gain dominance.

How far is language a tool of oppression in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and ‘Nineteen Eighty Four’?

The Female Man is a little confusing in the way it shifts from one world to another, especially in terms of who the narrator is. We have four worlds a world that did not recover from the depression, what we know as our world right now, a utopian future of an all-female planet, and a dystopian future of a war between women and men. We read many books of dystopian futures in our class. However, none like this book.

The Handmaids Tale is a poetic tale of a woman's survival as a Handmaid in the male dominated Republic of Gilead. Offred portrayed the struggle living as a Handmaid, essentially becoming a walking womb and a slave to mankind. Women throughout Gilead are oppressed because they are seen as "potentially threatening and subversive and therefore require strict control" (Callaway 48). The fear of women rebelling and taking control of society is stopped through acts such as the caste system, the ceremony and the creation of the Handmaids. The Republic of Gilead is surrounded with people being oppressed. In order for the Republic to continue running the way it is, a sense of control needs to be felt by the government. Without control Gilead will

George Orwell once said, “Who controls the past controls the future who controls the present controls the past.” In this quotation, Orwell brings about an important interpretation about a dystopian society. Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, reveals the true identity of religion and government that leads to manipulating the society of Gilead through the allusions of the bible, the symbolism of Gilead, and gow the narrator’s tone influences a negative way of Gilead. Religion is the idea of living through the words of the bible and of how it should dictate society.

Summary of Argument: For my IOP topic, I will compare and contrast the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood to the Hulu TV show The Handmaid’s Tale. Although I will note similarities between the two mediums, I will primarily focus on the differences, specifically how those differences impact the story.

Intro: The Handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood is about a dystopian American society. The book is set in a disclosed future and deals with conflicts of the right of women we do not see today. Morality is based on a person's views of good vs evil. In the book The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood makes her character flawed in a sense of morality to show her rebellion against her society. The reader is then able to see when the charters feels uncomfortable or unethical.