Politics In The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid’s Tale has explored the disempowerment of individual power that is implemented by the society. Margaret Atwood demonstrates this through the main ‘protagonist’ of the story, Offred, with her minimal amount of visible power in society. Individual power can catalyse minor change but lacks the strength to impact upon large scale power regimes. While confined behind the “white wings of the Handmaids”, Offred and Ofglen “learned to whisper almost without a sound” to share information they had heard “through the grapevine” about what is withheld from them. Although the government has immeasurable power driven by fear of being taken away in the “black van”, they battle for what little individual power they can get.

In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood depicts a near-future world in which Christian theonomy has overthrown the United States Government, and all of the women’s rights are taken from them. The novel is told from the perspective of a woman who is living in the new world and how she survives it, as well as how she ended up in this horrendous position. Atwood’s novel has been read by millions of individuals throughout the years, leaving many with different perspectives on it. This critical response will examine how liberals and conservatives have interpreted the novel in different manners.

“Waste not, want not. I am not being wasted. Why do I want?” (Atwood 7). From stealing butter for lotion to playing Scrabble with the Commander, plainly, Offred is unorthodox. The Republic of Gilead controls how much knowledge each caste is allowed; this is one way of controlling people and keeping order. Despite being condemned to this society and commanded not to read, Offred reads anyways. Offred’s actions show her dislike of

Margaret Atwood 's The Handmaid 's Tale analyzes human nature by presenting an internal conflict in Offred: acceptance of current social trends (victim mentality) -vs- resistance for the sake of individual welfare and liberties (humanity). This conflict serves as a warning to society, about the dangers of the general acceptance of social evils and boldly illustrates the internal struggle that rebels face in choosing to rebel.

Throughout history, women have been treated inferior and have been viewed as less powerful than their counterpart, and therefore were removed from essential societal events because of the harsh and authoritarian treatment placed upon them. In our society, as time progressed most countries began to give women their proper rights, however in the in the novel “A handmaid's tale,” by Margaret Atwood, the audience sees that their version of progression turned out to be counteractive. In a restricted, oppressed society like the one displayed by Atwood, the audience experiences controversial scenarios relating to sexism which limits the characters opportunities, these constraints influence people to take risks when the timing is right in order to create meaning in their life. Overall, the women in “A handmaid's tale,” are taken advantage of, oppressing them further. The assigned roles in their civilization such as the ‘aunts,’ are used as a psychological device to convince the handmaid's that they are lucky, by stating manipulative phrases to persuade the handmaid's into believing that where they are is not a “prison”, but actually a “privilege,” in the hopes of making them accepting of their role as the republics breeding device,

Margaret Atwood 's The Handmaid 's Tale is a interesting novel that will have you confused but also have you bitting your nails with intrigue. So many questions might go in your head, at the same time; Atwood wrote this novel so her readers can have curiosity, even after reading the last word of the last paragraph of the last page of the book. One of the main topics of this novel is the effect on society when a women 's fate is taken away from and replaced by a label of their own. The social hierarchy in the novel categorizes its citizens in a way to hold different social norms for each to enforce patriarchy in the society. Even when power is taken away

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood explores how societies, such as Gilead, exist as a result of complacency as the novel serves as a cautionary tale to future societies. Through ‘The Historical Notes’, Atwood explores the continuation of patriarchy and how the female voice is constantly undermined by the male gaze. Dominick Grace’s analysis of ‘The Historical Notes’ ‘questions … the authenticity’ of Offred’s account as it relies purely on the reliability of memories, which are subjective.

As we examine today’s society and government, there are different aspects that may lead people to agree with or be against society and government. When compared to the Republic of Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, civilians had little to no freedoms and abided by extremely strict regulations. The Republic of Gilead divided individuals and forced them into completing tasks and working without giving them any choice. The handmaids were forced to have sex in order to bear children, while other individuals cooked and did chores. These were their only roles and if someone were to step out of line they would suffer severe consequences. This encouraged those in the Gilead society to have constant fear and caused their

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).

THE OPPRESSION OF WOMEN IN ATWOOD’S THE HANDMAID’S TALE AND THEIR WAYS OF RESISTING THE REGIME

In Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood writes about a dystopia society. Atwood used situations that were happening during the time she began writing her novel, for example, women’s rights, politics, and in religious aspects. Atwood’s novel is relevant to contemporary society. There are similarities between Atwood’s novel and our society today, which lends to the possibility that our modern society might be headed to a less intense version of this dystopia society.

Characters are one of the main elements in literature that lead the story and deliver the message from the author to the readers. The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood, is a unique feminist novel which takes place in a dystopian world where fertile women are forced to produce babies for the good of the society. In this novel, Atwood purposefully creates different characters in order to enhance the delivery of the theme regarding power and passivity. This makes the readers actively evaluate the situation and emotionally engage with the story. Through Offred, the narrator and the protagonist of the novel, Atwood shows how a powerless individual is affected by those in power and the state in a dystopian world.

In the “The Handmaid’s Tale” a dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood, Atwood explains the reasons for domination over women that can be applied to todays’ male domination over women. Atwood throughout commentary disguise the ways male are able to preserve their higher status over women which is by executing unnoticeably oppressive language towards females combined with the absence of inquires about that language. Atwood uses Offred, the main character to show her observation of the time before Gilead became an oppressive regime. Offred observation’s show that women were oppressed by men even before the regime took over as well as they are in today’s society. Atwood is showing throughout examples that men use manipulation of women to gain self-interest which in turn oppresses women. Gilead new oppressive norms towards women in Gilead society depicts that the society is able to oppress women by the believes that such practices are the norm. Atwood book demonstrates that one of the leading reasons for oppression and domination of women is the lack of questions of the intentions from the society.

Atwood's main character, Offred, has fantasies of being free. But Offred's vision of freedom is very un-feministic. For instance, at the beginning on The Handmaid's Tale, Offred dreams of things she is sometimes allowed to do, such as help to bake bread. "Or I would help Rita make the bread, sinking my hands into that soft resistant warmth which is so much like flesh" (11).

In the U.S., women earn 79 cents for every dollar that a man makes, and the difference between men and women’s median wages is $10,762—enough money to cover 14 months of average U.S. rent or over a year of full-time infant care (in 2014). Instead of diminishing, this drastic gender wage gap augments over time; for women 15-24 years of age working full time and year round, the wage gap is about $4,373 per year, but by the time they are 45-64 years of age, they are making $15,404 less than men. In the workplace, as well as in other aspects of life, women’s fight for equality is strong-willed and never-ending. Margaret Atwood understood this need to fight for equality between men and women, and in her cautionary tale The Handmaid’s Tale, she describes a society that forfeits the battle for women’s equality and shows how everyone suffers accordingly. Using the descriptive principal, Atwood writes her cautionary tale from the first-person narration of Offred, who meticulously chooses each scene with the intent of describing her new world and the lack of freedom it encompasses. The scene in which Offred meets the commander in his office alone for the first time is carefully written and furthers the plot with its probability and underlying themes of deception and corruption, which ultimately leads the readers to the emotional end of relief when Offred escapes this oppressive society.