The Handmaid 's Tale By Margaret Atwood

he Handmaid’s Tale is a modernist novel by Margaret Atwood. It explores a dystopian future in which society has become an extreme hierarchy. Each individual has been assigned a role with it’s own regulations, which if not met lead to the person 's disposal. Offred, the main character, has known a time when life was still ‘normal’ but as society changed she had to take on the role of a Handmaid. A Handmaid’s purpose is to be impregnated and bear children for her superiors. Do not go gentle into that good night is a poem by Dylan Thomas. He too discusses the theme of purpose, but in a very different way. Both use structure, characterization, and imagery to provide a wide perspective on the theme of purpose.

In a society where language is restricted, the relationship between language and power will still continue to be an important trait throughout the book The Handmaid’s Tale. Language not only can give an incredible amount of power but there is also a responsibility, the choice when translating a word can have a direct impact on how each text is understood, and therefore on how it influences each individual who reads it. Throughout the book The Handmaid’s Tale, the word unbaby, unwoman and angels are an important trait that symbolizes belief. The unbaby represents a baby that is born deformed and the characters believe that environmental pollution may be the factor of the cause of the malformations due to the defoliants and the noxious substances they have used during the war.

How does one define feminism? It means many things to many people. For some it’s more personal, for others it’s the Oxford definition: “the advocacy of women 's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes” (Oxford dictionary). In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood explores feminism through the themes of women’s bodies as political tools, the dynamics of rape culture and the society of complacency.

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.

Throughout history, the debate of how much intervention the government should have in the lives of individuals has been prevalent in various countries. While some people believe the government should play a large role in the lives of citizens to ensure them protection and a more unified country, the government ultimately should have a small extent in regulating the rights of an individual in order to ensure free will in the actions and thinking among citizens. A large amount of government intervention in the rights of an individual often leads to a totalitarian state, where governments exercise great power over the people and expect them to abide by edicts rather than democratic laws. In The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, the United States is overthrown by a totalitarian government called The Republic of Gilead, which uses doctrines inspired by the Old Testament as an example of how citizens should live and be treated. In Gilead, due to the low fertility rates, the bodies of women are seen as objects and are completely controlled by the government in hopes to increase the population.

In the book, The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood, the story begins in an old school gym. In the beginning, the narrator’s name is unknown, and she was surrounded by other women. Her life is completely controlled by a married commander. While preparing for the lit circle discussion, I discovered that the book is a little complicated to read, as the language used throughout the book was old and hard to understand. I realized that although the word choices may seem easy, there are many connotation meanings behind them.

In 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 been hiding behind the concealer to prevent herself from being identified with the truth. A similar lesson, as from the WWII passage – that humans tend to construct a sense of self and slowly build a capacity for self-deception and self-creation – is enhanced and developed in the excerpt where Offred visits the Commander for the first time.

In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, power is emphasized multiple times throughout the text. The plot of the story consists of wealthy men being the overseers of the economy. Since the birth rate of healthy children has drastically decreased due to environmental problems, women are only wanted for their ability to reproduce offspring and replenish the world. Therefore, the poorer women are taken away from their homes and placed with wealthy couples to bear offspring for them. The main character, Offred, is one of the many women who was taken from her family and placed in the home of a Commander and his wife. Since the role of each societal class’ power has changed, different characters in the text have subtle ways of displaying power.

The significant elements that make a literature interesting and attractive are not only a plot, settings, and characters but also the style and tone of the story. They are the main keys that propel the purpose of the story and the attitude of the author by passing through the language methods, which include rhetorical devices and figurative language, that he or she is using. The Handmaid’s Tale, which is written by Margaret Atwood, is the novel that the author uses several different devices and techniques to convey her attitude and her points of view by running the story with a narrator Offred, whose social status in the Republic of Gilead is Handmaid and who is belongings of the Commander. Atwood creates her novel The Handmaid’s Tale to be more powerful tones by using imagery to make a visibleness, hyperbole to create more effective, simile for comparison, and allusion to make references.

The basis for chaos and forced conformity in Gilead arises from the various naming methodologies that have been established. From the opening chapters, readers are exposed to the subdivision of women into their respective roles in society. These different labels include “Marthas”, “Wives”, “Handmaids”, “Econowives”, and “Unwomen”. Although these assigned names allow the regime to organize masses of people, they have simply created an unruly hierarchy, where the Wives at the top continually exercise their authority over other women in the households. In the first Ceremony, Serena Joy physical asserts this hierarchy by using the “rings of her left hand [to] cut into [Offred’s] fingers” (pg.107). Apart from women, the names for different locations further indicate the regime’s attempts at manipulation.

In Gilead the social relationship that once existed between men and women is a thing of the past. In the former society women had value and felt good about themselves and how they looked. However, in the new society the men have stripped the women of their freedom and equality and lowered them to varying degrees of status. The young healthy women are labeled handmaids and are "issued" (24) by the government to various high-ranking officials in order to offer them the opportunity to create offspring. Getting pregnant is their only hope of survival. Females who are not of childbearing age are called Marthas because their purpose is to work and serve the men. A third category of women is labeled Unwomen because of their worthlessness in this male dominated society. All three categories are divided into colonies to prevent their rebelling against the system. Also, within each colony communication is limited and higher education is denied. In order to enforce this kind of oppressive social structure, the government uses various forms of intimidation.

In the beginning, Offred sees her body as important and views it as an instrument. The burdens of Offred’s daily life in Gilead eventually change the way that Offred sees things about herself. As she states, “[She] used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will,” (Atwood 73). Before she saw her body as different but since everything in Gilead changed, Offred no longer really cares which causes her to feel like an object. The idea that the handmaid’s are the ones that are used for getting them pregnant makes mainly Offred feel that she is in control. Offred states, “It makes me feel more in control, as if there is a choice, a decision that could be made one way or the other,” (Atwood 269). Offred describes the control of Gilead like if they made the choice for them. This put a lot of pressure on Offred as she is forced to things that she doesn’t want to do. It doesn’t only put pressure on her but it also subjects the other handmaid’s to do other things. The inequality makes the handmaid’s property of the commanders. As it states, “Give me children, or else I die,” (Atwood 61). It is basically dehumanizing them into simple sex objects. The life of the handmaid’s are restricted. This is a big inequality issue as the men

It isn't just handmaids, or even only women that have forfeited their personal identity; men have lost theirs as well. Their loss of individualism is symbolized by their generic titles. There are three classes of men in Gilead: the 'Commanders,' the Doctors, and the 'Eyes.' Like the color-coded uniforms of the women, the generic titles of the men announce their function. The Commanders are supposed to fertilize the handmaids; the Doctors examine the handmaids monthly to check for possible problems with their reproductive organs; the Eyes are the spy network of Gilead and are responsible for enforcing discipline. Also like the women's color coded-uniforms, the men's generic titles deprive them of their individuality and reduce them to mere task objects.

What will the future bring? What will happen as feminists speak out, women work out of home, pornography spreads and is battled, and the desire for children dwindles? Perhaps life on Earth will improve. Maybe women will have the rights they demand, porn will be defeated, and people will respect women’s bodies. Maybe mothers will miraculously have the perfect number of children: just the right amount to keep the population within its limits. Or perhaps a deterioration will occur, as Margaret Atwood predicted in The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood’s setting is futuristic, compelling, and terrifyingly believable. Her main character relates to the readers as real people. Her themes laced in the plot, from exposition to resolution, stem from conflicts with other characters, inner struggles, and heart wrenching losses. Readers are captivated as Atwood intertwines her literary elements, and warns the audience of a possible reality. Margaret Atwood tells the tale of a handmaid, and Atwood enlightens those partaking of her vision to the potential of such a degenerate future.

The women in Gilead have no rights. They have to obey the rules and commands that are given by the commanders in charge or from the Aunts who also get their orders from the commander. They are forbidden to read and write. The handmaids are allowed to leave the home of the commander and his wife once a day to go to the market. Iranian women were subjected to similar laws to those in Gilead. Iranian women are not allowed to choose or control various aspects