The Handmaid's Tale Chapter Summaries

The Handmaid's Tale, a film based on Margaret Atwood’s book depicts a dystopia, where pollution and radiation have rendered innumerable women sterile, and the birthrates of North America have plummeted to dangerously low levels. To make matters worse, the nation’s plummeting birth rates are blamed on its women. The United States, now renamed the Republic of Gilead, retains power the use of piousness, purges, and violence. A Puritan theocracy, the Republic of Gilead, with its religious trappings and rigid class, gender, and racial castes is built around the singular desire to control reproduction. Despite this, the republic is inhabited by characters who would not seem out of place in today's society. They plant flowers in the yard, live in suburban houses, drink whiskey in the den and follow a far off a war on the television. The film leaves the conditions of the war and the society vague, but this is not a political tale, like Fahrenheit 451, but rather a feminist one. As such, the film, isolates, exaggerates and dramatizes the systems in which women are the 'handmaidens' of today's society in general and men in particular.

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

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 The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood’s dystopic fiction she uses diction,point of view,and plot structure to actually say that in society women hold all the power although it may seem like men hold all the power by having high-ranking jobs such as president governor and even CEO’s but Atwood challenges these stereotypes in her novel by having women unknowingly have power over their male superiors with neither sides knowing about the power women hold all the power

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.

In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, set in a futuristic state, women are portrayed as voiceless belongings viewed only as childbearing vessels. Atwood characterizes women as both physically and psychologically oppressed by the totalitarian male leaders through Handmaids like Offred. The novel clearly displays the dehumanizing effects of the ideology, biological reductionism, and manipulation of language through the testimony of the eyewitness’ recollections. The portrayal of women is conveyed through Offred’s characterizations and descriptions of women in this society. The marginalization of women in this society is shown through Offred’s characterization and description of women.

The Handmaid’s Tale is the story of a young woman living in a futuristic society in which women have no rights. Her only purpose on earth is to reproduce. Women are forbidden from having jobs, wearing provocative clothing, voting, or even reading. This insightful novel by Margaret Atwood supports feminism by giving a clear and terrifying example of what life has been, and could be like without the rights that we've become accustomed to. At first this novel seems nothing more then a fantasy, just a bad dream.

The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood is a story of fiction that takes place in a future where the ability to reproduce healthy babies is scarce. The novel focuses on a future where traditional values are strictly enforced by a totalitarian government leaving women powerless. This dystopia touches upon several aspects of life that shape society such as religion, government, gender roles, equality and more. Margaret elaborates on the outcome of a society that solely depends on traditional roles and its effect on women. The traditional values that govern this dystopia are similar to those seen in today’s society except they are taken to a further extent that prohibits any other way of living.

The Handmaid’s Tale is great source of modern literary criticism with its potent essence of feminism. These works from more than twenty-five years ago, are still impacting and making a wide future for this more exposing movement. Sexist societies and gender role patterns should be updated to this century for once and for all.  Works Cited Atwood, Margaret.

Most of the people must have heard the word “feminism” before, but maybe not everyone understood it. The author says in her essay that The Handmaid’s Tale can be a feminist novel or not based on your view and definition of feminism (Atwood XVI). The novel shows how the new dystopian society Gilead is structured

The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel about a totalitarian society named Gilead, where society functions much like a caste system. The feminist lens is the most useful to the audience in understanding the themes and motifs in the Handmaid’s tale because it reflects on how women interact within a population, the effect of language that is used to address women, and how the theory of oppression of women is deeply rooted in society. The Handmaid’s Tale not only discusses feminism and how oppression of women occurs, but also how we as different societal groups come to ostracize one another. Atwood brings the discussion of feminism up in many different examples throughout the book including discussing gender roles, how women’s experiences differ

Offred and all the other handmaids are oppressed by society and their watchers. If Offred were to ever revolt and have pride, she would surely be turned in to the eye, and if not, then something much worse would be coming for her.

She also thinks about her daughter and how she can’t see her anymore because authorities took her away from her. All she can do is think about this because she cannot write since it is forbidden. In chapter 8, the two women encounter econowives which are the wives of of poor men. Econowives do not like handmaids, so they are very rude to Offred.

Margret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaids Tale’ is a dystopian novel focusing on the totalitarian state of Gilead. Although the state of Gilead can be superficially seen as patriarchal where men are the only oppressors, considering the context from the time when the novel was written, we can see Atwood’s concerns for the future. The novel describes the life story of protagonist Offred through her first person narrative and use of flashbacks and Atwood primarily portrays gender roles through her use of language and symbolism throughout the novel, which reiterate the oppressive and authoritarian state that the handmaids are obliged to live in. Similarly, Atwood portrays largely negative attitudes towards hierarchy through the use of techniques such as