...To what extent does The Handmaid’s Tale present the future as a feminine dystopia? A feminine dystopia imagines a world gone terribly wrong, exploring the most extreme possible consequences of current society’s problems. In a feminine dystopia, the inequality of society or oppression of women is exaggerated or intensified to highlight the need for change in contemporary society. The Handmaid’s Tale presents the future as this in many ways. Chapter 2 of The Handmaid’s Tale presents the future as a feminine dystopia. Religion is brought up as Gilead is seen to be trying to purify the values of women, for example Offred is only allowed a single bed, the words “nothing takes place in the bed but sleep; or no sleep” highlight the fact that a bed is only for sleeping, to purify her. The reference to nunneries also suggests there is religion involved in Gilead, Offred states that “time here is measured by bells, as once in nunneries. As in nunneries too, there are few mirrors” this suggests sexual contact for the Handmaids, or anyone, is forbidden, and the use of the word “once” suggests that Offred is like a nun, or feels like a nun, out of a nunnery and in a house. Also in chapter 2, the role of the Handmaids is introduced; we learn they are needed for something very important, as they are not allowed to attempt to kill themselves as it is said that “they’ve removed anything you could tie a rope to.” Also Offred says “I am not being wasted.” This shows that the Handmaids are not...
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...Comparing the dystopian features of 'Lord of the Flies' and 'The Handmaid's Tale' 'Lord of the flies' and 'The Handmaid's Tale' are two dystopian novels that I'm going to compare. These two novels have got various dystopian features. Dystopia refers to a work of fiction that describes an imagined place or state where everything is unpleasant or bad due to terror or deprivation. Lord of the Flies is a very gory dystopian novel. This novel includes various dystopian features. One of them is greed which has been reflected by the behaviours and attitudes of the characters. Greed has been shown by Jack's obsession over killing the pig as once the pig escaped, getting it back and killing it was his only goal. He proclaimed that he was hunting for the group but his desperation to kill the pig said otherwise. This act showed his greed for pride as his ego got hurt when the pig escaped. Another way greed has been shown is by Ralph's desire to constantly be in charge and have control. This has been shown when Ralph first went with the hunter group he saw that the boys had started lazing about so in order to get control over them, he yelled at them to get back to work and light the fire. At denial, his ego got hurt and so he screamed at them until they agreed to do do. This reflects Jack's greed for authority and control over others. One other way in which greed has been shown is through Jack's intense and selfish desire for power. Jack's greed for authority and power has been shown...
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...How far do you agree with the view ‘that women do not possess innate maternal desires’? Compare and contrast the presentation of motherhood in Top Girls with Atwood’s presentation of motherhood in The Handmaid’s Tale It could be argued that women possess innate maternal desires, however some would argue that women are socialised by their environment to be maternal. Churchill’s feminist play ‘Top Girls’ explores the idea of natural maternal instincts through characters such as Joyce and historical figures Lady Nijo and Patient Griselda. ‘Top Girls’ is set during Thatcher’s government and explores the role of motherhood, with an all female cast Churchill uses theatre of alienation and characterisation to constantly keep the audience aware that the play is not realistic, this technique is done purposely so the audience focus less on the plot and more on the political and social issues. Similar to the play, feminist author Atwood explores ideas of motherhood and how women treat each other within society through her cautionary tale; The Handmaid’s Tale, the fictive autobiographic novel presents characters such as Offred, Ofwarren and Serena Joy who all share problems with maternal identity. Most of the women presented in the texts have a desire to be a mother yet the societies they live within prevent them from successfully realising this desire. Top Girls is set in 1979 at the end of the decade and the beginning of Thatcher’s tenure. Marlene is representative of all of Thatcher’s...
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...While studying the life of Christine de Pizan for this week’s outline, shades of Margret Atwood’s book, The Handmaid’s Tale came to mind while I considered the time in which Christine lived and the types of concerns she voiced with regard to women’s rights. During the Renaissance, a woman’s place in society was so limited and seemed to revolve almost entirely around subservience to her husband. As the most well-known female writer of her time, Christine was not afraid to question some of the stereotypes about and injustices against women in society. The Handmaid’s Tale is a painful glimpse into a not so distant totalitarian dystopia where women have been stripped of their rights and are being forced into servitude for men. Oddly enough, I see similarities in both the...
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...Written texts often have the ability to remove a reader to a different world and escape their own reality. Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaids Tale presents the reader with specific ideas to present a dystopia in which the reader can migrate to. Atwood communicates multiple ideas to the reader, which cause recurring thought and a need to prevent our world from becoming one like Gilead. Atwood communicates the objectification of women as well as the power of language use. Atwood also employs the effect a loss of identity has on a person. Finally, Atwood conveys ideas of each gender having a certain role and being required to live up to this goal. These ideas have been successfully communicated through use of common written conventions such...
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...‘Dystopian fiction is less about the powerful and more about the powerless’ To what extent is this true in The Handmaid’s Tale and 1984? Dystopian fiction usually revolves over a power struggle between an oppressor and the oppressed, alternatively this can be given the label of powerful and powerless. However, the exposure given to one of these groups is often inclined to be imbalanced. For example, The Giver by Lois Lowry has biased exposure towards the powerless due to the simple fact of the third person limited narrator perspective from Jonas, a member of the aforementioned sector of respective society. This is similar to the 1984 narrator where Winston is never truly aware of what goes on when he wasn’t physically present. But, it could be for this exact reason that in 1984 the dystopian genre inclines towards the powerful, highlighting the hold over the powerless. Contrary to this, The Handmaid's Tale (THT) has blurred lines as to whether the dystopian fiction prevalent in the novels are more or less about the powerful. This is majorly due to conflicting plotlines and enigmatic characters, significant in both of the books. For example, the character of Nick could be characterized for the powerful and powerless. Nick behaves with Offred in a manner which confuses the reader about his loyalties. Ultimately, this essay will aim to prove an option that is a fusion between the two rivals of dystopian fiction offering the complex concept of the powerful powerless. The powerful...
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...In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, sex and politics are interconnected and anguished to express the idea of a society she once took for granted transitioning into a dystopia. It is a logical fallacy to speak for the reader in which it must be known the position in which a handmaid stands during this time. A handmaid, given the name Offred, is a female servant used for the privilege of the Commander, which supplies children to the Republic of Gilead. Privilege is used to show the empowerment the Commander has as it’s his choice for the sexual interactions they encounter. Offred loses her identity once assigned to the family in need of the assistance. Deviated rules must be obeyed that restrict her to spending free time in the designated...
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...Set in the near future, Gilead is a failed attempt at creating a utopia. After the present day United States of America fell, Gilead arose from the ashes. Centered around the idea of repopulating the human population that was decimated by pollution and nuclear waste, the society seemed like a beacon of hope in a desolate world. People accepted the new society without much resistance only to later realize that they had been duped. The founders of Gilead took conservative ideas and implemented them to the extreme. Women’s rights are taken away. Reading is forbidden. Handmaids are introduced to bear children. The government takes over and a dystopia is born. They control almost every aspect of the people’s lives, down to the food that they consume. Though the totalitarian government of Gilead tries to break spirit of the women to control them and keep the people ignorant, it does not succeed in preventing the people from rebelling in their own small ways. The women are the key to the survival of Gilead. In order to ensure their survival, the founders of Gilead drew up a philosophy that they drilled into the women’s heads. They first broke down the women’s spirit by essentially re-educating them about what would now be accepted in society and would not be tolerated. "Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary" (Atwood 33). The Aunts drill this propaganda into the Handmaids’ heads to...
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...Reading Journal Chapters 23-25: What are your thoughts about the Commander at the end of Chapter 25? Do you like him? Has he become vulnerable? Do you feel sorry him? Or, do you despise him and his hypocrisy? What do you think this secret indulgence tells about the society that he is helping to build and protect? – At the end of chapter 25, I feel enormous contempt for the commander, for the things he does to Offred. He knows the dangers he puts her into, by inviting her to these visits that are meant to boost his social life. He didn’t even give Offred a choice of wanting to come or not. This helps to emphasize the desperateness of the situation Offred finds herself at. She can’t refuse, because it can be a threat to her on its own, considering commander’s power and the actions he can undertake against her. The commander doesn’t even have a clue of what the women have to go through. His social problem thus seems very unimportant, compared to the suffering Offred face on a daily bases. In chapter 25, the commander doesn’t even realize that the rooms of the handmaids are searched, or their enormous lack of freedom and the prohibition of any sort of luxuries. He laughs at the idea of them using butter to moisturize their hands. On the other side, I also have some positive thoughts about the commander. To some extent, he suffers as well due to the Republic of Gilead. His marriage is forced, meaning there isn’t a natural love link between him and Serena Joy. In this way,...
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...Oppression on Women in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, is memoir of a little girl growing in Iran. She refers to a secular pre revolutionary time through contrast, the oppressive characteristics of the fundamentalist government upon women in particular. Her work is a lot similar to Margaret Atwood's, A Handmaid’s Tale, in which the protagonist Offred reflects upon her former life’s freedom, cherishing her former name and in doing so emphasizes the cloistered and enslaved life that she must now endure. Although both Margaret Atwood and Satrapi show how a totalitarian state oppresses women in different ways by taking away the freedom to think and decide for oneself, both accentuating on the ways a woman should dress, which stratified society in Handmaid’s tale and enforced religious modesty in Persepolis. Growing up in the western society, we often think clothing as a means of expressing our individuality, our style, defining who we are. Offred grew up in a similar environment but it was taken away once she became a Handmaid. That was the precise reason why she felt “ fascinated but also repelled” (28) at the same time when she saw the Japanese tourist. She says she “used to dress like that. That was freedom. Westernized they used to call it”(28). She says this because she no longer gets to dress like the tourists any more. In a very little amount of time, the society has forced every individual to change...
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...Daniel Gonzalez E 360S 10/9/2015 Running Out of Fishes and Loaves Have you ever wondered what life on Earth is going to be like in the future, either within or beyond your own lifespan? If you posed this question to a hundred random people, it wouldn’t be surprising to find out people might think about what kind of technology we’ll have in the future or which animal species will be the next to go extinct, but rarely will you find somebody who wonders if there even is a real future for mankind. Of course, if that one person who says that happens to write a best-selling novel about the idea and educate the people of the world, then maybe we’ll have a fighting chance. Margaret Atwood’s Oryx & Crake is a dystopian, fiction novel, but it has an alarming sense of realism once you actually figure out Atwood’s overall message. With this novel, Margaret Atwood is telling us that we are killing our planet, our species, and we don’t even know it. She’s saying that we are growing too fast and our resources cannot keep up with our rapid expansion, and this can lead to only one outcome: the end of humankind as we know it. In this novel, Atwood uses a first-person narrative to tell this story – that of Snowman/Jimmy. Because of this, we get a limited view of what’s happening. If there’s any part of the story we need to read about, we either have to see it through Snowman’s eyes or we have to hear somebody else tell it to him, and this gives us a limited view into this dystopian world...
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...The Handmaid’s Tale: Power and Corruption Governments impose a certain amount of power and control on their citizens in order for societies to function according to plan. In the Handmaid’s Tale, excessive control and power in the Gilead society strips the residents of their freedom, forbidding them to live ordinary lives. Men abuse their control and power over women in order to satisfy their personal needs and women are persecuted to the point of corruption. The Handmaids suffer the most due to the loss of their personal liberties and identities. Inhabitants live in constant fear for their lives, and are subjected to perpetual surveillance. The Gilead society follows a patriarchal law that women must obey their male counterparts. Since they believe that they are powerful, they think that they can get away with what they want. An example of the male abuse that occurs in the Handmaid’s Tale centres on Offred, who is trapped in Gilead as a Handmaid. She is one of the women valued only for her potential as a surrogate mother. Denied all her individual rights and personal identity, she is known only by the patronymic Of-Fred, derived from the name of her current Commander. Offred struggles with this new name with this statement, “My name isn’t Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because it's forbidden. I tell myself it doesn’t matter, your name is like your telephone number, useful only to others; but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter...
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...The theme of oppression is constant throughout both The Handmaid’s Tale and The Crucible. Both show how religion can be twisted into a form of control in society and they show the huge detrimental and devastating effects this control can have. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible shows the horror and appalling nature of the Salem witch trials of 1692, but beneath this surface it shows the parallels to aspects in Miller’s own life at this period, with the idea of McCarthyism going out of control in America. McCarthyism was a result of the second red scare in America in the late 1940´s/1950’s. It was a fear driven movement that swept across the United States where the threat of a Communist world revolution seemed like a very real threat. In response to this branches of the government set up organisations such as HUAC (The House Un-American Activities Committee) to help fight Communism from infiltrating the state. Unfortunately in the end it simply led to a ´witch hunt´ in which people were brought to trial and accused of being communist, Miller amongst them. HUAC and McCarthyism were simply examples of how when those in power feel threatened they will do anything to maintain their position which is what Miller set out to show in The Crucible. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood took a different approach, with a dystopian text which shows a world in which women are heavily oppressed and religion is used as a tool to brainwash and control the population. Atwood has made a point of showing how...
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...Oryx and Crake is a story that delves into the horrors of distant but possible future where society emphasizes the importance of science and forgets the value of the arts. The novel follows two story lines, the first being Snowman and his fight for survival in a post apocalyptic world. The second storyline follows character of Jimmy, which is Snowman’s name before the apocalypse and all his interactions with other characters, such as Crake. Crake is Jimmy’s best friend from childhood, who chooses to go on a different path in his life. Throughout the novel the author compares Jimmy and Crake’s choices and shows what can happen when someone chooses to live their life according to extremes set by society. Margaret Atwood uses the ethical dilemmas of her main characters in Oryx and Crake to display how society tends to favor science over the arts, which leads to a unbalanced world. Margaret Atwood begins showing the reader the ethical flaws of her characters with the issue of Happicuppa. During Jimmy and Crake’s high school years several riots were breaking out over a new product. Jimmy explains that “The wars were over the new Happicuppa bean… the individual coffee beans on each bush had ripened at different times and had needed to be handpicked and processed in small quantities… ” (Atwood 209). The traditional method of growing coffee supported several local businesses, but many companies in this novel were attempting to mass produce products so that they would be cheaper and...
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...Gilead is not a place where most people would want to live. It is a rather apocalyptic world with a very strict social ladder that is followed religiously. Everybody in this dystopian society is assigned to a certain social class and they must live up, or down, to their expectations. Gilead is a completely male dominated society. The only females with any sort of freedoms are called Aunts, and they are not a large group. Most women in this society are barley considered citizens in Gilead. Women cannot have jobs or property. Along with this they must obey everything the men in their society demand of them. As mentioned before everyone in Gilead is given the responsibility to fulfill a certain role. With Gilead being a male dominated society the jobs that entail power and responsibility obviously go to them. Some of these jobs include the Commanders, the Angels, security officers, the Guardians, personal drivers for the Commanders, and finally the Eyes. The most powerful of these jobs is the Commander. The Commander is a man with high status that governs Gilead. Some lower status jobs but still very powerful are the Eyes who act as secret police for Gilead, the Guardians who serve as bodyguards to the Commander, and finally the Angels who are the soldiers of Gilead. The Angels do have the opportunity to move up in status if they prove their worth while performing their service. As for the women you are either a handmaid or an Aunt. Realistically speaking, most women that I know...
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