...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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...The Running Man and The Handmaid’s Tale offer perspective on dystopian societies. The Running Man, by Stephen King, is set in 2025 where society crumbles economically and TV networks now run society. They show sadistic game shows that are popular with the masses. The most popular is The Running Man, a show where a contestant is hunted by Hunters and the entire population for the grand prize of a billion dollars. The Handmaid’s Tale explores a dystopian society through the eyes of a woman who has to adapt to her new way of life. Both these novels have universal praise. Their innovation, thematic concepts, and perspective will be analyzed thoroughly. Observing both their protagonists and societies they live in. Both authors explored the themes of their respective novels mostly differently. The Handmaid’s Tale sees resistance against their oppressive society more internally than externally. Offred constantly battles internal...
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...Dystopia in The Handmade’s Tale by Margaret Atwood The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel widely recognized and beloved by people all across the globe. It was written by Margaret Atwood, a Canadian author, and originally published in 1985. This novel falls into the anti-utopian or dystopian genre of literature. Dystopias are like utopias in the sense that both are imaginary worlds or societies; However, instead of possessing the same “perfect” state as utopias, dystopias create the complete opposite environment which are places made up of extremely undesirable and negative aspects. In dystopian novels, the unpleasant societies are often made up of dark political and social structures. These societies can also be prone to having extremely repressive...
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...Symone Cherrie EN327-OL 4/20/15 How is Gilead a dystopian society? Gilead is a dystopian society by the definition of types of dystopian control; Gilead is philosophical/religious control. Philosophical/religious control is “a society is controlled by philosophical or religious ideology often enforced through a dictatorship or theocratic government” (class notes). Gilead have this type of control because women are been seen object and not human beings. When Offred was at the doctor’s office to get tested for pregnancy and disease, the doctor tries to talk her into having sex and getting her pregnant. When she says know he tries to blackmail her, Offred says, “He could fake the tests, report me for cancer, for infertility, have me shipped off to the colonies, with the unwomen” (The Handmaid’s Tale 61). The doctor was not treating her like a women, he was treating her as an object. Offred was afraid of what was going to happen to her, she was thinking about all the possibilities. Once she thought about it she rethinks the whole situation and told him that she will think about it. This was also showing dictatorship because societies like this man have all of the power and women have no power. Gilead is also a dystopian society by how the women have no control over their money. In a society like this woman was not allowed to vote nor owned ownership of their job. For example when Offred was reminiscing about how she was fired from her job and her money was to her husband’s...
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...The three different forms of Dystopian texts we have looked at in class have definitely had an impact on my understanding of this genre. We are able to visualize how the dystopian society reflects our own society and are able to connect the genre to the social issues in our present world. In the article “How Dystopian Futures Are Merely Mirrors Into Our Own Society” the author comments: “After our appetite was recently satiated on Hunger Games, we are diverging our fingers to the next tasty literature meal: The Divergent series by Veronica Roth. Again we sink our teeth into a dystopian society and a bleak prediction of our future Earth. What these books never fail to dish up are the faults with society, humans and their failure to actually...
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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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...How far is language a tool of oppression in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and ‘Nineteen Eighty Four’? Most dystopian novels contain themes of corruption and oppression, therefore in both ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and ‘Nineteen Eighty Four’ language is obviously used as a form of the states control, enabling dystopian leaders to remain in power by manipulating language to restrict free thought. Orwell and Atwood have utilized language as a key tool of oppression throughout their novels. The use of language is mostly repressive, language can also be seen as liberating, and used as an act of rebellion, which the state wishes to eliminate. The novel Nineteen Eighty Four contains a world in which language is being systematically corrupted. The introduction of ‘Newspeak’ (official language of Oceania) is created to remove even the possibility of rebellious thoughts as, “In the end the whole notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six words” - the words by which such thoughts might be articulated have been eliminated from the language. Orwell believed that the corruption of language may be used to oppress an entire group of people which is why he created “Newspeak” in his novel. ‘Newspeak’ has been developed to the point of absurdity, the idea that words are taken away and re-adapted means you are not permitted to express yourself as "the Party seeks to narrow the range of thought altogether”. Newspeak makes the citizens more loyal to the state as citizens may be afraid of the...
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...✰✰✰ The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood. Fiction; 1986; 295 pages. This dystopian literature is the story of a woman who is called Offred, but her real name is never identified. In her society women are treated very poorly. They are either wives, who have an arranged marriage arranged by the society; a Martha, who is a house manager meaning they cook and clean; or a handmaid, who bare the children. Offred is a handmaid. She is in her last year of bearing children, and if she does not have one, she could be killed or taken to do hard labor. The handmaid's bear the children for the wives by having sex with the Commanders who are the wives husbands. The problem is, the Commander that Offred has worked for is not making her pregnant, and she has little time left. The story constantly switches from present day to her time with her husband Luke before she was captured and forced to be a handmaid. In the present day she is secretly meeting with the Commander, who is giving her magazines to read. In Offred’s society, women are not allowed to read so this is a big deal for her. She also is meeting with the wife who really wants a child, so she is hooking her up with a male helper named Nick to help get her pregnant. This is because the Wife, who is named Serena, does not think the...
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...The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel written by Margaret Atwood in 1985. It is set in the republic of Gilead which has a highly structured hierarchy and a strict set of rules. The story is narrated by a young handmaid named Offred. Atwood says, “that the novel isn't simply a vehicle for private expression, but that it also exists for social examination.” Which is exactly what the novel serves as when it makes us criticise and reflect on the cracks in our society such as the totalitarian regimes that still reign today, gender inequality and the brutality of people higher up in society. In Gilead there is an obvious totalitarian regime and through the narrative of Offred, Atwood gives us a clear idea of her opinion on that. Offred was once a happily married woman with a daughter but she has now been caught up in the new Gilead totalitarian regime which has taken all that away from her and turned her into a handmaid whose only purpose is to bear children for her commander. The society is so strict that Offred has basically been reduced to a childlike state, she can’t pick what she wears, eats or says, she isn’t allowed basic necessities like moisturiser and she can’t even go to the bathroom unsupervised. The Gilead regime has taken away all of her personal freedom. Societies like these make us reflect on those in our own world such as the situation in North Korea. North Korea is run by a totalitarian regime, it is so strict on the people and they are in a similar situation...
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...“I do not wish [women] to have power over men; but over themselves” (Wollstonecraft, Poston). This quote, which Mary Wollstonecraft eloquently stated in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, portrays the exact feelings of Offred, the main character in Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Taking place in a dystopian future, The Handmaid’s Tale depicts a totalitarian government under which women are harshly subjugated. Instead of accepting her current position as a handmaid. Offred longs to return to her previous life; however, in the Republic of Gilead, gender-based oppression is commonplace and often prevents Offred from achieving both her short and long-term aspirations. Similar to the painting Fair Rosamund by Arthur Hughes, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale examines how sexual oppression leads to the loss of identity, shaming of...
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...The most memorable night of my teenage years was when I snuck out of the house. I remember stuffing pillows under a blanket in the shape of a person and quietly climbing out my first-story bedroom window, thoughts rushing through my head, What if I get caught? But, my reasoning was right, my parents had been fighting all day, and I just wanted some comfort from my neighbor, Sophia. Individuals may rebel for different reasons and in different ways, but everyone who rebels does so to stray away from corruption. Offred, a handmaid, and her friend Moira from Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, and Harrison, along with his family, George and Hazel, from Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron,” are stuck in dystopian societies where...
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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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...passivity as a deep-rooted, normalised concept that is engrained into the framework of relationships, society and government. Whilst this is seen to remain from the 1600s all the way to the 1980s, there are subtle differences in the portrayal of, attempted reasoning behind and methods used to enforce this passivity, highlighted through analysis of language, structure and context. The writers symbolically use setting to explore links between different aspects of female passivity. Tennyson links public and private spaces and their promotion of female passivity to illustrate societal as well as psychological and domestic examples of passivity. In Mariana, the “rusted” and “crusted” atmosphere of decay is representative of Mariana’s psychological deterioration and the stagnant “blacken’d waters” and “moated grange” act as an obstruction to her integration with the outside patriarchal world. This reflects the wider Victorian attitude regarding the home as “the centre of virtue and the proper life for women” and brings to light the impact that passivity in the greater context of society has on the role she plays in her private relationship. This idea of external influences is echoed much less figuratively in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ where “decreased birth rates” stimulated a change in the functioning of the governmental system and the politically organised passivity of women, creating a dystopian vision of patriarchy. A change in societal structure resulting in female passivity is also present...
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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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...holds the real power” (Atwood 136). In the dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, men are responsible of making sure everything is under their control. Throughout the novel, male intimidation and dominance over women is exemplified through men holding superior, honorable jobs to uphold a higher social class, while women only fulfill inferior, domestic responsibilities. This male chauvinist society demonstrates males’ advantage of being able to upgrade their social status and power, while women are to be downgraded and exploited. This corruption of power is laid in favor of men, and upholds the oppression of women in the Gilead Society. Overall, men are represented as the dominant social group to implement...
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