Examples Of Individualism In The Handmaid's Tale

Sydni Lashley
Ms. Milliner
EES21QH-03
10/18/16 In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood writes about a once America becoming a totalitarian government. The narrator is Offred and she is a handmaid, handmaids bear the rich and highly acclaimed people’s children. She’s telling the story of her everyday life and sometimes she’ll retrospect. In this new America they took away all the rights of women, they are basically sex slaves and baby machines. Most of the women aren't allowed to read, they took away their voices, personality, and individualism. The women are put in two categories the legitimates and illegitimates, the legitimates were the ones who were of high class or who work for them and the illegitimates were the whores, sterile, government protestors, and lesbians. Language is used throughout Atwood’s novel to show a variety of things, power is the central idea in the book, that's what everyone in Gilead is fighting for. Power helps them make the decisions they do, and the way they communicate to one another is in the name of power. In the book power is created from freedom of speech, religious language, and the ability to read and write. This totalitarian government is extremely censoring, the only ones allowed some freedom of speech are the commanders and their wives. Serena Joy, a wife, knows she

The use of biblical language also helps make sure the theocracy government is being enforced, thus gaining power. This takes away a person's own free will, changing them into a mindless follower. Also the way they refer to men is oppressive to the women. They’d call men the “Angels” or “The eyes of God” positive names while on the contrary women are called handmaids and given a different name. A person’s name holds so much power and uniqueness, so the fact it's being taking away and they are given a new one takes away their power and