The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

825 Words4 Pages

Imagine living in a world where roles are given, freedom is taken, and you must abide to the rules unjust to everyone. Would you fight back, or reluctantly follow these oppressive rules? Offred is an independent and emotional woman who is forced into labor. In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, women are forced into certain labor based on their fertility and status in this new society. Both men and women have become oppressed for the sake of the country. Offred is a handmaid given the task to procreate with a Commander. She is one of many of the women who are basically imprisoned into labels and must abide by many limiting laws. She is given multiple options to break the rules by people who, even though they are blessed, also try to break the rules. The lowest and most burdened class to the highest and blessed class break the rules of this new regime. No matter how many benefit from a “utopia” many, from different class and social status, will rise against these injustices in any way, shape, or form leading to the dysfunction and even destruction of society. We come to realize this as Offred’s dialogue and flashback explains people’s motivation and …show more content…

Their mental and physical states are damaged. Yet this new regime claims to have helped women. The regime is a new protector as ““women in the past were not protected” (Atwood 24). This is a dystopia, yet it’s built like their own utopia for everyone. Women are given protection and helped from the misdeeds of others. This new environment forces women into certain mentalities. They have become so damaged that they break the rules in order to regain their sanity a bit. Handmaids are not given lotion as part of the law and resorted buttering “[the] skin to keep it soft”(Atwood 96). They are breaking rules only for vanity. It’s their only way to keep going and have beauty. The new regime claimed to help women yet it only applied more

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