The Handmaid's Tale, Alias Grace, And The Edible Woman
A study into Margaret Atwood’s exploration of the themes of feminism, identity, sense of self, and social class in her novels; The Handmaid’s Tale, Alias Grace, and The Edible Woman.
Margaret Atwood is a Canadian author with immense talent. Her works have been published in over thirty-five countries, and her collection of novels, poetry and critical essays grows to this day. Most, if not all, of her works have reached great critical acclaim, due to her masterful use of theme and extended metaphor.
This thesis will be used to investigate key themes Atwood employs, such as feminism, identity, sense of self, and social class. While many of her works serve to critique the patriarchy, this thesis also intends to investigate the way she portrays women within her novels and how they are used as a tool of men to enforce a second form of misogyny; women’s hatred of women.
The Edible Woman is a novel in which Atwood examines the themes of identity and sense of self, as the protagonist Marian struggles with her realization that she has few options available to
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The novel tells the story of Offred, a ‘handmaid’ in the patriarchal and theocratic dystopia, known as ‘the Republic of Gilead’. In Gilead, women have no rights, and are property of the state. As fertility rates have drastically reduced, fertile women are captured, indoctrinated into the deeply misogynistic ways of Gilead, and are given to men in high positions of power, in order for them to be raped once a month. The story is told from the perspective of Offred, around three years after the creation of Gilead. At the end of the story, it is apparent that Offred escaped Gilead through the ‘Underground Female Road’, and recorded her story on tapes. The novel serves as a warning of the patriarchy, and as a rejection of the joining of religion and
The Scarlet Letter And The Handmaid's Tale, And When She Woke
976 Words | 4 PagesThe three novels in question are Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and Hillary Jordan’s When She Woke. At the first glance, these three novels have not much in common, but taking a closer look, the three novels are inseparably linked through genre, gender, and generation (intertextuality). The first chapter deals with genre.
What Role Does Offred Play In Handmaid's Tale?
396 Words | 2 PagesAt the beginning, the reader gets a sense of some post-war dystopia feeling as the setting of a nostalgic setting turned into a prison begins to unveil. Here is when the reader first learns about the main character, Offred. Offred is a female and as the story goes on, the reader finds that she is what is called a “Handmaid”. The purpose of her role, to be a vessel to bear a child for the Commander. Offred begins in a very oppressive setting, with Aunts who have weapons and indoctrinate the society's ideals into her.
Fairy Tale Vs. Perrault's The Sleeping Beauty In The Wood
1025 Words | 5 PagesPerrault, a 17th century French author, wrote about women as damsels in distress in his fairy tales, while Atwood, a 20th and 21st century Canadian author, offers a more realistic and modern approach in her writing. Sharon Wilson, author of the essay “Margaret Atwood and the Fairy Tale: Postmodern Revisioning In Recent Texts”, calls Atwood’s use of fairy tales to talk about current issues in society as “meta-fairy tales”. Atwood’s “meta-fairy tales” offer insight on gender politics in a current patriarchal society. Instead of using generic conventions to tell her story, like Perrault does, Atwood uses them and then dismantles them in order to show the reader the problems within the genre like she does in her poem.
Control In The Handmaids Tale
971 Words | 4 PagesOffred is suspicious of what the handmaid 's did. She looks at their hands, and a clue is given to her when she sees “black gloves”(Atwood 275). She ponders what they could have possibly done to have warranted such action from the authorities. Her speculation shows how the society of Gilead functions. The government of Gilead wants the handmaids to see that the prisoners are being hanged, as their suspicion is how Gilead gains control of them.
Racism And Classism In The Handmaid's Tale
746 Words | 3 PagesThe protagonist of The Handmaid’s Tale is referred to as Offred (of Fred). Through the manipulation of literary devices such as juxtaposition, allusion, and descriptive diction, Margaret Atwood voices her concerns about our future, and reveals just how quickly and completely our present could transform. As chapter 33 begins, the Handmaids are off to the Women’s Prayvaganza (a portmanteau of pray and extravaganza). The event, juxtaposed to the ‘fun festival’ it resembles, is really a mass wedding with girls as young as fourteen married off to Angels (troops).
Similarities Between Frankenstein And The Handmaid's Tale
1593 Words | 7 PagesThe suffocating society of Gilead is presented where individualism is completely taken away from them, and what it means to be human has been completely eroded away from what we know today. To be human today means, to be honest, affectionate, caring, understanding and to have passions. However, being too passionate for something only leads to chaos as seen through Victor 's overpowering desire for knowledge that led to chaotic results. Offred 's identity and individualism have been completely stripped away from her as he legal rights, name and clothes have been destroyed. She 's just another cog in a machine as she is labeled as a handmaid, only valued for her "viable ovaries".
The Religion Influences In The Handmaid's Tale
1562 Words | 7 PagesThe Religion Influences in The Handmaid’s Tale Word Count: 1563 This purpose of this essay is to establish and explain connections between the Christian Religion and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. It is not attempting to point out flaws or discriminate against the religion. Margret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is a dystopian novel, that centres around the themes of corruption, oppression, and theocracy. Told in the first person, the novel follows the female ‘Offred’ in her daily life/activities and past experiences in the newly founded “Republic of Gilead”.
Examples Of Rebellion In The Handmaid's Tale
711 Words | 3 PagesRebellion in The Handmaid’s Tale Imagine not being able to do what you used to do because some actions are forbidden in this new society. In the Handmaid's Tale, Gilead is a dystopian society where people are limited to certain actions. Throughout the story, Offred’s actions are rebellious because she has broken so many rules. Atwood demonstrates that restricted expression leads to rebellion by showing the Commanders and Offred’s affair developing throughout time and the actions of both characters.
Theme Of Marxism In The Handmaid's Tale
2035 Words | 9 PagesWorks of literature often portray ideas relating to Marxist theory, this is why in a dystopian society, class distinctions dominate the social climate, using Marxist ideologies as a tool to define the lives of the narrator and those around her. In Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, ideologies from Marxist theory dominate the society in which Offred, the narrator, lives in, evidenced by the strict class systems and limited interaction between them. In writing the novel, Atwood makes a point to create a world that could exist using technology and ideas already accessible in today’s society, meaning the events that take place in The Handmaid’s Tale could happen in present day. Offred lives in a reality where class distinctions dominate society, and women, especially fertile women. These women are displaced downwards, although there are those women who attempt to resist the grip of society.
Gender Roles In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaids Tale
1035 Words | 5 PagesThis year is the 30th anniversary of the publication of Margaret Atwood 's dystopian classic, The Handmaid 's Tale. The novel is told from a first person account of a young woman, Offred. In an age of declining births, she is forced to become a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, the imagined future in the United States. The Handmaids are to provide children by the substitution of infertile women of a higher social status. Through the creation of different characteristics of female characters – ones who are submissive yet rebellious, and like to take advantage of their power - Margaret Atwood portray themes of love, theocracy, rebellion, and gender roles.
Oppression Of Women In The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood
996 Words | 4 PagesIn this written text, the emphasis will be on Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale and as well as the way Atwood portrays women and how it can be argued to show the oppression of women. The main purpose is to analyze the way women are treated throughout this book and depict why they are represented this way in the society in Gilead. Then, comparatively, observe the men’s domination over women and how they govern this society. In The Handmaid’s Tale, women are stripped of their rights, suffer many inequalities and are objectified, controlled by men and only valued for their reproductive qualities. The Gilead society is divided in multiple social group.
How The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood Dehumanize Women
981 Words | 4 PagesAtwood’s dystopian novel is a warning about the consequences of misogynistic, authoritarian governments. Her message seems to be universal since the subjugation of women by religious extremists, remains a concern in the present
Margaret Atwood The Edible Woman Analysis
3192 Words | 13 PagesThe purpose of my paper is to scrutinize closely the concept of social satire, revealing and thereby amending the society’s blight in relation to the novel, The Edible Woman by the Canadian author Margaret Atwood. The novel is unambiguously interested in the complex body truths in the Consumerist Society. In The Edible Woman, Atwood furnish a critique of North American consumer society in the 1960s from a feminist point of view. As a feminist social satire, it takes specific bend at the way society has customised the methods of marginalizing and preventing women from having power, authority and influence.
Resistance In The Handmaid's Tale
928 Words | 4 PagesMoreover, for Offred, recording her stories is the only way to send a message to the world outside Gilead in hope that one day it will be delivered. She does not try to be accurate about the history and society of dystopian Gilead, yet she is precise in describing her feelings and emotions, knowing that she is not alone: there are other handmaids with similar stories and there are her believed
Comparison Of Feminism In The Handmaid's Tale By Virginia Woolf
1141 Words | 5 PagesFurthermore, the author displays a dystopian society completely dominated by a totalitarian and theocratic state. The main subject of this novel is the role assigned to women, mainly represented by the handmaids. In Gilead, the made-up country where the novel takes place, women are completely subjected by the government, and especially by men, who clearly have a higher status than women. Moreover, women’s freedom is entirely restricted, as they cannot leave their house at their will, they are forbidden to hold properties or jobs, they cannot read or write, and they are treated as sexual slaves whose only purpose in life is to bear children for elite spouses. The other option is a miserable, short life at the Colonies (a type of concentration camp), and death.
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