The Handmaid's Tale Analysis Essay
The Handmaid’s Tale Novel Analysis
Elizabethtown Community College
The Handmaid’s Tale Novel Analysis Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, is an eerie example of a “dystopian” novel. A dystopian novel portrays a terrifying picture of a world which makes the reader say, “what if?” Atwood wrote the novel in the 1980’s following the free-spirited, fun-loving period of the 60’s and 70’s. The plot, characters, themes, symbolism and setting of the novel display a picture of what the future world could be like if women’s rights were completely removed.
Plot
Plot is defined as “an author’s selection and arrangement of incidence in a story to shape the action and give the story a particular focus” (Meyer, 2011, p.1666). The Handmaid 's Tale portrays a scary world following an epidemic of infertility. A religious, totalitarian state, the Republic of Gilead, has taken over control after assassinating the president along with all members of Congress. There is no separation of church and state within Gilead and women are stripped of their identity and made to be solely submissive to their husbands and other men. The narrator of the story, Offred is a Handmaid in Gilead. Frequently …show more content…
The novel also portrays a government which is lacking a distinct line separating church and state. Gilead used theological beliefs to back up their laws, which made it more difficult for people to stand up against them. The reader sees a clear picture of what a totalitarian government may look like and in order for there to be a totalitarian stance, a large group of people will suffer greatly. The lesson taken away from The Handmaid’s Tale is that while change within a government and politics is a good thing, a drastic “all or none” approach leads to inequality, hatred, violence and
Elizabethtown Community College
The Handmaid’s Tale Novel Analysis Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, is an eerie example of a “dystopian” novel. A dystopian novel portrays a terrifying picture of a world which makes the reader say, “what if?” Atwood wrote the novel in the 1980’s following the free-spirited, fun-loving period of the 60’s and 70’s. The plot, characters, themes, symbolism and setting of the novel display a picture of what the future world could be like if women’s rights were completely removed.
Plot
Plot is defined as “an author’s selection and arrangement of incidence in a story to shape the action and give the story a particular focus” (Meyer, 2011, p.1666). The Handmaid 's Tale portrays a scary world following an epidemic of infertility. A religious, totalitarian state, the Republic of Gilead, has taken over control after assassinating the president along with all members of Congress. There is no separation of church and state within Gilead and women are stripped of their identity and made to be solely submissive to their husbands and other men. The narrator of the story, Offred is a Handmaid in Gilead. Frequently …show more content…
The novel also portrays a government which is lacking a distinct line separating church and state. Gilead used theological beliefs to back up their laws, which made it more difficult for people to stand up against them. The reader sees a clear picture of what a totalitarian government may look like and in order for there to be a totalitarian stance, a large group of people will suffer greatly. The lesson taken away from The Handmaid’s Tale is that while change within a government and politics is a good thing, a drastic “all or none” approach leads to inequality, hatred, violence and