Identity In The Handmaid's Tale
Ileana Galarza
10/20/16
Ms. Millner
Period 2
In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale many themes exist such as identity when we see majority of the characters identity removed throughout the novel. We also see anti-feminism and women's rights being stripped away. In order to get these themes across author, Margaret Atwood, uses language. She uses keywords and religious phrases throughout the novel to evoke these points.The words Atwood’s writes creates power for some characters and belittles others.
Atwood uses her writing to demonstrate how women are treated in society. The Handmaid’s Tale takes place in an alternate radical conservative society called Gilead. In Gilead women have no rights and traded as though they are cattle. We follow
the main character/narrator on her journey of becoming a handmaid, which means using a woman only for their reproductive purposes. With this occurring in their society, it causes woman to lose themselves and their sense of identity. When your body becomes more important than the contents of your brain, you start to lose who you are and your morals. For example, in th “ This woman has been my partner for two weeks. I don't know what happened to the one before. On a certain day she simply wasn't there anymore, and this one was there in her place. It isn't the sort of thing you ask questions about, because the answers are not usually answers you want to know.. (Page 19).” We can see here from the words by Atwood that you do not get attached to people because they are not there for long. We see the character lose attachment in her life to people surrounding her because they are handmaids and nothing more.This is a form of power because when you do not know who you are, you won't know what to fight for.
All in all the women in this book are abused and I believe that this is why Atwood used the language she did throughout the novel to get the point across. I believe Atwood wrote this book so woman could know they are not alone in their oppression and problems .
10/20/16
Ms. Millner
Period 2
In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale many themes exist such as identity when we see majority of the characters identity removed throughout the novel. We also see anti-feminism and women's rights being stripped away. In order to get these themes across author, Margaret Atwood, uses language. She uses keywords and religious phrases throughout the novel to evoke these points.The words Atwood’s writes creates power for some characters and belittles others.
Atwood uses her writing to demonstrate how women are treated in society. The Handmaid’s Tale takes place in an alternate radical conservative society called Gilead. In Gilead women have no rights and traded as though they are cattle. We follow
the main character/narrator on her journey of becoming a handmaid, which means using a woman only for their reproductive purposes. With this occurring in their society, it causes woman to lose themselves and their sense of identity. When your body becomes more important than the contents of your brain, you start to lose who you are and your morals. For example, in th “ This woman has been my partner for two weeks. I don't know what happened to the one before. On a certain day she simply wasn't there anymore, and this one was there in her place. It isn't the sort of thing you ask questions about, because the answers are not usually answers you want to know.. (Page 19).” We can see here from the words by Atwood that you do not get attached to people because they are not there for long. We see the character lose attachment in her life to people surrounding her because they are handmaids and nothing more.This is a form of power because when you do not know who you are, you won't know what to fight for.
All in all the women in this book are abused and I believe that this is why Atwood used the language she did throughout the novel to get the point across. I believe Atwood wrote this book so woman could know they are not alone in their oppression and problems .