Inequality In The Handmaid's Tale

Imagine a world where it is no longer possible to procreate, in which citizens are forced to come to terms with the demise of humanity. This horrifying possibility becomes a reality in the dystopian worlds of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and the film, Children of Men directed by Alfonso Cuaron. A decline in birth rates in the Republic of Gilead from The Handmaid’s Tale and the infertility crisis in the United Kingdom in Children of Men lead the two nations to become xenophobic. Additionally, the infertility prompts a war for resources resulting in the nations development of an extreme hierarchy. Furthermore, the states resort to totalitarianism to maintain some facade of control in their lives, which was lost with the ability of reproduction. Despite the outward
Offred later mentions that “National Homeland One” is located in North Dakota, where she assumes they are required to farm. According to Amin Malik’s The Handmaid’s Tale and the Dystopian Tradition, it is believed that Atwood intended this to be suggestive of the apartheid homelands that occurred in South Africa in the 1940s, where the government declared that the nonwhite South Africans would be forced to live segregated from the white. Atwood’s implication of this situation in the newscast, was intended to make it apparent that the republic of Gilead was under xenophobic and racist rule. In Cuaron’s Children of Men, the United Kingdom becomes the only stable nation in the world. Immigrants from all over the globe flee there in seek of asylum and safety, but are instead isolated into refugee camps where they are abused or murdered. The protagonist of the film, Theo, explains that the reason for racism is the loss of fertility. Theo is listening to the radio with his friend Jasper when a newscaster blares “The Homeland Security bill is ratified. After eight years, British borders will remain