Theme Of Extremism In The Handmaid's Tale

Religious extremism is completely evident in The Handmaid’s Tale. To be a religious extremist means that you will do anything for your beliefs, no matter how extreme the consequences may be. In the novel, radical Christians, who are a form of extremist, are held responsible for ruining the freedom of women and changing life for everyone. The place of Gilead is built upon traditional morals and ideas. Homosexuality is a crime, along with every other way of life that goes against what is in the Bible. Women are forbidden to vote, read, and write. They have no freedom. Men in Gilead have control over everything. Women are used for childbearing and housekeeping. Conservative Christians are responsible for this “perfect new world” that has destroyed most people’s lives. But do they care? No. The religious extremists mentioned in the novel only care about doing what they believe is right and doing what will get them into Heaven. Many themes and punishments shown in the novel are actually more true than any of us have ever suspected. During her writing of the novel, Margaret Atwood was inspired all by real life events and crisis.
She starts to come to terms with the fact of how the world becomes and how it will never be the same as it was before. She faces her own reality, as millions of Americans in our time have not. The reason Atwood’s novel is still relevant to this day is not because of the fact that America is turning into Gilead, but because Gilead is America. It is the deep, dark secret that no one person wants to see. The radical Christians in the novel exist with us in the real world, but they hide themselves and their ideologies under the familiar elegance of the common people. They are afraid to let their ideas run free because they also know that this world would become chaos if they