...The Running Man and The Handmaid’s Tale offer perspective on dystopian societies. The Running Man, by Stephen King, is set in 2025 where society crumbles economically and TV networks now run society. They show sadistic game shows that are popular with the masses. The most popular is The Running Man, a show where a contestant is hunted by Hunters and the entire population for the grand prize of a billion dollars. The Handmaid’s Tale explores a dystopian society through the eyes of a woman who has to adapt to her new way of life. Both these novels have universal praise. Their innovation, thematic concepts, and perspective will be analyzed thoroughly. Observing both their protagonists and societies they live in. Both authors explored the themes of their respective novels mostly differently. The Handmaid’s Tale sees resistance against their oppressive society more internally than externally. Offred constantly battles internal...
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...Study Guides and Literature Essays Editing Services College Application Essays Writing Help Q & A Lesson Plans Home : The Handmaid's Tale : Study Guide : Summary and Analysis of V: Nap - VI: Household The Handmaid's Tale Summary and Analysis by Margaret Atwood Buy PDFBuy Paperback V: Nap - VI: Household Summary This section begins with Offred simply sitting alone, waiting. She had not been prepared for all this stillness, all of this boredom. She thinks about experiments they used to do on animals, how they would give them something to distract them. She wishes she had something to distract her. She lies down on the floor and begins to do her exercises, tilting her pelvis back. She remembers how at the training center they had rest time every day from three to four. Now she thinks it was practice for all of the waiting. She remembers how Moira showed up, after she'd been there for about three weeks. They couldn't talk for a few days, but finally during a walk they were able to plan a meeting in the washroom. The first time was during Testifying, which Aunt Helena came for specially. That day, Janine was talking about how she was gang raped when she was fourteen and had to get an abortion, and the other women respond as they have learned to, chanting that it was her fault. Despite the surroundings, Offred was extremely happy to see Moira. Now Offred thinks about her body. She used to see it as an instrument of her will, but now she sees it only as a container...
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...Atwood’s Look into the Future Margaret Atwood used The Handmaid’s Tale to depict the possible future of the United States. Atwood takes current societal, economical, political, environmental and gender-related issues and uses them to create a possible future that is just as oppressive as the country’s past, leaving the reader to contemplate what they can do as a human being to protect this earth, and/or society from becoming a country “established by religious fanatics who have dismantled the republic, liquidated the opposition and replaced out present political system with a quasi-military infrastructure,” (Kendall 149). Atwood brings up such issues as money, a predominantly male government, the environment, and the value of a woman’s body throughout the text in an effort to bring to light some of the typical controversies of present time. “Yet the book just does not tell me what there is in our present mores that I ought to watch out for unless I want the United States of America to become a slave state something like the Republic of Gilead whose outlines are here sketched out,” (McCarthy 150). Atwood makes her warnings clear through the Tale she has written. Atwood uses a common middle class woman, in an effort to sympathize with the majority of women in the United States, also known as Offred, to paint the picture of the futuristic, or dare I say historical, times. “[Offred] is simply a warm, intelligent, ordinary woman who had taken for granted the freedoms she...
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...‘Dystopian fiction is less about the powerful and more about the powerless’ To what extent is this true in The Handmaid’s Tale and 1984? Dystopian fiction usually revolves over a power struggle between an oppressor and the oppressed, alternatively this can be given the label of powerful and powerless. However, the exposure given to one of these groups is often inclined to be imbalanced. For example, The Giver by Lois Lowry has biased exposure towards the powerless due to the simple fact of the third person limited narrator perspective from Jonas, a member of the aforementioned sector of respective society. This is similar to the 1984 narrator where Winston is never truly aware of what goes on when he wasn’t physically present. But, it could be for this exact reason that in 1984 the dystopian genre inclines towards the powerful, highlighting the hold over the powerless. Contrary to this, The Handmaid's Tale (THT) has blurred lines as to whether the dystopian fiction prevalent in the novels are more or less about the powerful. This is majorly due to conflicting plotlines and enigmatic characters, significant in both of the books. For example, the character of Nick could be characterized for the powerful and powerless. Nick behaves with Offred in a manner which confuses the reader about his loyalties. Ultimately, this essay will aim to prove an option that is a fusion between the two rivals of dystopian fiction offering the complex concept of the powerful powerless. The powerful...
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...IB LA HL Allee Devault Handmaids Tale Imagery Essay December 8, 2011 Imagery and how it relates to characters inner feelings in Margret Atwood’s Handmaids Tale The use of imagery is a staple in every novel; it gives a much needed visual connection with the themes stated in the novel. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood demonstrates the use of imagery to further solidify the reader’s comprehension of the tense relationship between the characters, Serena Joy and Offred. On page 153, Atwood describes a scene in which, Offred is coming back from the market, and comes upon Serena Joy working in her garden. As we know from previous dialogue in the book, Offred and Serena Joy do not have a very good relationship, (i.e. Serena Joy doesn’t speak to Offred unless she absolutely has to). In this scene, Atwood isolates the image of Serena Joy’s garden, using the type of flowers in the garden and their colors to express how the problematic aspects of the society affect the relationship between Serena Joy and Offred. Atwood states that there are many flowers in Serena Joy’s garden, yet the only flower she mentions by name is the Iris. Irises in many of cultures are viewed as symbols of messages from God, faith, hope, and bravery. In the society of Gilead, religion is the basis of existence. The idea that irises in some cultures are viewed as messages of God, the placement of the flower in Serena Joy’s garden represents how the relationship between...
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...closely on your chosen area (i.e. essay title) * thinking carefully about how you’ll construct a clear ‘argument’ * selecting the most relevant chapters/poems to help your argument * looking closely within them for the most relevant images/descriptions/techniques * explaining clearly how they fit into your argument * tying your argument together by linking your points and examples – voila! The first two steps have been done for you today! This is the extract that the exam board used for their examples, from E.M. Forster’s Room With a View. It is a description of Lucy’s arrival in Florence, and her first impressions of the hotel she will stay in, the Pension Bertolini. Try to take note of the development that takes place, from the band 1 response up to band 5. “And a cockney, besides!” said Lucy, who had been further saddened by the Signora’s unexpected accent. “It might be London.” She looked at the two rows of English people who were sitting at the table; at the row of white bottles of water and red bottles of wine that ran between the English people; at the portraits of the late Queen and the late Poet Laureate that hung behind the English people, heavily framed; at the notice of the English church (Rev. Cuthbert Eager, M.A. Oxon.), that was the only other decoration of the wall. “Charlotte, don’t you feel that we might be in London?” * What can you tell Lucy’s response? How might this be used in an essay response? What kind of close analysis...
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...Reading Journal Chapters 23-25: What are your thoughts about the Commander at the end of Chapter 25? Do you like him? Has he become vulnerable? Do you feel sorry him? Or, do you despise him and his hypocrisy? What do you think this secret indulgence tells about the society that he is helping to build and protect? – At the end of chapter 25, I feel enormous contempt for the commander, for the things he does to Offred. He knows the dangers he puts her into, by inviting her to these visits that are meant to boost his social life. He didn’t even give Offred a choice of wanting to come or not. This helps to emphasize the desperateness of the situation Offred finds herself at. She can’t refuse, because it can be a threat to her on its own, considering commander’s power and the actions he can undertake against her. The commander doesn’t even have a clue of what the women have to go through. His social problem thus seems very unimportant, compared to the suffering Offred face on a daily bases. In chapter 25, the commander doesn’t even realize that the rooms of the handmaids are searched, or their enormous lack of freedom and the prohibition of any sort of luxuries. He laughs at the idea of them using butter to moisturize their hands. On the other side, I also have some positive thoughts about the commander. To some extent, he suffers as well due to the Republic of Gilead. His marriage is forced, meaning there isn’t a natural love link between him and Serena Joy. In this way,...
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...Oppression on Women in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, is memoir of a little girl growing in Iran. She refers to a secular pre revolutionary time through contrast, the oppressive characteristics of the fundamentalist government upon women in particular. Her work is a lot similar to Margaret Atwood's, A Handmaid’s Tale, in which the protagonist Offred reflects upon her former life’s freedom, cherishing her former name and in doing so emphasizes the cloistered and enslaved life that she must now endure. Although both Margaret Atwood and Satrapi show how a totalitarian state oppresses women in different ways by taking away the freedom to think and decide for oneself, both accentuating on the ways a woman should dress, which stratified society in Handmaid’s tale and enforced religious modesty in Persepolis. Growing up in the western society, we often think clothing as a means of expressing our individuality, our style, defining who we are. Offred grew up in a similar environment but it was taken away once she became a Handmaid. That was the precise reason why she felt “ fascinated but also repelled” (28) at the same time when she saw the Japanese tourist. She says she “used to dress like that. That was freedom. Westernized they used to call it”(28). She says this because she no longer gets to dress like the tourists any more. In a very little amount of time, the society has forced every individual to change...
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...Daniel Gonzalez E 360S 10/9/2015 Running Out of Fishes and Loaves Have you ever wondered what life on Earth is going to be like in the future, either within or beyond your own lifespan? If you posed this question to a hundred random people, it wouldn’t be surprising to find out people might think about what kind of technology we’ll have in the future or which animal species will be the next to go extinct, but rarely will you find somebody who wonders if there even is a real future for mankind. Of course, if that one person who says that happens to write a best-selling novel about the idea and educate the people of the world, then maybe we’ll have a fighting chance. Margaret Atwood’s Oryx & Crake is a dystopian, fiction novel, but it has an alarming sense of realism once you actually figure out Atwood’s overall message. With this novel, Margaret Atwood is telling us that we are killing our planet, our species, and we don’t even know it. She’s saying that we are growing too fast and our resources cannot keep up with our rapid expansion, and this can lead to only one outcome: the end of humankind as we know it. In this novel, Atwood uses a first-person narrative to tell this story – that of Snowman/Jimmy. Because of this, we get a limited view of what’s happening. If there’s any part of the story we need to read about, we either have to see it through Snowman’s eyes or we have to hear somebody else tell it to him, and this gives us a limited view into this dystopian world...
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...The Handmaid’s Tale: Power and Corruption Governments impose a certain amount of power and control on their citizens in order for societies to function according to plan. In the Handmaid’s Tale, excessive control and power in the Gilead society strips the residents of their freedom, forbidding them to live ordinary lives. Men abuse their control and power over women in order to satisfy their personal needs and women are persecuted to the point of corruption. The Handmaids suffer the most due to the loss of their personal liberties and identities. Inhabitants live in constant fear for their lives, and are subjected to perpetual surveillance. The Gilead society follows a patriarchal law that women must obey their male counterparts. Since they believe that they are powerful, they think that they can get away with what they want. An example of the male abuse that occurs in the Handmaid’s Tale centres on Offred, who is trapped in Gilead as a Handmaid. She is one of the women valued only for her potential as a surrogate mother. Denied all her individual rights and personal identity, she is known only by the patronymic Of-Fred, derived from the name of her current Commander. Offred struggles with this new name with this statement, “My name isn’t Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because it's forbidden. I tell myself it doesn’t matter, your name is like your telephone number, useful only to others; but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter...
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...Comparing the dystopian features of 'Lord of the Flies' and 'The Handmaid's Tale' 'Lord of the flies' and 'The Handmaid's Tale' are two dystopian novels that I'm going to compare. These two novels have got various dystopian features. Dystopia refers to a work of fiction that describes an imagined place or state where everything is unpleasant or bad due to terror or deprivation. Lord of the Flies is a very gory dystopian novel. This novel includes various dystopian features. One of them is greed which has been reflected by the behaviours and attitudes of the characters. Greed has been shown by Jack's obsession over killing the pig as once the pig escaped, getting it back and killing it was his only goal. He proclaimed that he was hunting for the group but his desperation to kill the pig said otherwise. This act showed his greed for pride as his ego got hurt when the pig escaped. Another way greed has been shown is by Ralph's desire to constantly be in charge and have control. This has been shown when Ralph first went with the hunter group he saw that the boys had started lazing about so in order to get control over them, he yelled at them to get back to work and light the fire. At denial, his ego got hurt and so he screamed at them until they agreed to do do. This reflects Jack's greed for authority and control over others. One other way in which greed has been shown is through Jack's intense and selfish desire for power. Jack's greed for authority and power has been shown...
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...The theme of oppression is constant throughout both The Handmaid’s Tale and The Crucible. Both show how religion can be twisted into a form of control in society and they show the huge detrimental and devastating effects this control can have. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible shows the horror and appalling nature of the Salem witch trials of 1692, but beneath this surface it shows the parallels to aspects in Miller’s own life at this period, with the idea of McCarthyism going out of control in America. McCarthyism was a result of the second red scare in America in the late 1940´s/1950’s. It was a fear driven movement that swept across the United States where the threat of a Communist world revolution seemed like a very real threat. In response to this branches of the government set up organisations such as HUAC (The House Un-American Activities Committee) to help fight Communism from infiltrating the state. Unfortunately in the end it simply led to a ´witch hunt´ in which people were brought to trial and accused of being communist, Miller amongst them. HUAC and McCarthyism were simply examples of how when those in power feel threatened they will do anything to maintain their position which is what Miller set out to show in The Crucible. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood took a different approach, with a dystopian text which shows a world in which women are heavily oppressed and religion is used as a tool to brainwash and control the population. Atwood has made a point of showing how...
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...Written texts often have the ability to remove a reader to a different world and escape their own reality. Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaids Tale presents the reader with specific ideas to present a dystopia in which the reader can migrate to. Atwood communicates multiple ideas to the reader, which cause recurring thought and a need to prevent our world from becoming one like Gilead. Atwood communicates the objectification of women as well as the power of language use. Atwood also employs the effect a loss of identity has on a person. Finally, Atwood conveys ideas of each gender having a certain role and being required to live up to this goal. These ideas have been successfully communicated through use of common written conventions such...
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...Oryx and Crake is a story that delves into the horrors of distant but possible future where society emphasizes the importance of science and forgets the value of the arts. The novel follows two story lines, the first being Snowman and his fight for survival in a post apocalyptic world. The second storyline follows character of Jimmy, which is Snowman’s name before the apocalypse and all his interactions with other characters, such as Crake. Crake is Jimmy’s best friend from childhood, who chooses to go on a different path in his life. Throughout the novel the author compares Jimmy and Crake’s choices and shows what can happen when someone chooses to live their life according to extremes set by society. Margaret Atwood uses the ethical dilemmas of her main characters in Oryx and Crake to display how society tends to favor science over the arts, which leads to a unbalanced world. Margaret Atwood begins showing the reader the ethical flaws of her characters with the issue of Happicuppa. During Jimmy and Crake’s high school years several riots were breaking out over a new product. Jimmy explains that “The wars were over the new Happicuppa bean… the individual coffee beans on each bush had ripened at different times and had needed to be handpicked and processed in small quantities… ” (Atwood 209). The traditional method of growing coffee supported several local businesses, but many companies in this novel were attempting to mass produce products so that they would be cheaper and...
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...To what extent does The Handmaid’s Tale present the future as a feminine dystopia? A feminine dystopia imagines a world gone terribly wrong, exploring the most extreme possible consequences of current society’s problems. In a feminine dystopia, the inequality of society or oppression of women is exaggerated or intensified to highlight the need for change in contemporary society. The Handmaid’s Tale presents the future as this in many ways. Chapter 2 of The Handmaid’s Tale presents the future as a feminine dystopia. Religion is brought up as Gilead is seen to be trying to purify the values of women, for example Offred is only allowed a single bed, the words “nothing takes place in the bed but sleep; or no sleep” highlight the fact that a bed is only for sleeping, to purify her. The reference to nunneries also suggests there is religion involved in Gilead, Offred states that “time here is measured by bells, as once in nunneries. As in nunneries too, there are few mirrors” this suggests sexual contact for the Handmaids, or anyone, is forbidden, and the use of the word “once” suggests that Offred is like a nun, or feels like a nun, out of a nunnery and in a house. Also in chapter 2, the role of the Handmaids is introduced; we learn they are needed for something very important, as they are not allowed to attempt to kill themselves as it is said that “they’ve removed anything you could tie a rope to.” Also Offred says “I am not being wasted.” This shows that the Handmaids are not...
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