The Handmaiden’s Tale: Impossible or too close for comfort?
When we were asked to make
historical or real-world connections to the Handmaiden’s Tale, my initial
reaction was to draw a blank. Did the world ever have a post-nuclear war religiously
fanatic society, where declining birthrates required women to become little
more than baby machines? No, yet despite the circumstances that led to the rise
of the Republic of Gilead there are many similar authoritarian states today. At
their core these states abuse the power of religion to control their population
while using the idea of an enemy or war to unite its people against. In addition,
these states make certain to have a carefully cultivated image to the rest of the
world to hide the lack of basic individual rights of their citizens. Suddenly the
Republic of Gilead which felt so ludicrous at first didn’t seem so far off from
the Saudi Arabias and North Koreas of the world to me.
Saudi Arabia is a religious state famous
for its lack of human rights, especially for women. Women are effectively minors
in the eyes of law from the moment they are born to the day they die. Under the
arbitrary authority of her male guardian her mind and body will never be
entirely her own. She will have to obtain permission from her guardian to
marry, travel, get a job, or access healthcare. She is at the mercy of the
whims of her guardian just like how Offred is at the mercy of the Commander. The
women live in a society where religion and technology is used to enforce the
norm that the wrong outfit can land you in prison and the wrong comment can get
you killed.
While North Korea isn’t a religious state,
its state propaganda and leader worship replaces the role religion plays in
Gilead. Propaganda is spread about the United States painting it as the evil
enemy that threatens the safety of every North Korean. There is even a whole museum,
the Sinchon Museum of American War Atrocities, dedicated to the purpose of
dehumanizing Americans. In addition, North Korea attempts to maintain a positive
communist utopian image to the rest of the world by attempting to hide its
famines and labor camps just like how the Republic of Gilead controls what
visitors view and learn about their society. It is integral to the leadership of
both countries that they maintain a prosperous façade to hide the harsh reality
their citizens must face.
So what are the implications of Gilead
resembling modern day nations? I think the
larger significance of these real-world connections lie in answering the
question: What was Margaret Atwood’s goal in writing the Handmaiden’s tale? I
believe that Atwood’s goal is to remind us that freedom is fragile and never
more than one generation away from extinction. I think she specifically placed
the Republic of Gilead in the United States to remind us that not even America,
the beacon of democracy and human rights in the world, is not safe from the
path of authoritarianism. Freedom must be fought for and protected because for
those who have known freedom and then lost it will most likely never know it
again.
What do you think Atwood’s goal was
in writing the Handmaiden’s tale? Do you think a country such as the Republic
of Gilead could ever rise in America?
Hope
you all are having a wonderful spring break!
-Sarah
I agree, Atwood wrote the "Handmaid's Tale" in order to warn its readers about the downfall of freedom in modern society. The theme of identity, for example, is prevalent throughout the novel. Citizens of Gilead are required to take new names and go where they're told. Women, in particular, have it worse in Gilead as they can't own property and are sorted by their level of fertility. They are either useless and suffer in the colonies or are highly valued and kept under strict surveillance. In both scenarios, women are not allowed to act on their behalf and are stripped of their identity, often changing their name. We don't even get to learn of the narrator's real name, referring to her by "Offred", which is the name of her Commander plus a possessive "of" prefix. This method of dehumanization is one of the fundamental ideologies Gilead is based upon, which brings us to one of the warning Atwood presents: the difference identity can make and how easily it can be repressed.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on why Atwood chose to place the Republic of Gilead in the U.S. While many of us sometimes take the freedom we have for granted, it's a journey for us when we learn about how people in the past had to fight for the liberty we have now. We can also see how the tight control used in Gilead was also used in the past, such as during slavery when the masters would control the slaves through religion and forms of torture. Just like a form of control in Gilead was through religion, slave masters would often control their slaves through spreading only parts of Christianity that they believed would help tighten their control.
ReplyDeleteI think that Atwood wrote "The handmaids Tale" as a reminder. Not as intense as a warning that warns of an upcoming apocalypse, but more of a reminder to not sacrifice freedom for safety. Several notable American figures have said that sacrificing freedom for safety is foolish, as eventually you will give up all your freedoms for a fake sense of "being safe". One notable example of this is after 9/11, the USA gave up a lot of privacy in order to ensure that our country was safe. While I believe a good amount of government control is needed to maintain order, "The Handmaids Tale" reminds us to not give up too much before we become a dystopian society.
ReplyDeleteIn any authoritarian society I feel like there’s either a shred of truth or a resounding lie. For example, the U.S. government has done some pretty terrible stuff and it’s easy to see how North Korea has expanded on this to fabricate the story of Americans being inherently bad. In Gilead, I feel that the resounding lie is that women are less than men. Gilead resembling a modern day nation is inevitable because Margaret Atwood wrote it such that it is an authoritarian society so no matter the time period in which it is read it will resound with other authoritarian societies.
ReplyDeleteAt the start, I was wondering why The Handmaid's Tale was set in the United States when Margaret Atwood is Canadian. Now, having read it, I agree with what you said. America has a certain reputation for democracy and freedom, and juxtaposing it with the dystopic Gilead is deliberately jarring.
ReplyDeleteI agree. The blend of freedom-like ideals with the religious doctrine to justify the new society was shocking, and reminded me that things can change very quickly. I think it's interesting that the essential principles of America can so easily be bent to support a system where freedom is systematically taken away from nearly everyone.
DeleteThis is a really interesting post, and I'll admit that when Dr. Majerus asked that question I wasn't even thinking about it in terms of countries besides the US. The two examples that you brought up are really good ones, and I agree with a lot of the parallels that you pointed out. I also think though, that there are some things we don't even have to go far from this country to find. Although the US is obviously not extreme in the ways that you mentioned with Saudi Arabia and North Korea, there are a lot of ways that the Handmaiden's Tale struck really close to home. For example, rape culture is present everywhere in our society and is constantly harmful to women (and also men and all people!!) every day. So, while we don't have a system where women are required to have sex with men in order to conceive a child, there are still a lot of ways that our institutions such as the legal system enable and even perpetuate the objectification of women.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting. While reading the Handmaid's Tale, I found myself appalled at the lack of freedom that women had in Gilead. However, the more I thought about it the more I realized that while we may not see our own society as being this extreme, there are other places in the world that are easier to compare. Even in our own country, the longer I thought about it, the more parallels I could find. For example, the wall where people were occasionally hung for various crimes, such as performing abortions, or being in a same-sex relationship. These things are still surrounded by stigma in our society. Additionally, the idea of victim blaming, and the way that women are objectified, are prevalent both in our world and in Gilead, even if not to the same extent. I agree with you, Atwood certainly wrote this book to remind us of the fragility of our freedom.
ReplyDeleteI found a really scary example in australia. In the first half of the 1900s there was extreme violence against aboriginal populations in australia. Families disappeared and children were taken, etc. This reminded me of the persecution against african americans in handmaids tale, and lack of family/child rights. it's scary to see the real world examples like you said!
ReplyDeleteI definitely think you’re right about the reason that Atwood wrote this novel. It’s scary to think that this cold happen in America, especially because parts of Gilead already exist in other parts of the world.
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that everything Atwood used in the book happened somewhere in the world is deeply disturbing. This makes the handmaidens tale a kind of perfect storm of all of the worst things that happen in the world. This makes this kind of society seem much to close for comfort! While the thing with perfect storms is they most likely won't happen, the fact that they could is deeply unsettling.
ReplyDelete