The Handmaids Tale By Margaret Atwood - 1375 Words

The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood Introduction The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood and I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou are both very well-known texts. They explore the characters horrible situations, retell the experiences through a variety of literary features which all link back to my main theme of freedom to, and freedom from. The Handmaids Tale is set in a not so distant future dystopia, the totalitarian Republic of Gilead. It is centred around Offred, a handmaid given to the Commander and his wife, Serena Joy, for reproductive purposes because of the dangerously low fertility. Handmaids are given to elite couples who have trouble conceiving in the hopes they can bear children. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings†¦show more content†¦Similarly, the theme of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is freedom and lack thereof, confinement. The poem talks of a free bird flying through sun rays and how it â€Å"dares to claim the sky†. It also talks of a caged bird with clipped wings and tied feet hoping for freedom and how it â€Å"sings with fearful trill of things unknown and lon ged for still... for the caged bird sings of freedom†. Narration The narration style of both texts are different, but are similar in that the readers have the opportunity to interpret the texts in their own ways and gain understanding of what the characters are going through. The Handmaids Tale is written in first person narrative and we get reflections from Offred’s past before Gilead, accounts from her time in the Red Centre, where woman were taught to be subservient, and insights to her thoughts and experiences at the present. The method of first person narration gets the reader fully immersed into Offred’s story and what she is going through allowing the reader to empathise with her, but is limited by that it does not allow the reader into other characters thoughts and feelings, with this interaction, â€Å"...she (Ofglen) is looking right at me... directly, steadily... unwavering...† reader has to come their own interpretation of what Ofglen means. The narration of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is fairly simple third person narrative, it takes on a somewhat literal interpretation of freedom and lack thereof, â€Å"...wings areShow MoreRelatedThe Handmaid s Tale By Margaret Atwood1249 Words   |  5 PagesDystopian Research Essay: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood In the words of Erika Gottlieb With control of the past comes domination of the future. A dystopia reflects and discusses major tendencies in contemporary society. The Handmaid s Tale is a dystopian novel written by Margaret Atwood in 1985. The novel follows its protagonist Offred as she lives in a society focused on physical and spiritual oppression of the female identity. Within The Handmaid s Tale it is evident that through the explorationRead MoreThe Handmaid s Tale By Margaret Atwood1357 Words   |  6 Pagesdictionary). In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood explores feminism through the themes of women’s bodies as political tools, the dynamics of rape culture and the society of complacency. Margaret Atwood was born in 1939, at the beginning of WWII, growing up in a time of fear. In the autumn of 1984, when she began writing The Handmaid’s Tale, she was living in West Berlin. The Berlin Wall had not yet fallen and in her travels â€Å"behind the Iron Curtain† (Atwood, 2017) she experienced â€Å"the warinessRead MoreThe Handmaid s Tale By Margaret Atwood1060 Words   |  5 Pagesideologies that select groups of people are to be subjugated. 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This dystopian fiction book is about a young girl, Offred, who lives in Gilead, a dystopian society. Radical feminists complained about their old lifestyles, so in Gilead laws and rules are much different. For example, men cannotRead MoreThe Handmaid s Tale, By Margaret Atwood1629 Words   |  7 Pages Atwood s novel, The Handmaid s Tale depicts a not too futuristic society of Gilead, a society that overthrows the U.S. Government and institutes a totalitarian regime that seems to persecute women specifically. Told from the main character s point of view, Offred, explains the Gilead regime and its patriarchal views on some women, known as the handmaids, to a purely procreational function. The story is set the present tense in Gilead but frequently shifts to flashbacks in her time at the RedRead MoreThe Handmaid s Tale By Margaret Atwood1684 Words   |  7 Pagesensure the safety of all citizens however; women can be forced to face extremities if the laws and the government are patriarchal. 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The narrator, Offred, explains how for her job she is assigned to a married Commander’s house where she is obligated to have sex with him on a daily basis, so thatRead MoreThe Handmaid s Tale By Margaret Atwood1237 Words   |  5 Pages The display of a dystopian society is distinctively shown in The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood. Featuring the Republic of Gilead, women are categorized by their differing statuses and readers get an insight into this twisted society through the lenses of the narrator; Offred. Categorized as a handmaid, Offred’s sole purpose in living is to simply and continuously play the role of a child-bearing vessel. That being the case, there is a persistent notion that is relatively brought up by those