Essay on A Society of Oppression in A Handmaids Tale -- Handmaids Ta

A Society of Oppression in A Handmaids Tale As the byword goes, history repeats itself. If one of the goals of Margaret Atwood was to prove this particular point, she certainly succeeded in her novel A Handmaids Tale. In her Note to the Reader, she writes, The thing to remember is that there is nothing revolutionary ab expose the society depicted in The Handmaidens Tale except the season and place. All of the things I have written about ...have been done before, much than once... (316). Atwood seems to choose but the most threatening, frightening, and atrocious events in history to parallel of latitude her book by--specifically the enslavement of African Americans in the United States. She traces the development of this institution, except from the perspective of a different group of oppressed people women. manage the institution of slavery, women in Gilead were enslaved through biblical justifications. According to the Commanders, God intend the ultimate power to be in the hands of man, not only because man was created first, but also because it was womans temptation that expelled them both from the Garden of Eden. Women, therefor, must be controlled by man. Slave traders and owners also justified the enslavement of Africans, line that slave labor existed extensively in the Bible (Jews were enslaved by the Egyptians, for example), and therefor God did not condemn the institution. Once a master acquires slaves, or a Handmaid, he must rule over them effectively, to assure that they leave alone meet his needs. To so, the term human must be taken out of consideration (for that may evoke some sort of pity or compassion) and replaced with the term it--detonating property. This is clearly demonstrated when Offred reflects on the ... ...at the top of the underground railroad...Canadas model would be to do what she always does try to remain neutral without antagonizing the magnate to the south, (320). After reading The Handmaids Tale, one may co nclude that Margaret Atwood is not just now feeding her readers history, but rather warning them of our future. We may, for example, see modern daytime oppression in homosexuals. Various religious groups doom them to Hell, rights are taken away from them (the right to marry, for example)...the list goes on. As Atwood says of The Handmaids Tale, The novel exists for social examination... (316). peerless can only hope that our history of social oppression exit cease to repeat itself if only we can learn from the past. Works Cited Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaids Tale. brand-new York Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1986.