The Handmaid's Tale

One of the topics and underhanded intentions that I felt Atwood had when writing The Handmaid’s Tale was making her opinion that politics and religion are destined to be intertwined at least slightly.  The current United States government tries desperately to separate religion and state.  Separating the two to the degree that we do often takes away individuality and takes away the freedom that we so desperately strive to achieve.  For example, our desperate attempts to keep religion out of the school systems have taken away our teachers’ rights to express their own religious views and opinions.  We’ve robbed them of their freedom to express their religious views and opinions in the work setting.  The Handmaid’s Tale shows the exact opposite in their society.  Gilead’s religion and politics are so closely intertwined that they are the same system.  Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale shows the dramatic effects that taking any extremist stance can have, in this particular case, the dangers of the extremist stance combining religion and politics. 

Atwood’s language and the details intrigued me, and I enjoyed reading her work entirely.  I had a lot of trouble picking just one quote, so I chose two.  Both of these quotes, I enjoy because of their analyses, language, and use of literary devises (particularly imagery). 

Pg. 140:  “… drive the sharp end into him, between his ribs.  I think about the blood coming out of him, hot as soup, sexual over my hands.”

I am going to walk you through my thought process for the purpose of your time and understanding of where I’m coming from.  First, I noted the phrase “coming out.”  I saw this as the freedom society and the people in society would reach if the Commander died.  Through his death, everyone would begin to come out of their entrapment.  His blood was described as “hot”.  I saw this as two things.  First, it represented the heat, fire, destruction and hellishness that the Commander was and represented.  Second, the heat could be seen as warmth.  And as we stated multiple times, sex is and represents power.  Her hands symbolize control.  This quote was used to show the freedom everyone would have if she killed him, the power and control she would have, and the desire she resisted in order to not murder the Commander. 

Pg. 211:  “… the round circle of plaster flowers.  Draw a circle, step into it, it will protect you.  From the center was the chandelier, and from the chandelier a twisted strip of sheet was hanging down.  There’s where she was swinging, just lightly, like a pendulum; the way you could swing a child hanging off a tree branch.  She was safe then, protected altogether.”

                Again, I am going to walk you through my thought process for the purpose of your time and understanding of where I’m coming from.  The wording is straightforward and emotionless.  “Circle” shows endlessness.  “Plaster” is fake.  “Plaster flowers” represent fake growth or a fake progression.  The protection the circle provided was a false sense of security.  A child is innocent, so a death that looks like a dead child would be the death of an innocent person.  Again, hands control, so the binding of hands would be the restriction of control.  The tree at the end of the quote is true growth which contrasts with the fake growth earlier in the quote.  Similarly, the last sentence contrasts with the false sense of security that the circle offers.  Death is true safety and security.  This quote points out the flaws of the society: the falsity, the lack of safety, and the allure of death because, as we were made aware multiple times, death is the only way to achieve true safety.  Additionally, this quote touches on the lack of control the people of Gilead had. 

                The Handmaid’s Tale was, by far, my absolute favorite piece that I have studied throughout my academic career.  I primarily enjoyed her usage of details and the messages the work was meant to convey.  I enjoyed the usage and utilization of human sexuality and the psychological aspects of the novel, including the human attraction of violence and suicide in points of desperation. 

Opinion on We

As a general, I enjoy dystopian works.  However, since we have already focused on a few other dystopian works, I’m ready to move on to a new topic.  Though the diction was, at times, enjoyable, other times if felt over done and somewhat forced.  The plotline was generally enjoyable, though predictable.  I also wish that the author didn’t try to force reoccurring ideas as much.  For example, the reoccurring use of scientific details were not always accurate and I often felt that another metaphor would better fit the example and purpose of the text.

We - Zamyatin

Inside the Green Wall, or the glass wall separating the city and the outside world, was the accepted, acceptably correct society.  This could be seen as a “religiously correct” society.  Outside of the Green Wall could be seen as a religious free realm.  D-503 is a scientifically minded person, without as much religious influence as other people from the time.  He trusted science more than religion.  Thus he explained concepts and ideas with numbers and scientific concepts.  We could be interpreted as a stand against organized religion. 

I-330 is a temptress, much like Eve from the Garden of Eden.  She is tempting the main character from the novel into breaking out of his comfort zone, breaking out of what is safe, and breaking out of what was considered (both in D-503’s mind and in society) morally correct. 

Birds, animals from the outside world, symbolize outside ideas, ideas other than those pre-approved, religiously or socially accepted ideas.  As the plot deepens, more birds come in through the crack in the Wall.  These birds appear increasingly as D-503 comes to the realization that there is more that he does not know about, there are outside ideas, and the possibility of freedom does exist within the Wall. 

Not only do the birds manage to find a way in, but D-503 manages to find a way out.  He breaks free of the society; he breaks free from that “one organism” that the robotic lives of the people create.  He does this by passing through the Wall: both the physical wall which contained a crack, but also the wall of closed-mindedness and lack of self-created thoughts, his only previous thoughts being dictated by society (just as many allow religion to dictate their beliefs). 

Underhandedly, the novel makes implications that would suggest sacrilege and anti-religion themes. 

S was “devil-like”.  He was often associated with the devil.  However, earlier in the novel, Zamyatin stated that “his face was the kind that inspires a sort of respect”.  If both the novel and Zamyatin supported religion, the same character would not be used as a representation of the devil and someone to provoke respect.

           

            Instead of using just one quote, I’m going to use two because each, not only feeds off of the other, but also adds to the other. 

Page 14:  “And then – isn’t it absurd that a government (it had the nerve to call itself a government) could let sexual life proceed without the slightest control? Who, when, however much you wanted… Completely unscientifically, like animals.”

Page 22:  “The rest is a purely technical matter.  They give you a careful going-over in the Sexual Bureau labs and determine the exact content of the sexual hormones in your blood and work out your correct Table of Sex Days.”

            As a side note, I’d like to point out the nerve that D-503 had to imply that humans were above animals.  I don’t feel that he is wrong; I agree that humans are above animals.   However, in the world portrayed in We, where equality has reached a point of sameness, the fact that he still finds superiority to both another species and other generations is quite ironic.  This implied superiority is a subtle way for Zamyatin to draw focus to the inability to reach an entirely equal society. 

            Regardless, that is beyond the point.  I pulled these quotes because they show the extent of these “individuals’” lack of choice, power, and control of their own lives.  Sexuality is one of the few aspects of life that a person can control and have choice over, completely.  When a young woman is sexually abused or raped, she loses something: she loses power and control that she should, without any limitations, posses entirely.  Though it is not generally assumed that lack of control, choice, and power are the reasons that rape victims struggle mentally with the traumatic event, the lack of control, choice, and power is a major contributor to their struggles.  To further exemplify my point, think about a prostitute after a rape incident.  To them, sex is not something that should be restricted or withheld for set person/people.  Innocence is not something that can be stolen.  Yet the incident still affects them.  They lost control.  They were not given the right to say no.  They were not given control or choice.  These two passages accurately represent the We society in its entirety.  No one has control, power, or choice.