Handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood - Power issues
Power issues in The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret AtwoodThe Handmaid's Tale, a satiric dystopia by Margaret Atwood, contains a complex power structure. The novel details the methods through which power is used and abused in the different classes of people in Gileadean society. It describes how the Commanders, the men 'in charge,' secure their power through manipulation of the social structure, which includes gender and status, segregation of society and how God is used as a justification for their actions. The novel also shows how oppressed groups such as the Handmaids, and even the Wives, utilise the little power they have. The Handmaid's Tale shows how those in power control those of lower status, how they justify it, and how minority groups utilise a small amount of power to retain their identity and sanity in a totalitarian arrangement.The Commanders secure power over the majority in Gilead by controlling scarce resources and the satisfaction of desire. The Commanders are members of the Gileadean elite, the controllers of Gileadean society. The third epigraph at the commencement of the novel is a Sufi proverb: "In the desert there is no sign that says, 'Thou shalt not eat stones'." This proverb is saying that stones are not
The Commanders also restrict and control access to food, another valuable resource that is rationed by a token system. Offred says, "where I am is not a prison but a privilege" (page 17) and "we walk alone the same street, in red pairs, and no man shouts obscenities at us, speaks to us, touches us. When Offred visits the doctor, he offers to "help" her and he says "most of those old guys can't make it anymore . She breaks her confinement with mental journeys and she degrades those in power by thinking about them for what they are or making things up. "For each according to her ability, to each according to his needs. He jokingly suggests that starving people should eat their children because it would be a filling meal. " (page 84)The definition of a human being has been manipulated by the elite men - there are unwomen, who are sterile, but the are no unmen! Men are not defined through their bodily functions and it is a serious offence to suggest that a man is sterile. She says, "It try to imaging him in bed with his wife and Handmaid, fertilising away like mad, like a rutting Salmon, pretending to take no pleasure in it. Offred comments: "I am a blank, here, between parentheses. The only reward she receives is a pass that forbids sending her to the colonies. (page 14) The Handmaids are made out to be valuable resources and holy vessels, but they really hold no power over the arrangement or their own uses. " (page 171)Serena Joy retains a small amount of power by bossing Offred around. They also say that because "Adam was not deceived," he is innocent.
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