How would you respond to a Gilead society, as depicted in Margaret Atwoodd's, The Handmaid's Tale? Would you be a hero and fight for what you believe in or would you succumb and accept the conditions impinged upon you? In Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale", the characters Offred and Moira depict separate characteristics that define Moira as a hero and Offred as not being a heroic character. In the face of a powerful regime, Offred, the narrarator tells a tale of how she ignored her political and social surroundings , rebelled merely out of fear of powerful figures , assassinated her identity, and finally succumbed to the Gilead society. Moira, on the other hand, is a powerful hero because she maintained a distance from social expectations while defining herself according to her beliefs, acted in concert with her beliefs and persisted in striving for freedom, resisting to accept control.
             To begin with, Offred decides to ignore her political and social surroundings. Offred was faced with opportunities to be heroic in the novel, such as the opportunity to actively fight dehumanization through active resistance, a heroic act. We learn that she actively refused to take heed of the violence that led up to the coup, " We lived, as usual, by ignoring. Ignoring isn't the same as ignorance, you have to work at it"(174). Offred lacked comprehension to the political forces surrounding her prior to the coup. Unlike Moira, she lacked consciousness of the constraints imposed on her by society. In addition, she was unwilling to work with her mother and Moira towards feminism before Gilead. Again, she had an opportunity to work with Moira at the Red Center and declined. Finally, she is offered an opportunity to work with Ofglen and actively fight against the regime, where she refuses to act. She is unwilling to accept any of these tasks. She does not want to act, rather survive. In an interview wit...