Oppression in The Handmaids Tale Essay Example

Oppression within the women of Gilead.Where the totalitarian government has managed to divide and conquer what their vision on how the use of the female species should be.Divide which originated from the Latin word dividere stands for separation of something or someone either into parts or alone.Which surely enough wasn’t a hassle since Gilead was able to get what it desired the rights of women.Along with conquer the act of pursuit and total control to overcome.Conquer could be taken both ways for in the book written by Margaret Atwood “ The Handmaid’s Tale “ they may have taken away the freedom of women but it was the women who conquered their thoughts when doing the sexual acts called “ a ceremony “ or even a plan to escape their place of imprisonment where they were trained being called the “ red center “.The fight these women were faced with was incredible because it wasn’t only among the men but even with their own kind trying to survive in a society where anything disrupted the new law came with public display of execution and labeling such as the unwomen to belittle a women.The battle of the oppression was certainly not easy to undergo in Gilead.How do you think the women of Gilead oppressed other women?

Offred a main character with the novel “ The Handmaid’s Tale “ takes us the public to visualize her form of living in Gilead.As when she does it allows you to recognize how unfortunate and unjust the rules the government placed in order to see a world they wished to create.Men were able to continue their lives freely as women where to be covered head to toe within their division which was made into 6 groups.The handmaid’s which was the group Offred served in were to wear red signifying that women who wore this color were fertile and could reproduce.Martha’s wore the color green their duty was to clean and cook.Next came the wives of the commanders they wore blue and were to take care of their husband.Econwives wore stripes their uniform stood for the lower class men and they had to do everything which was cook,take care of husband,etc.Widows wore black representing the color of their lost loved one.Lastly the unwomen which were women set to be not only dangerous but the ones who went against the law completely.The government created these groups slowly to identify and restrict women more of what they were capable of doing that women of color were labeled unjust and given the opportunity to leave or disappear into the colonies.There's an article named “ Memory and Politics” by Jane Armbruster mentioned “Racially “undesirable”people of color and Jews are deported en masse or killed”.Reasoning behind it is women of the supposed superior race “ Caucasin” were sought to be the best fit for fertility because they were healthy and of course white.Handmaid’s a group in specific were to be brought up with morals they learned in the red center for when they arrived at their temporary stay would be used only for her fertility benefit and give her fetus to the household she was sent to and give them a family of their own.Sounds terrible because it is but somehow or sometimes they get use to it.For Offred states “ We yearned for the future.How did we learn it, that talent for insatiability?”.

Marthas the women group who provided the meals and do the maintenance within their place of stay.A task most preferred rather than being a handmaid.A former martha named Rita that knew Offred would not only oppress her but also the whole idea of what a handmaid was.Rita found it to be shameful and unlady like as for they almost had a choice to choose the path for which the government had already picked out for them.Within the novel Rita saids “ Better her than me “(Atwood 10).You see although she opposed of what being a handmaid was she knew it wasn’t a lifestyle not many could live or even get use to.In “ Memory and Politics–A Reflection on The Handmaid’s Tale” it’s so said “ Marthas ,” the housekeepers, have access to information that gives them some leverage over the handmaid’s and wives.”Which is something true being that the handmaid’s such as Offred would often snoop around listening to the conversations the Martha’s would carry on for her own enjoy due to restrictions the handmaid’s would have.

Now when you read “The Handmaid’s Tale” you get to discover the great amount of oppression that comes from those women who the Handmaid’s have been shown to look up to which are the aunts.Especially Aunt Lydia who taught the handmaid’s these morals of pure obedience and satisfy others needs first than their very own.As said in the novel by Aunt Lydia “ There is more than one kind of freedom.Freedom to and freedom from.In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to.Now you are given freedom from.Don’t underrate it.”(Atwood 24).Sounds crazy considering these were women with lives of their own before the government changed it.Now they don’t have a say with not just their mind but what and how they use their body.”Memory and Politics–A Reflection on The Handmaid’s Tale” is an article in which shared “They also teach that restrictions on mobility and communication are protecting the handmaid’s from the rape and violence brought upon them by feminism.”The part of the article referred to how the aunts worked to make the hanmaid’s believe that their freedom was an issue in which would allow them to be harmed which is insane how they viewed their own kind and to only be suit for their temporary “ bosses” to just reproduce in keep reproducing until the next family as if they had to be ok with what was being asked and done to them.

The wives of Gilead often oppressed the handmaid's due to envy of them being able to hold a child of their own as they couldn’t do so themselves.Offred was assigned to a family in which she happened to know who the wife was because she seen her on tv.Ultimately that wasn’t so great because she didn’t have to same personality represented on tv to which the wife addressed she didn’t like her.As when it came to the sexual act called a “ceremony’’ both the wife and Offred wanted it to be done with as the wife mentions “Get up and get out.”(Atwood 95).Aside from the wife Offred does have to encounter with the main tool of the ceremony the wifes husband.”Commanders trust nothing in nature, especially love, sexuality, spirituality, and friendship–the most profoundly human natural experiences.” a line in the article of “ Memory and Politics–A Reflection on The Handmaid’s Tale”.Which is true because if a bond was formed amongst the commander and a handmaid the trouble would be big lucky enough offred grew a bond but not the commander nor her made more of it because she was stuck on the chauffeur Nick and her husband she had before.

“The Handmaid’s Tale” a novel where women would oppress their own kind.Goes to show how easily it is to tear down someone either because of the opportunities they contain that you can’t like how the wives would look down on the handmaid’s because they had the possibility of carrying a fetus.Or the Marthas because the handmaid’s were used to serve their bodies in order to reproduce and had everything come to them while they cleaned and cooked.Though truth is these women were all controlled by the government in positions they enjoyed or didn’t which created for them to oppress one another by degrading them and not realizing that they to are women and humans.The males were brought up to be superior and the women to give which only isn’t fair and very unjust for women are as capable to be their own and run their own mind for they also carry much knowledge.Unfortunately this novel showed that women of Gilead column’t really stand together unless in their own group for which they understood what their part played in being women of Gilead.

Worked Cited:

Armbruster, Jane. “Memory and Politics — A Reflection on ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.’” Social Justice, vol. 17, no. 3 (41), 1990, pp. 146–52. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/29766564. Accessed 1 Jul. 2022.

Atwood Margaret.1985,The Handmaid’s Tale,McClelland and Stewart Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.