“Is The Handmaid's Tale feminist?” and “Is it anti-religious?” Please reread the introduction to The Handmaid's Tale on Atwood's answers to these questions, but also take into account the story itself. Many critics have seen it as both feminist and anti-religious, but many have not. Make your claim, back it with evidence and deep analysis.
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3rd Quarter Blog Post 3
Step inside your mind and into the library of books you've read. Which one best represents the painting below and why? You must use a q...
After reading “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, it would be easy to classify the book as a strong, feminist novel, full of cautionary tales and warnings. However, I feel that it goes deeper than that. While Atwood herself does believe in fighting for women’s rights, she does not stray from identify problems within different types of women, from anti-feminists like Serena Joy, centrists like Offred, and the fallen women, whose efforts to save themselves and others like them had failed, crushed by their purity-preaching governance. In my opinion, the novel is not openly feminist, rather more coaching, showing the faults in a fictional world full of fictional characters, and using Offred’s flashbacks to give readers a timeline and a reason why everything went wrong. Atwood does not openly preach against religion as a whole, but slanders instead the harsh purity and sexist cultures found in almost every single religion, most notably Christianity. Gilead is an amalgamation of every harmful and anti-women value commonly practiced in churches today, emphasized in order to show the full impact of the damage forced purity and chastity has brought. Under God, the women are taught to loathe their own bodies, their flesh acting as a symbol of shame and embarrassment rather than simply their physical form. Many women, like Offred, cannot bear to even look in a mirror, disgusted with their own skin. Gilead uses religion as a higher power to rule over a broken society, and weaponizes the shaming that is used by churches everyday to keep the parishioners in line. - regan a. allen
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog. It embodied the author's feeling towards feminism and anti-religious associations.-Emily Ally
DeleteThe point of purity in religion is something that I agree with especially when talking about the role of women is religion.- Cameron Walters
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ReplyDeleteEmily Ally
ReplyDeleteBlog One
The Handmaid's Tale unmistakably embraces women's activist standards. Gilead boycotts liquor, all the others rights that the primary wave women's activists battled for were stripped away in Gilead; in addition to the fact that slavery is in numerous structures everyday people, specifically, have been deprived of the option to cast a ballot, the option to claim property, have some work, to have cash and even the option to peruse. Take Offred's mom. She shows up in old films of fights for fetus removal rights and whines that her little girl isn't grateful for what the second-wave achieved. "You don't know what we had to go through, just to get you where you are," she says, remaining in Offred's kitchen. "Look at Luke slicing up the carrots. Don't you know how many women's lives, how many women's bodies, the tanks had to roll over just to get that far?" Unexpectedly, she thus attempts to constrain her variant of women's liberation on Offred. In The Handmaid's Tale, the language utilized in day by day discussion comprises scriptural expressions: "blessed day", "favored "blessed be the fruit", "may the lord open", "praise be" and "under his eye". The expression "under his eye" is taken in the most exacting sense; God and His workers are continually watching. The gatekeepers are continually surveying the land and watching everybody. On the off chance that you accomplish something incorrectly in Gilead you will be severely rebuffed or slaughtered. This viciousness is utilized to keep the residents into keeping the principles; for instance, individuals who are hung are shown openly to be seen by others and in some cases handmaids are requested to execute individuals for their bad behavior.
Cameron Walters
ReplyDeleteI believe that The Handmaids tale is neither anti-religion or feministic. I believe that the book is more about conformity and it serves as a warning that people should not follow the crowd. The book does touch on some women’s issues as it does talk about how the women is expected to be more than pure in religious rules than usually men are. Even with this fact I still believe that those aren’t the main issues that the book is trying to tackle. The book does a good job of giving different perspectives with different characters. This is through women that have different views but these views all fall into a specific group like Serena Joy, the anti-feminist, this is important because it shows that while they have opinions, they are still not showing individuality. This helps with the point that this can be viewed as a book about not conforming to views and society and showing individuality. I believe the book is more anti-religious than it is feministic but I don’t believe that the main point is anti-religion. There is a point of purity of women in religion that’s purpose is to talk about how the role of women is very distinct when you look at religion rule. Especially when talking about purity of women in the eyes of the religious folks. But this point also talks about falling in line as it’s also another way of blindly following a way of life that is in no way questioned.
Good job emphasizing the different perspectives displayed and how they relate back to feminism and anti-religious sentiments.
Delete-Thomas
Thomas Stewart
ReplyDeleteI think the Handmaid's tale conveys a strong message of feminism, as the entire plot revolves around the mistreatment of women and how the women of Gilead are attempting to combat this mistreatment. The women in the story are depended on solely for reproduction purposes, and they are completely stripped of their individuality and self-identity as a result. "My name isn’t Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because it’s forbidden. I tell myself it doesn’t matter, your name is like your telephone number, useful only to others; but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter. I keep the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure I’ll come back to dig up, one day." This quote shows how Offred has come to accept this unfair and unbalanced society, yet she still opposes it, though she refuses to renounce it on a public level because she knows the sever consequences she could face. Atwood also provides multiple occurrences where Offred looks back to the pre-Gilead United States to reflect on how problems that she once considered to be major, were minuscule compared to what she faces in present day Gilead. This shows how the shift in society has greatly hurt women, giving them all the better reason to rebel against the laws of Gilead. I don't think the novel is too anti-religious, as it seems to focus primarily on feminist ideals. The story does relate some religion, as the government is interconnected with the church and religious language is injected into the majority of society. Again, I think the story may emphasize some anti-religious sentiments due to the laws of Gilead being influenced directly by the church, but instead focuses more on women's push against these laws through feminist themes and motivations.
I like your idea that the shift in society plays a huge role in deciding what this book is considered. -Maggie
DeleteI like the wuote you used to back up your statemnt. I think it helps prove how Offred and the others were treated equally to the men- Caitlin
DeleteJohn Biesecker
ReplyDeleteI think the Handmaid's Tale aims at being a more feminist novel. The majority of the plot is based on the mistreatment of women and the way the system in Gilead oppresses the women. The women in the book have their self identity completely taken away from them as they are used solely for reproductive purposes. "I keep the knowledge of this name hidden" this shows just how little self identity the women of Gilead were given as Offred does not even publicly announce her real name. Offred has many flashbacks where she thinks back to the good times before Gilead. These flashbacks signify just how bad her life is now and give her and lots of other women great reason to rebel against Gilead. Atwood does take a feminist approach to the plot and larger meanings of this novel and its significance in modern society. However, I don't view this book as anti-religious because, although it does have some parts that clearly relate to religion, the aspect of religion is not heavily focused omn and mostly takes a backseat to other issues.
I made a similar argument that the fight for women makes this a feminist novel. -Maggie
DeleteAlthough this book is often misconstrued to be an anti-feminist novel due to its invention of a modern America that oppresses women, thia book is considered to be a feminist novel. The invention of a setting that oppresses women sets the obstacle of the entire plot, which characters must overcome in some way. Through this journey of overcoming what oppresses her June is able to explore feminism and fight for it in this novel, which makes it pro feminism. The fight for feminism in this story is broken down into two sections, one being the modern women’s right movement that we understand in our lives now, and the small steps to fight for women in Gilead. This duality leaves Junes trapped in her Gilead life while still remaining the true feminist at heart. This entrapment can be seen in the quote, “There’s hardly any point in my thinking, is there? I say. What I think doesn’t matter. Which is the only reason he can tell me things.” This quote demonstrates the life that June is forced to live as the only shred of her confidence and feminine empowerment is just left as thoughts. From this quote we see the story line that the entire book follows, and that is the fight for feminism despite obstacles. With the fight for feminism at the heart of this novel it can be considered one of the great feminist novels of modern times. -Maggie
ReplyDeleteCaitlin Fleming
ReplyDeleteBlog 1
4/17/21
After reading "The Handmaid's Tale" by Maragret Atwood I believe this book is based on a feminist ideology. As you read along in the book Atwood creates a strong message of the mistreatment of women and how men take advantage of them. It is shown that the women in the book are solely usefully for reproduction and have no independence. This is shown how Offred isn't even her real name "My name isn't Offred" "Your name is like a telephone number, only useful to others." This shows how women are seen so less superior than men are in this book that they don't even get called by their correct name. In this book Atwood makes it to where women are the main victims in the series of events that happen throughout this story. The fact that they are forbidden to use their real name shows how men see them as just a piece of property that they can use whenever they need or want. At the same time this book is also anti-religious in my opinon because of the disapprovment of Gilead being influenced from the church, and instead Atwood praises the push of women against laws that don't support feminist interests.