Investigative essay feminism PDF

Preview

Summary

en utredande text om feminism baserat på boken "the handmaids tale"...

Description

Investigative essay ”The purpose of a feministic novel in earlier society” The novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” was written by Margaret Atwood and got released in 1985. During these years, society evolved into a society of equal justices. There was freedom of speech for men as well as women. The story is centred around a timeline where America no longer exists and instead has been replaced by the totalitarian Catholic system of Gilead. In this system, women are awfully oppressed. The novel is written in a first-person narrative which allows the reader to experience the tremendous happenings of a woman who was forcibly separated from her own child and husband. She now has to serve her country by bearing children for the commander and his wife. I ask myself why a novel like Atwood’s was published in a time where conditions were becoming more stable. At a time where women were beginning to become more equal to men, where they were not seen as inferior but instead were emancipating. As well as trying to gain understanding of the feminism in the book, I am also trying to understand the concept of feminism possibly being linked to religion, considering religion is a recurring topic within the story. During the time period that Atwood wrote this novel, conservative influencers had a lot of power when it came to politics. This was worrying for the feminists, since retaining traditional attitudes and values would not have a positive impact on these desired changes. In the Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood finds a way to oppose these developments in women’s individuality in the dystopian novel. In this story, women have no rights at all. This is obvious in several situations, for example, the fact that the women get named after the men they are owned by. These actions you come across in the novel are related to biblical aspects. The sentence “Give me children or I will die” originally from the Bible (Genesis 30:1), states that if the woman does not conceive, she will suffer from grief. However, in the novel, this gets taken literally. Men are allowed to be unfaithful to their wives for the sake of reproduction. Nevertheless, if a handmaid is not able to conceive even though it possibly could have been the commander’s infertility causing the misproduction of the fetus, the handmaid will be killed in cold blood. If you had believed sterile men existed at the time you would have been mad. There were only fruitful and barren women, nothing in between. This was considered “the law”. This story was meant to be a worst-case scenario of what could occur in the developing and “new” society at the time Handmaids Tale was written. Developments in feminism were tried to be stopped by Christian preachers. Their goal was to ensure that society would not step away from biblical customs. This book was meant to reflect the spirit of the time it was written in. A story that captures the tension between the political powers of Christian fundamentalists and the upcoming feminists. Linking the developments and changes in this time of growing feminism to the possible scenario that could become reality in a faraway future, it is definitely the spirit of its

time. Predictions say that Atwood’s intention with this book was to challenge society and call out people’s greatest fears. Nevertheless, these are my words against Atwood’s. “Is it entertainment or dire political prophecy? Can it be both? I did not anticipate any of this when I was writing the book” Atwood wrote for the Guardian.

Works cited

Armstrong. J.K (2018) ‘Why The Handmaid’s tale is so relevant today’ [online], available from: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180425-why-the-handmaids-tale-is-so-relevant-today

BIBLEHUB, Genesis 30:1 [online], available from: https://biblehub.com/genesis/30-1.htm

FEMINIST MJORITY FOUNDATION, Feminist Chronicles – 1985 [online], available from: https://www.feminist.org/research/chronicles/fc1985.html...