To Live In Oppression
In Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, she speculates about a possible future where women have been stripped of their rights and are controlled by fear and abuse by an ultra-conservative group that have created a patriarchal society ruled by the Regime of Gilead. The Handmaid’s Tale reveals how an oppressive society caters to an elite hierarchy, but it also reveals how the very structure of these societies can oppress the ones in control, as well as the oppressed. Atwood’s novel suggests that, in a totalitarian society, people will oppress each other willingly, in order to find some measure of power, freedom, or peace. In addition, The Handmaid’s Tale encourages readers to question complacency in relation to their civil rights.
The very concept of a totalitarian society is based on conformity, suppression, corruption, fear and terror. The use of fear and violence keeps the classes under the elite in line and obedient. This is reflected when Offred reports that “guns were for the guards”, but “there were “no guns though [for the women], … they could not be trusted with guns” (4). The guns, a symbol of power and the ability to inflict pain, are a visual reminder to be constantly afraid and to behave as expected. In order for the elite to continue to keep the suppressed in line, they work toward teaching conformity and brainwashing the Handmaids, specifically, into believing that they have an honored position, as Atwood’s narrator claims, “Where I am is not a prison but a privilege, as Aunt Lydia said” (8). Obviously, this statement is completely untrue, as the Handmaids have no freedom of choice, which is exactly what a prison and a totalitarian regime takes away from a person. This statement endorses the fact that totalitarianism encourages people to think of their positions in better terms in order to continue to reap the benefits of their obedient service and avoid resistance and revolt. This point is further implied when...