A03

Question 1

elections of uk and america

Answer 1

Atwood’s novel offers a strongly feminist vision of dystopia. She wrote it shortly after
the elections of Ronald Reagan in the United States and Margaret Thatcher in Great
Britain, during a period of conservative revival in the West partly fueled by a strong,
well-organized movement of religious conservatives who criticized what they
perceived as the excesses of the “sexual revolution” of the 1960s and 1970s. The
growing power of this “religious right” heightened feminist fears that the gains
women had made in previous decades would be reversed.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood explores the consequences of a reversal of
women’s rights. In the novel’s nightmare world of Gilead, a group of conservative
religious extremists has taken power and turned the sexual revolution on its head.
Feminists argued for liberation from traditional gender roles, but Gilead is a society
founded on a “return to traditional values” and gender roles, and on the subjugation
of women by men. What feminists considered the great triumphs of the
1970s—namely, widespread access to contraception, the legalization of abortion,
and the increasing political influence of female voters—have all been undone.
Women in Gilead are not only forbidden to vote, they are forbidden to read or write.
Atwood’s novel also paints a picture of a world undone by pollution and infertility,
reflecting 1980s fears about declining birthrates, the dangers of nuclear power, and
-environmental degradation.

Question 2

1970 stanford experiment

Answer 2

demonstrated how easily it was for everyone to participate in oppression if the chance was given

Question 3

1960 usa race riots

Answer 3

cattle prods were used

Question 4

17th century america puritan

Answer 4

theorcracy with strict rules ,
iran and afghanistan - actual theocratic regimes

Question 5

serena joy is based on philis schafly

Answer 5

believed that desiring gender equality is going against human nature

Question 6

corporal punishment and the old testamnent

Answer 6

it was allowed to hit ur slaves

Question 7

rageanomics and thatcherism

Answer 7

1980s usa womens rights and sexual revolution were in threat and margret had cvery conservative ideals