Context

Question 1

‘electric cattle prods’

Answer 1

were used by the police in US civil rights and race riots of the late 1960s.
the term -‘cattle prods’ - also makes explicit the link between these women and breeding animals.

Question 2

amalgamation of genres

Answer 2

• literary
• dystopian
• feminist
• allegorical
• political

Question 3

2nd wave feminism

Question 4

politicisation of religious ideology in 1980s America

Answer 4

• there was a revival of moral traditionalism in 1980s America in response to the growing popularity of alternative ideologies such as feminism
• the growth of evangelical power factions, which sought to overturn abortion rights and barred the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, as well as the popular reception of the conservative Reagan administration in 1984, fostered anxieties surrounding the possible regressions in rights for women like Atwood.
• evangelical organisations consisted of those such as Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition of America
• while certain policies and ideas may be seen as outrageous today (such as the blanket ban on abortion, the superiority of female homemakers as opposed to those in full-time work), in a socio-political landscape awash with conservatism, such ideas seemed perfectly logical to many people.
• taken to an extreme, this kind of social dynamic reflects that, often, all it takes is for people to feel desperate, hopeless and unheard to comply with the most outrageous ideas and actions

Question 5

rise of post-WW2 autocracies

Answer 5

history has shown us that such autocracies do not last, largely because the human desires for autonomy and freedom reside within all and will inevitably grow the more they are surpressed.
‘Whatever is silenced will clamour to be heard’

Question 6

tradition of dystopian and witness literature

Question 7

religiosity of political regimes throughout human history