Context - The Handmaid's Tale

Question 1

Aids in reference to The Handmaid’s Tale

THT

Answer 1

• Aids was a real life pandemic, recognised in the early 80s.
• Aids is spread through sexual activity.

May have had influnce on Atwood’s writing towards homosexual relatioships as a crime

Question 2

The New Right Movement 1980

THT

Answer 2

• This 1980s American movement had conservative ideas about moral behaviour and the role of women in society, which are mirrored in Gilead.
• Gilead’s ideas on religion are reminders of the fundamentalist views of the American New Right movement.
• Some critics say that Serena Joy may be modelled on Phyllis Schlafly, an extreme right activist who travelled America urging support for her conservative views on women.
  - Atwood uses the dystopian genre to satirise the extreme views of American 1980s conservatism.

Question 3

The feminist movement 1970s
‘Second Wave feminism’

THT

Answer 3

• Serena Joy is based on Phylls Schlafly who was an anti-feminist right wing.
• Atwood creates a novel where events are veiwed from a female perspective.
  - Atwood draws upon the 80s idea that women were somehow reposnsible for rape committed against them. “The spectacle women used to make of themsleves.”

“But whose fault was it? Aunt Helena says, holding up one plump finger. Her fault, her fault, her fault, we chant in unison. Who led them on? Aunt Helena beams, pleased with us. She did. She did. She did. Why did God allow such a terrible thing to happen? Teach her a lesson. Teach her a lesson. Teach her a lesson.”

Question 4

What were burnt in both Nazi Germany and Gilead?

THT

Answer 4

Books were burnt in Nazi Germany and Gilead.

Question 5

Name four ways in which Islamic fundamentalist groups have influenced Atwood?

THT

Answer 5

1. Strict dress code of women
2. Education and work not allowed
3. Women must travel with a male escort
4. Punishments such as flogging and amputation

Question 6

What is the Underground Femaleroad in The Handmaid’s Tale based on

THT

Answer 6

The name “Underground Femaleroad” is an allusion to the historical “Underground Railroad”, a network of secret routes and safe houses in the United States during the early to mid-19th century, used by enslaved African-Americans to escape to Canada.

Atwood was Canadian

Question 7

Who is Mary Webster?

THT

Answer 7

Mary Webster is an ancestor of Margret Atwood. She was hanged for being a witch in 1683.

Mary Webster was a puritain.

Question 8

What does the Sufi Proverb “In the desert there is no sign that says, Thou shalt not eat stones” mean?

Answer 8

“In the desert there is no sign that says, Thou shalt not eat stones” means:

My interpretation:
Some rules don’t have to be written down, they should be obvious.

Others say:
Humans will do whatever it takes to survive.

Question 9

What does this epigraph mean?

Jonathon Swift, A Modest Proposal, “But as to myself, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal…”

Answer 9

Atwood’s book is satirical, just like Jonathan Swift’s Proposal, which argued that the problems of starvation in Ireland in the 1700s could be overcome by the roasting and eating of Catholic children.

Both Swift’s ‘Proposal’ and The Handmaid’s Tale are exaggerated to the point where they become unacceptable and repulsive. This is to highlight the real tendencies the satire is addressing.

Question 10

Rachel and Leah “Give me children, or else I die” - Genesis. What is the point of this extract as an epigraph?

Answer 10

THT discusses how society might react to a massive fall in the birth rate.
White males in The Handmaid’s Tale react to this with a programme of extreme crisis management in which producing children suddenly becomes society’s overriding priority; females, by contrast, display a more visceral and emotional need for children in the novel. This – occasionally desperate – desire of women to procreate is what the patriarchs of Gilead use as a means to control them, or, more precisely, it is what leads women themselves to cooperate with the state to the exclusion of almost all their previous political and economic rights, solely in return for the possibility of at least some women having children. Wives, Handmaids, Marthas all share this overriding preoccupation with procreation, and in many ways it unites them, even though the relationship between the three groups is inevitably tense. Women, seen as a whole gender, are given the chance of children; in return, they accept oppression and subservience to powerful men, who have created a lifestyle in which they are rewarded with both a successions of concubines as well as free access to the services of state-supported prostitutes.

Question 11

Though they are both political satires, this epigraph and The Handmaid’s tale have contrasting messages.

THT

Answer 11

Johnathon Swift’s, A Modest Proposal, is also a political satire.
However it mocks societies that are having too many children to support, contrasting the values diplayed in the Gildead.

Question 12

Romanian children in reference to The Handmaid’s Tale

THT

Answer 12

• Pieixoto mentions the banning of Birth Control in Romania as providing precedent for Gilead.

In 1966, under Ceausescu’s dictatorship, abortion and birth control were banned to increase the population.

Atwood uses this real life disaster to put Gileadean laws into context.

Ceausescu was a communist.

Question 13

In which year was contraception illeagalised in Romania?

THT

Answer 13

Contraception was illeagalised in 1966 Romania

This was done to increase the population

Question 14

In Communist Romania how often were women required to go to the gynecologist?

THT

Answer 14

Women were required to go to the gynecologist monthly

The Handmaid’s are also required to go monthly

Question 15

Which anti-feminist is said to mirror Serena Joy before the Gileadean regime?

THT

Answer 15

Phyllis Schlafly is said to resemble Serena Joy.

Question 16

In China, Mao ordered a mass purge of government officials, mirroring the Commander’s fate. What does this suggest about social status?

(Stalin’s Great Purge or Great Torror, illiminated goverment officials and ethinic minorities. )

THT

Answer 16

No one is safe from a totalitarian regime regardless of social class.

Question 17

Explain the treatment of Polish children by Nazi Germany in reference to The Handmaid’s Tale

Answer 17

Similar to the Polish children during the Nazi Germany occupation, the Handmaids were forcibly taken into the system to be re-educated with the values of the regime, so they might live a life under the regime. Also, the Handmaids cannot see their families ever again, which is another similarity to the Polish children.

4,500 Polish children were picked for Germanisation. They weren’t allowed to speak Polish and were put in Nazi institutions.

Question 18

Stalin ‘erased’ a lot of his political opponents. Name one and the similarity between the Gileadean regime and Stalin:

THT

Answer 18

Stalin killed political opponents, noticeably Trotsky (a communist revolutionist). This is similar to Gilead sending hanging people or sending them to the colonies for speaking out against them.

Question 19

Talk about the simlarities between the German League of Maidens and the Handmaids.

THT

Answer 19

The German league of Maidens taught women how to raise children, dress, do their make-up and hair, cook and look after the household.
The training and indorctination that the Nazis enforced upon German girls is similar to the training and indocrinatin the Handmaid’s received at the Red Center.

The Handmaid’s are also made to wear a strict uniform just like the Maidens.

Question 20

What are some paralells between Iran and Gilead?

THT

Answer 20