The Handmaid's Tale Flashcards
What is puritanism?
Behavior or beliefs that are based on strict moral or religious principles, even the avoidance of physical pleasure, due to a personal experience of the salvation of Christ.
Who is THT dedicated to
Mary Webster, a women said to have been related to her granny and herself, a Webster implicated in witchcraft
Influence of presidential elections on THT
The 1976 election of Jimmy Carter as President, an evangelical Christian which led to national awareness of evangelical christianity.
- Did not share Moral Majority desires and instead supported positions of his own Democratic party (pro-choice + church state divide)
Moral Majority
An American political organization and movement associated with the Christian right and the Republican Party in the United States. It was founded in 1979 and dissolved in the late 1980s.
- Worked on behalf of Reagan
What was Lebensborn
Lebensborn -“Fount of Life”
- was an SS-initiated, state-supported, registered association in Nazi Germany with the goal of raising the birth rate of “Aryan” children of persons classified as “racially pure and healthy” based on Nazi racial hygiene and health ideology initially set up in 1935.
Links to ‘Children of Ham’
Speculative fiction
Speculative fiction is a broad umbrella category of fiction that encompasses all the genres that deliberately depart from realism or from strictly imitating ordinary reality, instead presenting supernatural, futuristic and other highly imaginative realms.
Theonomy
A hypothetical Christian form of government in which society is ruled by divine law, they hold that divine law, including the laws of the Old Testament, should be observed by modern societies.
Publish date
1985
When is THT set?
Set at the end of the 20th century
Where is THT set?
A near-future New England (in the USA), in a totalitarian state resembling a theonomy that has overthrown the government.
portaying ‘the end’ of the United States which involved a “reinvigorated hatred of women and the explosive growth of religious (patriarchal) fundamentalism”.
How are social roles determined?
A status system defining standards for behavior, dress and social duties, thereby eliminating undesirable cultural trends and beliefs in women.
Name of the society in THT
Republic of Gilead
Nomenclature of Serena Joy
Serene - serene, peaceful
Joy - happiness
Contradicts her actual persona
Patronymic
A name derived from a male ancestor’s name
What women is Serena Joy based off
New Christian Right wives who were media personalities in the 1980’s
- Tammy Faye Bakker
- Phyllis Schlafly
- Mirabel Morgan
