book project: the handmaid's tale

english project about the handmaid's tale book written by margaret atwood. book project made by priscila and nícolas.

[lclrgsl]

help us

[carrionboy]

nolite te bastardes carborundorum

[thehandmaidstalehulu]

We are  h a n d m a i d s.

[hgedits]

The Handmaid’s Tale + Onion Headlines

[t-handmaidstale]

the handmaid's tale memes

[secondlina]

Scariest Show of 2017.

[t-handmaidstale]

CRITICAL REVIEW - THE HANDMAID’S TALE

The Handmaid’s Tale is a very interesting dystopia, the whole creation made by the author Margaret Atwood was very rich is all the aspects. She built a scenario totally new of everything we’ve seen before. Of course, dystopias with a twisted way to rule was already a thing, but the way she based this new scenario in a government related to the religious aspect was a smart way to criticize the ignorance that comes with it. The female characters were oppressed in such a different way because the formation of the society gave privilege to the patriarchy. In the book looks crazy how women were treated, and everyone used to obey this new law. It was like the author was building a collective hallucination that makes us think how it would be impossible to something like this ever happen. the craziest part of this all is that mankind capable of everything to defend its ideals, so if we really think this through, it wouldn’t be that impossible. The whole story has an iconic meaning and an iconic symbol. Even the uniforms that the handmaid characters used became a symbol of resistance, people started to relay to the power of the fierce women who appear in the story. They were all fighters and they represent the so called “Girl Power” that we see nowadays. It’s really important to have a book that gives voice to women, even if it’s in a dystopian reality. The point of it is still the same. Expose the difference between men and women, expose their privilege, make people think about it. The characters are imitating a specific portion of society. Their personality reflects their positions. For example, The Commander reflects the rich men, that is part of the Government. His wife is a lonely woman who can’t have children, she releases all her anger on the servants of the house, especially on June, the handmaid. June before this all happen to her, she used to be an independent and powerful woman. She was a mom, she had her job, she was free to use whatever clothes she wanted on the streets, she was free to think and to move around places. But she started to lose all of this in the new system. She had to be re-educated. But her will has never left. That’s why she survived, she had to adapt and do what people told her so. She became obedient, but her mind was always doubting and questioning. She was smart, even thought she had a few slaps. She stood with her beliefs and did the best she can. She is really the face of the resistance in this world built by the author. She gained more power with the TV Show, because the actress who interprets her was flawless, she gave life to the character. The Handmaid’s Tale is a great book to make people think about society and the relations that were made with time. It’s a great dystopian story to reflect about oppressive governments, patriarchy, sexism, feminism and the religious speeches that can be too unrealistic.

[t-handmaidstale]

LITERARY CHARACTERS

THE HANDMAID’S TALE OFFRED: Her real name is June. She’s 33 years old. She is a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. Before the war she used to have a family. A husband called Luke and a daughter Agnes. A mom. A best friend called Moira. She used to have a job, her own money. She could walk on the streets freely; she could wear whatever she wanted. She doesn’t have this freedom anymore. She wears a uniform every day. The uniform that identify handmaids: a red dress with a white cape that covers her face. All her body is covered by the uniform. Her hair should not be exposed ever. Neither her arms. "The bath is a requirement, but it is also a luxury. Merely to lift off the heavy white wings and the veil, merely to feel my own hair again, with my hands, is a luxury. My hair is long now, untrimmed. Hair must be long but covered.” (ATWOOD, 1998, p. 62) She also feels weird about her own body: "My nakedness is strange to me already. My body seems out-dated. Did I really wear bathing suits, at the beach? I did, without though, among men, without caring that my legs, my arms, my thighs and back were on display, could be seen. Shameful, immodest. I avoid looking down at my body, not so much because it’s shameful or immodest but because I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to look at something that determines me so completely.” (ATWOOD, 1998, p. 63) She is a round character. The book describes her thoughts all the time. She had to adjust herself to live as a handmaid. She had to adapt. In the nights of the ceremony, she leaves her body and let it be, it’s the only way she can handle what’s happen to her every month. It’s abuse. But the society accepts this now, so she had to accept too. She thinks about her old life all the time, she wonders where her daughter is. If she will remember of her. Her psychological is what make the book. Her doubts and questions. The way she sees herself as a thing, not a person, is the same way that society started to see woman. She passed through a new education to live as a handmaid, and she tries hard to follow the rules, to convince herself that the new rules are the right rules, but deep down she knows that the world went crazy and this new system is problematic on so many levels. The cruelty, the injustice is all that she can see if she let her true self come out. "I wait. I compose myself. My self is a thing I must now compose, as one composes a speech. What I must present is a made thing, not something born." (ATWOOD, 1998, p. 66) And also: I sink down into my body as into a swamp, fenland, where only I know the footing. Treacherous ground, my own territory. I become the earth I set my ears against, for rumors of the future. Each twinge, each murmur of slight pain, ripples of sloughed-off matter, swellings and diminishings of tissue, the droolings of the flesh, these are signs, these are the things I need to know about. Each month I watch for blood, fearfully, for when it comes it means failure. I have failed once again to fulfill the expectations of others, which have become my own. "I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will. I could use it to run, push buttons of one sort or another, make things happen. There were limits, but my body was nevertheless lithe, single, solid, one with me. Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I’m a cloud, congealed around a central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and more real than I am and glows red within its translucent wrapping. Inside it is a space, huge as the sky at night and dark and curved like that, though black-red rather than black. Pinpoints of light swell, sparkle, burst and shrivel within it, countless as stars. Every month there is a moon, gigantic, round, heavy, an omen. It transits, pauses continues on and passes out of sight, and I see despair coming towards me like famine. To feel that empty, again, again. I listen to my heart, wave upon wave, salty and red, continuing on and on, marking time." (ATWOOD, 1998, p. 73 and 74) THE REPUBLIC OF GILEAD: The real villain of this book. The characters that controls the society represents the new system. The cruelty figures itself in the images of the Commanders, the Aunts, the Eyes, the Wives and the way they organized themselves. Each and every one has a role in the scenario such as the handmaids that supposed to give children to Gilead. The Handmaid’s Tale on the book is a “document” itself. It was found tapes, made by Offred that tells the story of how was the life in Gilead’s time. "The surviving records of the time are spotty, as the Gileadean regime was in the habit of wiping its own computers and destroying print-outs after various purges and internal upheavals, but some print-outs remain. […] It was clear from internal evidence that she was among the first wave of women recruited for the reproductive purposes and allotted to those who both required such services and could lay claim to them through their position in the elite. The regime created an instant pool of such women by the simple tactic of declaring all second marriages and nonmarital liaisons adulterous, arresting the female partners, and on the grounds that they were morally unfit, confiscating the children they already had, who were adopted by childless couples of the upper echelons who were eager for progeny by any means. (In the middle period, this policy was extended to cover all marriages not contracted within the state church.) Men highly placed in the regime were thus able to pick and choose among women who had demonstrated their reproductive fitness by having produced one or more healthy children, a desirable characteristic in an age of plummeting Caucasian birthrates, a phenomenon observable not only in Gilead but in the most northern Caucasian societies of the time”. (ATWOOD, 1998, p. 303 and 304) Therefore, in this briefly analysis we can say that we have a female protagonist, (Offred or June), who is a round characters, full of changes during the whole book. We also have a villain, a protagonist itself too, the Republic of Gilead, the regime that rules the old United States of America. Of course, people were responsible for the implementation of this new regime, but he, alone, is a character that controls everyone else. ATWOOD, Margaret Eleanor. The Handmaid’s Tale. United States: Anchor Books, 1998.

[t-handmaidstale]

Translation TASK

ORIGINAL The mothers have stood the white-veiled girls in place and have returned to their chairs. There’s a little crying going on among them, some mutual patting and hand-holding, the ostentatious use of handkerchiefs. The commander continues with the service: “I will that women adorn themselves in modest apparel,” he says, “with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; “But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.” Here he looks us over. “All,” he repeats “But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the men, but to be in silence for Adam was first formed, then Eve. “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. “Notwithstanding she shall be saved by child bearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.” Saved by child bearing, I think. What did he suppose would save us, in the time before? “He should tell that to the Wives, Ofglen murmurs, when they’re into the sherry.” She means the part about sobriety. It’s safe to talk again, the commander has finished the main ritual and they’re doing the rings, lifting the veils. Boo, I think in my head. Take a good look, because it’s to late now. The angels will qualify for Handmaids, later specially their new Wives can’t produce. But you girls are stuck. What you see is what you get, zits and all. But you aren’t expected to love him. You’ll find that out soon enough. Just do your duty in silence. When in doubt, when flat on your back, you can look at the ceiling. Who knows what you may see, up there? Funeral wreaths and angels, constellations of dust, stellar or otherwise, the puzzles left by spiders. There’s always something to occupy the inquiring mind. Is anything wrong, dear? The old joke went. No, why? You moved. Just don’t move. TRANSLATION As mães deixaram as garotas de véus brancos em posição e retornaram a suas cadeiras. Há um pouco de choro entre elas, algumas trocas de palmadinhas confortadoras e de mãos segurando mãos, ostentando lenços. O comandante continua com o serviço: “Eu ordeno que mulheres se vistam de uma aparência mais modesta,” ele diz, “com pudor e sobriedade; sem cabelos trançados, ou ouro, ou pérolas ou vestes caras; “Mas (conforme são apropriadas às mulheres que professam a meiguice) com boas obras. “Que a mulher aprenda em silêncio com toda sujeição.” Ele olha para nós. “Todas,” ele repete “Que não tolerarei que uma mulher ensine, nem usurpe a autoridade de um homem, apenas que se mantenha em silêncio. “Pois primeiro Deus criou Adão, depois Eva. “E Adão não foi enganado, mas a mulher ao ser enganada cometeu a transgressão. “Não obstante isso ela será salva pela concepção, se continuar na fé e caridade e santidade com sobriedade.” Salva pela concepção, penso. O que supúnhamos que nos salvaria no tempo de antes? “Ele deveria dizer isso às Esposas, murmura Ofglen, quando estão entregues ao xerez.” Ela quer dizer a parte sobre a sobriedade. É seguro falar de novo, o Comandante concluiu o ritual principal e eles estão trocando as alianças e levantando os véus. Buu, penso em minha cabeça. Dê uma boa olhada porque agora é tarde demais. Os anjos se qualificarão para ter Aias, mais tarde especialmente se suas novas Esposas não forem capazes de produzir. Mas vocês meninas não têm saída, o que cada uma vê é o que terá, com espinhas e tudo. Mas não se espera que você o ame. Vai descobrir isso em bem pouco tempo. Apenas cumpra seu ever em silêncio. Quando em dúvida, quando deitada estendida na cama, poderá olhar para o teto. Quem sabe o que poderá ver lá em cima? Coroas fúnebres de flores e anjos, constelações de poeira, estelar ou não, os enigmas deixados por aranhas. Sempre já alguma coisa para ocupar uma mente inquisitiva. Há alguma coisa errada, querida? Dizia a velha piada. Não, por quê? Você se mexeu. Apenas não se mexa.

[literally-studying]

Women Writers (10/10) - x

↳ Margaret Atwood: “ A word after a word after a word is power.”

[geekydreamy]

[15.08.17] “don’t let the bastards grind you down”

[godzilla-reads]

For the holidays, my friend and I decided to give each other each a book. I gifted her “Norwegian Wood” by Haruki Murakami and she gave me this wonderful copy of “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood.

“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”

—Mark Twain

[twitteredits]

c. @orpanblahck 

[justatiredlesbian]

[natashaaromanova]

Whether this is my end or my new beginning, I have no way of knowing. I’ve given myself over into the hands of strangers. I have no choice. It can’t be helped. And so I step up into the darkness within or else the light.

The Handmaid’s Tale (2017)

[whatareyoureallyafraidof]

[t-handmaidstale]

True?

[mysharona1987]

[t-handmaidstale]

Let's think about that.

[t-handmaidstale]

Contextualizing The Handmaid’s Tale Background

After talking so much about the book, we need to talk about the context that the book was made, we also are going to talk about the author's life so we can understand a little bit about the motivations that made her write this book. Margaret Eleanor Atwood is a Canadian writer that started her studies in 1957 at the Victoria College (UofT). While she was still in college she started to publish poems and articles at the college’s literary newspaper, the Acta Victoriana. At the same time she was in college she got involved in the intellectual feminine dialogs at the University, that’s the reason why frequently she portrays her feminine characters dominated by the patriarchy in her novels. Atwood started to be very engaged with writing, politics, social causes etc. In 1976, she became a founder member of the Writer’s Trust of Canada, a non-governmental organization that supports the writer’s community that were born or live in the country. That’s one of the ways she found to help the literature production in her country. In 1985 she published The Handmaid’s Tale, one of most popular novels written by her. In an article on The Guardian she wrote “Some books haunt the reader. Other haunt the writer. The Handmaid’s Tale has done both”. This book has been banned from high schools, and has inspired odd website blogs discussing its descriptions of the repression of women as if they were recipes. She said that many people have sent her photographs of their bodies with phrases from The Handmaid’s Tale tattooed on them. That’s the impact of the novel on many people lives. Not only that, the book won the Governor General’s Award back in 1985. In the same article she continues: “Revellers dress up as Handmaids on Hallowe'en and also for protest marches – these two uses of its costumes mirroring its doubleness. Is it entertainment or dire political prophecy? Can it be both? I did not anticipate any of this when I was writing the book”. The red clothes kinda became symbolical on the fight against repression, although it’s weird, people had already assigned meaning on this clothes. It has a representation. Atwood also said “I began this book almost 30 years ago, in the spring of 1984, while living in West Berlin – still encircled, at that time, by the Berlin Wall. The book was not called The Handmaid's Tale at first – it was called Offred – but I note in my journal that its name changed on 3 January 1985, when almost 150 pages had been written”. “I recall that I was writing by hand, then transcribing with the aid of a typewriter, then scribbling on the typed pages, then giving these to a professional typist: personal computers were in their infancy in 1985. I see that I left Berlin in June 1984, returned to Canada, wrote through the fall, then spent four months in early 1985 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where I held an MFA chair. I finished the book there; the first person to read it was a fellow writer, Valerie Martin, who was also there at that time. I recall her saying: "I think you've got something here." She remembered with enthusiasm. About the influences and things that made her write this book, she highlights some events that happened in her life: “Three things that had long been of interest to me came together during the writing of the book. The first was my interest in dystopian literature, an interest that began with my adolescent reading of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Huxley's Brave New World and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and continued through my period of graduate work at Harvard in the early 1960s. (Once you've been intrigued by a literary form, you always have a secret yen to write an example of it yourself.) The second was my study of 17th and 18th-century America, again at Harvard, which was of particular interest to me since many of my own ancestors had lived in those times and in that place. The third was my fascination with dictatorships and how they function, not unusual in a person who was born in 1939, three months after the outbreak of the second world war” In the year of 1986 The Handmaid’s Tale was nominated to two important prizes: The Nebula Awards and the Man Booker Prize. In 1986 was nominated again, this time to Prometheus Prize and won the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Even she didn’t expect all the attention that the novel gained with time, she recognizes the impact of it. In 1990 the story became a movie and in 2000 a opera. But only seventeen years later the story became a TV show very well produced and received by the critics. It’s also important to say that Awood was included in 2001 in the Canada’s Walk of Fame in Toronto, that’s her legacy.