The Handmaid’s Tale
Feminism
In this “hyper-patriarchial” society, the men abuse sexual power politics to the fullest extent. They live in the republic of Gilead which is very similar to a dictatorship with a caste system where the men are at the top and the women are at the bottom. They are further ridiculed if they don’t follow the customs that are in this place. “For example, the new family structure relies on "the monthly rape 'Ceremony.” Women are objectified and seen as nothing more than things to use and abuse for reproduction. The women are literally owned by the higher ups. They can’t escape, nor have their own lives separate from the men, and if they try to get out, they are killed.
Identity
Going a little more into the background of where this book takes place, "The Handmaid's Tale portrays the dissolution of the United States, resulting in a reinvigorated hatred of women and the explosive growth of religious (patriarchal) fundamentalism" - Christopher Jones. The women in this prison try to grasp onto what’s left of their identity before they were all forced into captivity. This imbalance of power leaves women with no way to fight for change. These women are subjugated to traditional gender roles and are seen as lesser than men. They have to cook, clean, and don’t get to express themselves. “The Veil in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale," examines how the veil, worn by all women in Gilead, functions as the crucial tool of subjugation” They don’t even get to choose their clothes.
The Blind Assassin
Pacing
To start off, the book takes place in Ontario Canada in the chase family as the main character, Iris, recounts her life and the death of her sister, Laura. Multiple times throughout the book, Iris visits the cemetery for her family, and takes trips to get coffee and doughnuts as part of her day-to-day life. While the repeated use of these runs for coffee and doughnuts may seem slow and repetitive, this routine allows Iris to reflect on her past to make the story as good as it is. Iris uses the book within a book with the same name, “The Blind Assassin,” to talk about her affair. This style shows one example of how people use stories or other forms or writing to talk about their life without needing to actually tell someone about it, just as she had in the book.
Significance of 1st Person Storytelling
Since the book is told through Iris in the first person, there is the bias that she has while telling the story. While this bias may make it harder to know the true reality of certain aspects of characters and events in the book, it, at the same time, opens the door for the opportunity to read in between the lines for the truth.
Alias Grace
Oppression
This book begins in a mental asylum in Canada where Dr. Simon Jordan talks with the main character, Grace Marks. She had been convicted of the murder of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery. She recounts her life to the doctor of the many struggles she experienced. She dealt with lots of racial oppression, since she was an irish immigrant and her job was maid, so she had to put up with the racism. Besides race, she still wasn’t in the clear. With the setting in the mid 19th century, she too experienced lots of misogyny as she was only a working-class maid during the Victorian era. Women were supposed to be angels, innocent beings who could not do harm, but when they weren’t pure, they were demonized. Even though she tried her best to work hard and be the perfect woman the people wanted, she would be vilified for falling short. “The dichotomy of female portrayal as saints or demons is evident in the prison workers who justify harassing Grace but yet maintain that their own mothers are saints (Atwood 240).”
Control
Although the women did not enjoy in the slightest needing to uphold such high standards, they had no choice. Most women during this time were dependent on men for their income, because they themselves were not able to find a job that could support themselves. The book shed a great light on the theme of Codependency. They are completely “financially controlled by men.” With the quality of work that they could obtain being so low, they couldn’t leave their abusive husbands or controlling boyfriends without losing their identity. The only other way of living for women during this time besides relying on men was to be a servant or prostitution. “Women like me have few skills they can sell” (Atwood 145).
Cat’s Eye
Postcolonialism
In the final novel for these themes, Cat’s Eye is about a painter, Elaine Risley, who was bullied by her childhood best friend, Cordelia. She returns to her hometown of Toronto to confront her bully from the past who gave her lots of trauma. One of the traumas she had was the isolation she experienced. She experienced subordination from her so-called friend. Atwood intentionally put this trauma for Elaine to resemble the othering aspect of postcolonialism that many people experience in the real world today.