The Handmaid's Tale The story of The Handmaid’s Tale follows the main character Offred, as she moves through a world that “forces both men and women into rigidly defined roles.” America has been replaced with the Republic of Gilead in the story, and due to the rapid chemical and nuclear pollution, people had begun to become infertile. With the need for fertile women on the rise, the religious government and elites had forced the rest of these women into the role of being a handmaid to produce children. The Handmaid’s Tale is a cautionary tale of the spreading opinion of anti-feminism, and became one of the best pieces of feminism ever written.
The book written by Atwood in 1985, was during a time where the women’s liberation movement was facing controversy. The media and conservative politics had weak tolerance of it. Not to mention major historical events like in 1979, the new religious regime in Iran ejecting women from their jobs and making them wear religious garments, the US cutting funding for social programs in 1980, and many others reflecting that judgment. Still, with a need for social critique, the novel is a discussion for conservatives and feminists alike.
Atwood's Protagonists Many of Atwood’s protagonists in her novels have similarities. They are women, they trust their societal paths which then fail them, they learn to be better than they think, and begin to write their own paths instead of the one forced onto them. Her protagonists are also in a false pursuit of a man, whole societies are also not their enemy, but the grounded belief that they need a man in their life. These are common feminist ideas which are prevalent in all of her works.
How she writes them is very telling. Margaret had written this from her own life in Canada, where the harsh environments had left them with unidentifiable culture. It was a challenge for her to harness her own Canadian writing, since there isn’t much to distinguish from American writing. Just like how she figured out how to write, her characters reflect that finding. Her characters figure out how to be more than what they’re defined as, and they waver against their societies in pursuit of themselves. She had collected her information and inspiration from ordinary people instead of pathos. College students, other writers, museum workers, etc. and most have reflected on their childhoods, which let her decide to include childhood settings in her stories.
Style Language is our greatest invention, as it transcends day to day life. It's our most effective communication tool, and you use it to get things done efficiently with others. It's used for many other purposes, but how you use it is important. Style is how you use communication, your own style expresses your ideas in your very own way. Atwood is known to have a very great style for when she writes and speaks. You can have varying styles, a scientific style, a legal style, religious, and important to Atwood, literary. Atwood is regarded as a writer who makes her books easy to read, but that doesn’t mean her topics aren’t simple, she works very hard to curate her difficult ideas proficiently for her readers, which is why she’s many people’s favorite authors.
Her style changes frequently, she knows how to write in different ways which allows her to be efficient in writing. She handwrites, allowing herself to work with an idea without stopping and filling in gaps later. She doesn’t like to worry about what genre her book will be, and she gives the job to her marketers. Her genre is described as a genre of science fiction, called speculative fiction. Where real world elements are there yet accompanied by fake theoretical elements, which helps readers question what our world could be like when they read her novels.
The Edible Woman Critics like to think of Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman “as either an optimistic celebration of female liberation or a materialist-feminist protest.” But the writer's style states otherwise, The Edible Woman instead “reflects a more complex picture of capitalism and female subjectivity in the 1960s. The book has themes of mental disorder, and also depicts one, that being anorexia. Atwood uses it as a discursive technique in this book. She creates states of paranoia, decomposition and schizophrenia to explore the changing dynamic nature of the capitalist system.
Feminist critics of the book are torn between whether Marian, the protagonist, achieved liberation from economic power. Though many have also claimed the ending of the book raises more questions than solves answers. Does Marian return to her current job, or go for a seemingly new dead end job, or get married and fill a parental role. Atwood explains that these were the only paths for a woman in the 1960s, explaining its feminist themes.