Analysis

             The topic and theme I would like to discuss from The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is the human nature to survive in oppressive and dangerous conditions. This topic is explored by Margaret Atwood thoroughly using the characters Offred, Serena Joy, and Moira.  Each character has different opportunities and power based on their positions in Gilead. Offred, being a hand maid, has no power in this society unless she becomes pregnant. Offred is an intelligent woman, as we see from her scrabble games with the Commander, and she decides to adapt to Gilead’s oppressive society in which women’s lives are in danger if they do not obey their male ruler’s commands. The fact that Offred is intelligent suggests that she has thought through every possibility of leaving this terrible life, but her opportunities are limited and her human nature to survive has paralyzed her free will. Offred does in fact make it out of Gilead; however, this is pure chance because she did nothing to free herself. Offred is a symbol of the The topic and theme I would like to discuss from The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is the human nature to survive in oppressive and dangerous conditions. This topic is explored by Margaret Atwood thoroughly using the characters Offred, Serena Joy, and Moira.  Each character has different opportunities and power based on their positions in Gilead. Offred, being a hand maid, has no power in this society unless she becomes pregnant. Offred is an intelligent woman, as we see from her scrabble games with the Commander, and she decides to adapt to Gilead’s oppressive society in which women’s lives are in danger if they do not obey their male ruler’s commands. The fact that Offred is intelligent suggests that she has thought through every possibility of leaving this terrible life, but her opportunities are limited and her human nature to survive has paralyzed her free will. Offred does in fact make it out of Gilead; however, this is pure chance because she did nothing to free herself. Offred is a symbol of the majority of how people react in dangerous situations, such as in the Holocaust. The majority of people accepted they had no power in their situation and let what was going to happen to them happen. Serena Joy has more power than Offred as she is a wife. She is an example of how people with more power than others in an oppressive situation oppress those below them. Another woman who suppresses others who do not have as much power as she does is Aunt Lydia. Also, Serena Joy, as a wife, has power over Offred and Serena almost gets joy from suppressing Offred. All women are suppressed in Gilead and still, in most cases, women continue to suppress each other. It must be human nature in crisis to think only of yourself is the point that Margaret Atwood makes. Moira is a symbol of someone who fights for freedom and does not succeed, leaving them to accept their situation with greater hopelessness after having tried and failed.  Moira works a degrading illegal job in Jezebels after having failed to escape Gilead. The men’s lives in Gilead are not at constant risk; yet, they find themselves just as uneasy as the women.