Atwood presents women in the novel? Essay

Atwood includes in the novel Offred as a young babe watching her mother burning pornographic magazines because she wants her readers to question how far the women in the society at the meter the novel was set involved in creating the Gilead regime womens liberationists takes part in activities such as trickvassing against pornographic materials and disrupting beauty contests because they believe that they are degrading to women, Atwood is saying that by protesting against such, they are agreeing that censorship should be brought in and that women should be protected from such material at the heart of the Gilead regime is the protection women. Margaret Atwood is thought-provoking militant feminists to decide at what cost are they ready to pay in order give rise the matriarchal society they are campaigning for.Also Atwood is sample the readers that the nonion of the need protect women discount be dangerous it could slip from a demand for more freedom to a kind of neo-Victorian ism, afterwards all it was the need to protect women that justified all manners of women subordination in the 19th degree Celsius including confining women to the kitchen and barring them from voting. Before writing this novel, Atwood collected newspaper clippings and reporting events from the feminist movement, religious rightfield groups and various cultural practices around the world so, this tangled debate could also be referring to the views contemporary Moslem women who argues that the veil and the all-enveloping clothing is aimed at dealing with sexual harassment and sexual objectification.By including this in the novel, Margaret Atwood is warning her reader to be careful of such promises the language is feminist, but the results could be deeply patriarchal-as it is in the book. Throughout, Atwood presents assorted types of women and their different responses to the patriarchal regime of Gilead, two of which are Janine and Moira. Moira is flamboyantly unconventional and possesses unshakeable self-assurance, refusing to subscribe to the ideologies of Gilead by her subversive attitude to life. Atwood presents Moira as a symbol of hope for Offred. Like Offred, her function in Gilead is to conceive, but she does not let this bother her as she sees herself escaping Gilead one day, in fact it is this determination that helps her escape the mental madness.Moira in the novel is also portrayed as an asset to the other handmaids in the Red Centre because her inflammatory humour is used as a weapon against the tyranny of the Aunts. The author also presents Moira as the vocalisation of reason e. g. in chapter 28, Offred tells of how critical Moira was when she found out that Offred was involved in an extra-marital affair with Luke she disapprove derriere then. Not of Luke but the fact that he was married. As mentioned before, feminism is not a same body of thought hence different feminists have different feminist beliefs Margaret Atwood is using the chara cter of Moira to project the readers the other strands of feminism.Moira is a lesbian and like Offreds mother, she is also a politically aware feminist and conscious of her right as women but unlike Offreds mother, she does not have to go to essential lengths to fight for equality Moiras idea of feminism is cosmos assertive as a women and being loyal to other women (hence she accuses Offred of stealing Luke) Moiras reluctance to conform to rules of Gilead is crucial to her mental stability and her survival. Margaret Atwood counterpoint Moiras reluctance to subscribe to the ideologies of Gilead with Janine, who deeply believes and accepts the Gilead regime.Janine is both a victim of freedom and oppression. In the novel, we told that as a handmaid, she was left to wound her own emotional scares when her baby was declared unborn and destroyed because it was misshapen and also that before the Gilead regime she was gang-raped something she is made to believe by the Aunts that it is h er fault her fault, her fault, we chant in agreement.There are great parallels between these events in each case, she is a powerless individual, victimised as a women and her baby is destroyed. Janines fragility reinforces Moiras inner strength. Janines drift into madness in chapter 43 serves as Atwoods way of telling the readers that people can not be pressure into believing in something imposed on them and that true converts of the Gilead regime are eventually into driven fruity by the systems inhumane practices. Page 1 of 3 Show preview totally The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Margaret Atwood section.