Panthakorn Thampipit (PK)

1109
September 27, 2560 BE

Theme in The Handmaids Tale

Margaret Atwood

The Handmaids Tale is a book about a dystopian society of the US in the future. In
THT the author tries to wrote a book that reflects the real world. The book shows totalitarian-
ism and fundamentalism in the republic of Gilead which is a society in the book. The Hand-
maids Tale got many inspirations from real life events like in the past Jews need to where
yellow band just like in the book that the handmaids wear red, the commanders wife wear
blue etc. Margaret Atwood give importance of three themes in The Handmaids tale about the
effect on absolute power, dystopian society and conformity to reflect the real world.

In todays real world in some countries there are having an absolute power over their
people. The Handmaids Tale shows us an absolute power that reflects what we have in real
world. There are both advantages and disadvantages in having a absolute power. Youll be
allow to control people easier than normal or take less time to make a decision to do some-
thing but the leader wont come from what people really want and people will live in the so-
ciety unhappily. People in The Republic of Gilead also lived in a society that have an abso-
lute power to control people. According to The Handmaids Tale, And when it was known
that the police, or the army, or whoever they were, would open fire almost as soon as any of
the marches even started, the marches stopped (Atwood, p. 180). It shows that people in the
society are living under the absolute power that there are police and army who control them
under the order of the leader again. Atwood tries to reflect this to real world that in real world
there are some society that have an absolute power that might lead the society in to a dystopi-
an society.

GEOLOGY 101 REPORT "1

 A dystopian society is what we have in everys society but there are some society that
there are an absolute power in an dystopian society. The dystopian society is a society that no
one wants. Everyone love to have a utopian society which its impossible. Atwood tries to
explain how dystopian society is not a good society by making a society in The Handmaids
Tale dystopian with an absolute power to control people. She also reflect that our society
might be like The Gilead Republic in the future. Atwood give a lot of ideas that how bad
would the dystopian society be like by using quotes to show out her ideas. According to The
Handmaids Tale, The world is full of weapons if youre looking for them. I should have
paid attention (Atwood, p.293). The quote point out that the society is under control with an
absolute power which make a society a full dystopian society. No one would be happy in the
society like that even the commanders of Offred seems not to be so happy. The society of
dystopia people mostly having a conformity because of rules and law that control and force
people to do something conformity. Thats also one of the factors that make people feels un-
happy.

Conformity is when people do some thing similar to others sometimes because of laws,
rules or by themselves. In The Handmaids Tale there are many part of a book that shows
conformity in the society of Gilead. According to The Handmaids Tale We learned to
lipread, our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, watching each others mouths. In this
way we exchange names, from bed to bed(Atwood, p.4). This quote shows conformity when
offered needs to learn lipreading like others in order to communicate. She is forced to con-
form to learn lipread so if she dont conform she wont be able to communicate with others.
This also reflect some situations that we face in real world. Sometimes we need to force our-
selves to conform to join some society.

To conclude, Atwood tries to give readers many ideas through the theme of The Hand-
maids Tale. She also emphasize about the theme of the effect of Absolute power, Dystopian
society and Conformity that shows us whats happening in world around us. Having an abso-
lute power in what most of the people want to have but it isnt good to have it because of the
fairness. Dystopian still exist in todays world because people always jealous, not respect each

GEOLOGY 101 REPORT "2

other and doing bad things. Conformity not always happen because we wanted to conform.
Thats what Atwood tries to point out through the theme of The Handmaids Tale.

GEOLOGY 101 REPORT "3