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Stay Woke English Final Draft
Stay Woke English Final Draft
Stay Woke English Final Draft
Brady Applonie
Professor King
English 1A
1 October 2017
Some of the most significant issues on the forefront of the world stage today are climate
change and income inequality. Many people understandably fail to recognize or take action on
these topics. The reason being is that they are not directly and readily affected everyone. One
way to see how these problems are not being given the attention they deserve is to read.
Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale lays bare the results of such complacency and
ignorance. Atwoods dystopian novel is a simulation of how these issues have overcome and
broken down the people of Gilead. The environment has been exploited and abused, leading
many people to have a dramatically decreased lifespan as well as lower fertility rates. Not only
has the environment been subject to loss, but the people are under total subordination
beneath a few who control the wealth. This hierarchy leads many to not be able to afford all
the essentials and hardly ever any luxuries. Here, this book shows what happens when such
vital matters are overlooked and especially for so long. In this essay, then, the significance of
the happenings in The Handmaids Tale and real life will be compared and contrasted in order
to gain an understanding of why more should be done to bring the environment back to
stability and to stop the plateau that is the middle class to stop crumbling at both sides.
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one's achievements. It is easy to become complacent. Many people find it the easiest to
become complacent. It could be said that is an element of our instinct to survive. The truth is it
has never been more devastating in history. The Industrial Revolution, which is very recent in
relation to the time itself, set the world on the fast track to global warming. Global warming is a
serious issue that needs to be addressed. It is the process by which heat from the sun
penetrates the atmosphere and is then locked in by carbon dioxide. Findings from NASA show,
[carbon dioxide is released] through human activities such as deforestation, land use
changes, and burning fossil fuels. Humans have increased atmospheric CO2 concentration by
more than a third since the Industrial Revolution began. This is the most important long-lived
"forcing" of climate change. (IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, 2014, Lockwood, 2009) This quote
is demonstrating how disregard for environmental health has led to a world that is becoming
more and more polluted every year. This has increased the severity of the green-house effect
which is slowly bringing the temperature of the Earth up. With the ever increasing
temperatures comes sure and slow destruction of everything around us. Ice is melting, sea-
levels rising and the homeostasis of environments is becoming unbalanced. And this is not too
A quote from The Handmaids Tale reads, Nothing changes instantaneously: in a gradually
heating bathtub you'd be boiled to death before you knew it (Atwood). This quote is an
example of how complacency and contentment with the world will lead to ultimate and
unexpected destruction. It is not an issue we can readily see right now but something that must
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be compared between this time and those before it. The characters in Gilead became blind to
the events that gradually destroyed their freedom and world around them. Atwoods dystopian
novel also says, Ive been wasting my time. I should have taken things into my own hands
while I had the chance I should have paid attention (Atwood). This quote shows how only
when it is too late we notice something happening. How are the issues of climate change and
income equality seen in The Handmaids Tale? And more importantly, how have they been
ignored so much that they are now issues too large to control? Both matters have enveloped
The entire purpose of women in this book is to have babies. When they cannot or choose
not to, they are seen as disposable and in turn sent to The Colonies. The Colonies have been the
most affected from nuclear waste and are not a suitable environment to live in. Being a
dumping site for waste and in the shadow of industrial factories, The Colonies are certainly
inhospitable. Because of the blind eye that was turned to these disasters, these people now
must live in terrible conditions. The connection is that the world is doing the same thing and
does not realize it. An astonishing amount of waste is produced and dumped every year. What
does this mean? Ann Simmons at the L.A. times wrote that, When waste is not collected, the
frequency of illness such as diarrhea doubles and acute respiratory infection linked to the
burning of waste is six times higher, Ijjasz-Vasquez said. (Simmons 2016) The incredible
amount of waste being generated is causing serious health ramifications, as also seen in
Atwoods book. The only way to help this is to be more conscious of how waste is disposed and
The sad truth is that many issues seen in The Handmaids Tale are comparable to real
that the middle class is a plateau that is breaking down at both sides and getting smaller. An
article from Huffington Post states, ...State governors are now having to make major budget
cuts that hit lower-middle-class families the hardest: restricting eligibility for health insurance,
cutting aid to K-12 schools and reducing assistance to public colleges and universities (Bassett
2011). Most Americans feel disenfranchised by the government. This is simply a microcosm of
what is going on in the country. The middle class is struggling which leads us to either being rich
or poor. It is difficult to find a middle ground these days. The extreme lack of quality education
The same is seen in The Handmaids Tale. The Commanders have control of the currency
and make the decisions in the interest of themselves/their families. The rest are left to scrap
and not have anywhere near as many luxuries (or necessities, for that matter) as the top. While
Offred is having an encounter with one of the Commanders, she thinks, He looks us over as if
taking inventory (Atwood). This is an example of how Offred and the lower classes feel they
are being unfairly treated. The anecdote of the previous paragraph goes to show just one of
The lesson to be learned is that there are some major issues that we clearly do not care
enough about to do anything. Humans become complacent and it is dangerous. The only hope
is that we can learn from our mistakes. There are many things to be learned from The
Handmaids Tale about what happens when we do not pay attention. A crumbling middle class
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and the exploitation of natural resources are examples of a couple parallels that can be drawn
between real life and Atwoods dystopian novel. It can be seen through the novel that these
issues are ones that have not been taken seriously yet. If these issues continue to be ignored,
The Handmaids Tale demonstrates just one of many outcomes that can occur. Unfortunately,
these issues have progressed rapidly not only in America but around the world. Only through
history and simulations like The Handmaids Tale will we have a tangible incentive to stop the
damage.
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Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaids Tale. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017.
United States Global Change Research Program, "Global Climate Change Impacts in the
Judith Lean, Cycles and trends in solar irradiance and climate, Wiley Interdisciplinary
Mike Lockwood, Solar Change and Climate: an update in the light of the current exceptional
10.1098/rspa.2009.0519;
Naomi Oreskes, "The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change," Science 3 December 2004: Vol.
Simmons, Ann M. The world's trash crisis, and why many Americans are oblivious. Los Angeles
development/la-fg-global-trash-20160422-20160421-snap-htmlstory.html.
The Lower Middle-Class Crunch: Too Rich To Qualify For Government Assistance
cl_n_629255.html
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