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| Michael Travesser (aka Wayne Bent) The congregation returning from a purity ceremony |
“The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood presented a lot of questions for me. I felt very uncomfortable and angry reading this book. The more I read, the more anxious I became. How would I feel living in an environment such as the one depicted in the text? The main question I have for this essay is why have these women, who once participated in a democratic society, “let” this new form of government take over their lives? Why are they not putting up a fight for the rights that they once had? I want to learn more about the people behind the roles in this book. For instance, the men…did they all find it acceptable to treat the women with such indignity and disrespect or were they just playing a “role” in order to fit in to this new society?
While reading this book I kept thinking of the methods of control and power the government had over these women, which is why I decided to write about cults. Cults are still a very real part of our society today and I don’t understand why? I would like to research why cults are formed in the first place and why would a person actually choose to be a part of such negative aspect of human kind.
Another aspect I would like to learn about is Margaret Atwood and why she would write about such a horrific lifestyle. I know that she is an author and she has the God-given right to write about whatever she chooses, but why portray women in such a negative way? Or people in general? I understand that books are a form of entertainment; however, I do not see any aspect of this book as “entertaining”.
