Wednesday, October 20, 2010
The handmaid's tale
As boring and uneventful as this novel has been so far, the book certainly portrays the theme of false freedom and control in a very insightful manner. The book makes the statement against the extremes of society, extreme left, extreme feminism, extreme right and extreme religion. The author depicts a society where the extremists have taken over and now run the government in which they control the lives of the people on a personal level. To justify this, the people in charge tell the citizens that they are better off than they were before because they have been given freedom from rather than freedom. This clearly correlates to real fascist and communist governments in which censorship and control are prevalent. In governments of the past, this manipulation of freedom has been present in various regimes, and it is a major part of fascism because it allows the people to believe that their lives are better off controlled and protected rather than exposed to the dangers of a free government where people are free to express themselves.
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I totally didn't think of it that way. The whole fascist thing does make sense. The false sense of freedom is perfect in those forms of government and is totally portrayed well in this novel.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this book really goes into the extremes of religion and political views as much, but it definitely displays the false sense of freedom you were talking about. I totally agree with your statement about how the extremists have taken over and are manipulating people on a personal level.
ReplyDeleteYeah. I can't imagine living like our narrator. She has a boring life without much hope other than seducing people. Blah
ReplyDeletewould you consider us free then if this is an example of just fascist and communist governments?
ReplyDeleteTrevor,
ReplyDeleteA thoughtful post (thanks!). Sorry you're finding the book such a slog. I guess we'll have to read Fight Club to make it up to you (though, even in that book, we'll see Tyler observe that he and his peers "are a generation of men raised by women"--and maybe by teachers who keep forcing this feminism down your throat!).