Handmaid's Tale Part 2

The second issue that Margaret Atwood addresses in this Gilead society is the ideas that are being placed on women about their role in society. While this is an obvious issue, people overlook because of its simplicity. Throughout time, women have been viewed as homemakers. Women’s responsibilities have been to take care of the children, keep the house clean, and make meals for their families. Our society is starting to divert away from these traditional views, as women are become more prominent members of corporate American and politics. While I believe that women are still not seen as equals in our world, pretty soon I think that they will be and that is will be a significant part of history. I found an article that talks about twelve steps for women to be more respected in the workforce, a topic that is relatively new to our society.

In Atwood’s book, women have been “put back in their place” according to the Gildean government. Their main duties are to have children, clean and make food for men. Obviously, this is the main issue of the book because women have been working hard to be seen as equals to men and the new government saw this as the reason for society’s issues. Like other times in humanities’ history, a weaker group of people has been used as the scapegoats for issues that may have not been their fault. I think that this novel is taking about how women still are viewed as unequal and maybe even harmful to society if they were to leave their traditional habits of being homemakers. 

Article: http://elitedaily.com/women/women-work-place-12-ways-gain-keep-respect/624369/

Self Interests Trump All

Throughout this class, I have read five excellent books. All of them, obviously, are in a similar category, dystopian literature, but what do they all have in common? In every book I have found that the break down of all of these societies can be attributed to selfishness. When life becomes tough in all of these books, the people begin to confide only in themselves or their loved ones. In 1984, the government has turned the people against each other. The Thought Police are constantly patrolling and children are even taught to betray their parents if they are committing treason. In Feed, Violet is dying and going through any extremely tough time, which is affecting Titus negatively. So, what does he do? He attempts to cut off all communication completely in order to get rid of his guilt and sorrow.

In Life As We Knew It, Sammi runs off, leaving her family behind, with a man twice her age in order to try and make it through life after the moon is moved closer to the Earth. Gangs start to form as people are started to fend for themselves more. The Handmaids in Atwood’s novel seem to also be very selfish. It is their job to become pregnant and for many of them, that it the only thing on their mind. They are too afraid of what will happen to them if they cannot have a child to worry about the issues surrounding women as a whole in society. Finally, in The Road is it is very evident of the selfishness throughout the world. Nearly every single person the man and his son meet have intentions to kill and eat them in order to live. The man and his son are very hesitant to help anyone out because the man believes it will leave them worse off if they give their resources away.

All in all, I would expect people to be more devoted to their own self interests when society falls apart and this can be seen in every dystopian book we’ve read. This proves that a key component of the flow of modern society is that the basic needs of all people are met in order to give the people a chance to not only look after themselves, but civilization as a whole.

The Road Could Be Real

I really liked The Road, not only as a dystopian novel but as a great read, because they are so many themes about are society that are enwrapped in a book where society doesn’t even exist. First, there was idea that a family member will live merely to help another family member. In this situation, a father is trying to get his son to the coast because he thinks that this will give them a better life and hope for the future. Throughout the novel, it is evident that the father is very sick and on the verge of starvation and death. By the end of the novel, he is extremely sick and has been shot in the knee by an arrow, but he treks on as far as he can to try and save his son. This man has been through hell and death would probably be the easier option for him, but his son keeps him alive because of that is the last thing that he loves in this world.

Overall, this book was not only my favorite, but I believe that it was also the most realistic book we read. This story takes place eight years after the fall of civilization. For some reason, there is a lot of ash throughout the United States and it seems that if it is prohibiting the production of crops and it is blocking out some of the sunlight. This means that food and clean water are scarce. In this type of scenario, it is extremely difficult for society to recovery if it cannot even satisfy the basic needs like food and water. Therefore, almost every single person they meet is a savage that attempts to kill or eat them. Everyone is on their own and this has lead to disaster everywhere the man and his son go. I believe this would occur because if people don’t have any food or water, this is the way they will act. Unlike Life As We Knew It I believe that it is tough for society to improve so quickly after disasters. It takes time for things to get better and that may take decades, which it will in The Road.

The Wall

One of the aspects of this book that I thought was similar to a modern day event is when Offred went into town and saw the six corpses hanging on the Wall. These people have pictures of fetuses on them because these people were doctors, executed for performing abortions. To Offred, this seems like an everyday occurrence in this society. The Republic of Gilead is trying to strike fear into the hearts of its citizens by displaying what will happen if the law is broken. This is a very effective method of law enforcement and a country in our modern world actually still does this today.

Iran is known for its very strict government and harsh punishments. In fact, Iran is one of the only countries left in the world that still performs public executions, and it is getting more common. An article in Newsweek stated that state executions, performed by hanging the accused criminal in a public area, have risen to an average of two every day. President Rouhani has stated that these public killings are meant to implement fear into this society, not to fight crime. Many countries around the world have explained that they need to intervene in this because these public hangings contradict human rights and that Iran should not be doing this.

I think that a country like Iran has a lot of similarities to the Republic of Gilead. Obviously, these public executions are evident in both and it is a rather normal part of their societies. Fear is supposed to be a large deterrent of crime with the fear of death. Also, Iran has very strict laws against women and they are meant to be seen as less than woman. All in all, Atwood put a lot of parallels between some of these Middle Eastern countries and the Republic of Gilead.

http://www.newsweek.com/state-executions-rise-two-day-iran-313562

Children of Men

What I really like about this movie is how they did a great job a lot of themes are contemporary issues into one film. First, the director really emphasized the idea of the hatred of immigrants and the constant pursuit governments are in to capture them. Especially in the United States, a big political issue is the way immigrants should be handled. In general, most people have a negative view of immigrants and they are treated as lesser. Not just immigrants but foreigners in general are looked down upon in Children of Men and in our modern society. While we don't put immigrants in cages, beat them and kill them, the director did a good job of over exaggerating it to prove a point. I know this is a British movie and I don't know how they feel about immigrants, but this film did a great job of showing the discrimination and hatred of all people that are different.

I didn't realize it until after the movie but I thought it was really interesting how religion and the Nativity story was integrated into Children of Men. For example, the pregnant woman, Kee, jokingly says that she is a virgin. This is meant to represent that she is Mary and Theo, given the duty of bringing her to safety, is Joseph. I also learned that this movie came out on Christmas Day, the day of Christ's birth, which further represents the religious themes scene throughout this film. I really like how they sort of made the Nativity story in a modern sense because I'm not sure if I've ever seen that before.

Even though this film is set in the future, the directors did a good job of making it seem like this sort of scenario would still happen in real life. The type of anarchy, cruelty and harshness seen through the constant violence of this film is very real. All in all, I really enjoyed this film because the plot itself is great, and it did an excellent job of representing what the world would be like if there seemed to be no future.

Horton Had It Good

Throughout Life as We Knew It, the beloved family cat, Horton, constantly had food and seemed to be doing okay. Besides the week when he left home, he was always sheltered, well fed and warm as the rest of the family seemed to struggle through the harsh winter. It times of natural disaster, I've always been curious as to what happens to family pets when families and moving or on the brink of starvation. At the end of the novel, Miranda sees some dead pets along the road as she makes her way into town. It just seems like pets are much more susceptible to being killed during times like this, when humans are already worried about feeding themselves. I think that the author should of addressed the issue of feeding Horton in a more realistic manner to capture the true hard times Miranda's family endured.

In an article I found, the struggles of the lives of pets during Hurricane Katrina was addressed. It turns out that directly after the storm hit New Orleans, and people were being evacuated, the authorities had some interesting rules put in place. Most of the emergency shelters in New Orleans did not allow pets and when people were being evacuated from their homes, they were forced to leave their pets at home to fend for themselves. Unfortunately, a majority of these animals died of starvation or were permanently displaced from their families. These creatures were seem swimming throughout the flooded streets in search of shelter and food, while their owners were left heartbroken as they knew the fate of their beloved pets.

All in all, I think that the author should of done created a more realistic scenario for their cat Horton to truly show how much these natural disasters were affecting the family. The idea that they just happened to get enough cat food to last for that duration of time seems a little impractical to me considering they didn't even have enough food for themselves. I think that the reader would of truly understood the sacrifices made by this family because, in my opinion, pets are the last priority in this type of situation even though they are loved by every member of that family.

http://blogs.bestfriends.org/index.php/2011/05/11/animals-in-disasters-how-katrina-changed-their-world/

Be More Like Violet, Not Titus

I have one big problem with the feed. I believe that the reason the feed is so flawed is because of how constant the stream of information is. At all times of the day, the feed is blasting advertisements or new messages from friends through your brain. New products, the memories of your loved ones and ways for you to feel better are something that people should be interested in, but there needs to be a break from that for personal reflection. In today's world, we are constantly surrounded by technology, but it is much easier for a person to get away from it and relax without all the buzzes and beeps. While the feed does bring happiness and I understand that, I believe that it takes away from a person's privacy.

I think the idea of the Feed is great. It's convenient and allows people to stay connected, but people can do that in today's society if they really want to. How hard is it to go online and look at new clothes or text your friend. We all have our phones on us anyways and the great thing about that is that we have the ability to put those away if we don't need them. The feed is implanted in a person's head and it becomes a part of who he or she is. Corporations have taken advantage of this and started to abuse the feed by never letting a person think without seeing the feed in front of them. The free will to stop all the technology and go outside has been lost in this society and that is why I would resist the feed.