The Handmaid's Tale- Topic for Essay

 

Image Source: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/powers_of_persuasion/its_a_womans_war_too/images_html/we_can_do_it.html

For my analysis of The Handmaid’s Tale, I am going to focus on woman’s rights in the United states and how they have changed over the last hundred years or so. Throughout this text, I was confused how the woman were classified into different categories such as handmaids, wives, and marthas. I understood their roles, but how they got to be classified as such in the first place. Was it solely based on their fertility? Were the Martha’s sterile as well as the wives? I want to learn more about woman’s roles in the household throughout history, and how they have progressed or declined in “importance” since then. This book will serve very well in writing a paper concerning woman’s rights. By choosing this topic, I will have a immense amount of information to look at from Atwood’s novel, as well as in newspapers and books concerning feminist movements. It will better my understanding of Atwood as a author because one can obviously see that she is writing this novel with some sort of bias to culture, and perhaps what she sees being the future of our nation. I would also like to research her as an author, to be able to see if she openly speaks about her views on feminism and abortion etc. I think focusing on the text in the areas where Offred flashes back to her old life before the war will help me guide my paper. For example, she has a job, went to college, makes her own money, etc. These things are all taken away from her when she becomes a handmaid. Even wives of the commanders have extremely limited rights. Another question I may raise in my paper is the fact that woman are becoming more and more successful as the years progress. Could men be taking this as a threat to their control of society? For example, we have yet to have a woman serve as President of our country. However, we have made progress and woman have ran for the office, and woman also hold office in the Supreme Court. I think these type of connections with the world we live in today and the novel will make for a interesting paper.

Here is a link that will take you to a timeline of Women's Legal Rights in the U.S.