FREE ESSAY ON ATWOOD'S THE HANDMAID'S TALE: A STUDY OF REBELLION

ATWOOD'S THE HANDMAID'S TALE: A STUDY OF REBELLION

Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale: A Study of Rebellion
Rebels defy the rules of society, risking everything to
retain their humanity. If the world Atwood depicts is 
chilling, if 'God is losing,' the only hope for optimism is 
a vision that includes the inevitability of human struggle
against the prevailing order.
-Joyce Johnson-
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale analyzes human nature by presenting an internal
conflict in Offred: acceptance of current social trends (victim mentality) -vs-
resistance for the sake of individual welfare and liberties (humanity). This conflict
serves as a warning to society, about the dangers of the general acceptance of social
evils and boldly illustrates the internal struggle that rebels face in choosing to
rebel.
Offred is a Handmaid in the republic of Gilead and while she seems unhappy about this,
she is confused about her identity and even starts to accept the role that has been
imposed upon her. It seems strange that one might accept such radical changes so easily.
Offred has been manipulated into believing that this sinister system was designed for her
own good. Peter S. Prescott says:  Offred at first accepts assurance that the new order
is for her protection. (151)She must lie on her back once a month and hope that commander
makes her pregnant because her sole purpose is to act as a vessel. She even starts to
measure her self-worth by the viability of her ovaries and this negatively affects her
self-image. This is how Offred characterizes the deporing act : The commander is
*censored*ing. What he is *censored*ing is the lower part of my body. I don't say making
love because that's not what he is doing. Copulating too would be inaccurate because it
would imply two people,when there is only one. Nor does rape cover it. Nothing was going
on here that I haven't signed up for. There wasn't a lot of choice, but there was some
and this is what I chose. (Atwood,121) This statement is very dangerous. It shows how
Offred has convinced herself that this deploring act (rape) is not so bad. It also shows
how she is beginning to embrace the system and justify the violations that are being
commited against her. By calling it a choice she has shifted the blame from her
oppressors to herself and labeled the blatant crime as a mere ritual. Offred shows signs
of a developing victim mentality where she accepts defeat and associates the regime's
will with her own. The danger lies in her complacency because if she accepts this role as
being her choice she eliminates any need to rebel. This mentality provides her with a
false sense of security which will impede her ability to fight back. 
We can try to argue tht Offred's unwillingness to resist was due to fear, but there's
more to it than that. In the novel she is afraid that spies (eyes) are everywhere and
that trust is a lost luxury. Maybe she was afraid to fight by herself. This seems
understandable, but Offred's reluctance to fight back is more complicated than just fear.
By coming to accept her role in the new society she clouds her perception of freedom and
her need to rebel at all. Ehrenreich argues: Offred cries alot and lives in fear of
finding her erstwhile husand hanging from a hook on the wall, but when she is finally
contacted by the resistance she is curiously uninterested. (155) Ehrenreich also argues
that Offred's unwillingness to embrace the resistance is due to her changed mentality;
the system has been embedded in her. She states: Offred has sunk too far into the
incestuous little house she serves. (155) So we can't say she's stuck in this alone
others have revealed that they too want to fight. It's her altered character and
acceptance of social evils that makes her weak. Gayle Greene calls her a Good German
rather than a freedom fighter. Unlike Moira she doesn't have the rebel simmering in her
from the beginning. Offred doesn't have Moira's strenghth, but she needs to believe in
it.(159) Offred even says herself ,I don't want her to be like me. Give in, go along,
save her skin...I want gallantry from her, swashbuckling heroism. Something I lack.
(Atwood,327) At least Offred identifies with rebels, but she is either too scared or too
conflicted. She wants others to rebel for her. Does that make her a coward? The internal
conflict stems from two places. First, she is confused about what she wants. She wants
things to go back to the way they were, but yet she finds a bizzare comfort in the system
that provides a false sense of security. Secondly, all the changes have overwhelmed her
and as she adjusts, she is deciding if she wants to save her ass or risk breaking the
rule for the sake of change, a brighter day.
Now we must analyze the ways Offred attempts to stand up for herself and the reasons why
she chooses to fight. Gilead has attempted to eradicate any semblance of the corrupt
past, but they failed to see that you can't wipe out the memories of the human heart. It
is easy to deprive someone of some thing they never had, but its almost imposssible to
erase something that people have already experienced, like freedom. Offred may show signs
of giving in, but her old self won't go out without a fight. She has memories of a life
that was ripped from her. She can remember years before, when she had a husband and
child, when she had a job, money, and access to knowledge. All of these things conflict
her perception of Gilead and make her want to rebel to get them back. Jane Gardam argues:
There is even a horrible beauty in the heroine's plight -her quiet reverie of better
days, her dignity, her sorrow, her courageous rationing of recollection of times past so
that she will be able to bear them. (152) She's fighting to keep her past alive and not
be sucked in entirely by the system that restrains her. Her inspiration comes from
knowing she is alive, and the goal that she must survive if she is going so see a new
day. She harbors a vague love, hope, and desire to see her daughter and husband someday.
So she must survive for their sake because she needs to believe that they are still
alive. Her dreams and reality become intertwined and this makes her fight for her sanity.
Offred fights to retain her peace of mind. She says , sanity is a valuealble possession;
I save it, so I will have enough when the time comes. (Atwood,140) To be sane is to be
alive. If she were insane and blindly following orders she would be living, but she
wouldn't be alive. Offred lives, as usual, by ignoring.Ignoring isn't the same as
ignorance you have to work at it.(Atwood,734) For Offred obedience comes at a great
price, Johnson characterizes it as a death of the senses which leads to a death of the
spirit and a loss of humanity.(148) Offred starts to relize that if she allows her soul
to wither she will lose her essence and become what Gilead wants her to be, a dumb
subservient slave. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt states that Offred , knows better and that
she understands the psychology of tyranny and feels guilty for submitting.(147) Offred
feels herself dying and decides that she wants to be alive. She takes a stand and decides
to suffer with meaning and try to define her own being. She acknowledges her humanity and
sees the necessity in trying to maintain it. So survival is more than just making it,
it's also why you decided to stick it out. If you have no purpose or direction you might
as well be dead or suffer like Camus' Mersault.
Offred may not be a freedom fighter out on the front line, but she finds ways of thumbing
her nose at the regime. She feels a sense of victory and even a perverse sense of
pleasure in breaking the rules and without others knowing. It gives her a sense of power.
She may be scared ,but it's these small bursts of resistance that build up Offred's
courage. Maynard argues that Offred breaks the rules in the hope of preparing for a
better future: Offred hides her daily allotment of butter in the toe of her shoe, to rub
over her skin, later a moisterizer from the commander. Not because she's worried about
wrinkles, but because she needs to believe that there will be some future to stay
unwrinkled for.(!53) This small act of defiance represents the internal hope that Offred
has built up. She develops an ideaology of keeping the faith and fighting to stay
sane.When the commander calls Offred into his office at night she complies not for his
sake ,but for her own. She plays scrabble, reads magazines, and talks freely. These
illegal excursions represent many things to her. First she sees that the system isn't
perfect and even the guardians feel a need to rebel at times. Second, she quenches her
thirst for knowledge by playing games and asking to know what there is to know. The
magazines and the scrabble offer her tangible proof that some humanity has survived and
not even the regime could take that away. Her forbidden love with Nick shows that not
even the spies can be controlled and that people still harbor love, something that Gilead
had over looked. The historical notes offer us proof that Offred's struggles payed off
even if she never got to see that brighter day. Her tapes proved that by maintaining her
humanity she was able to move on and tell her story. Even if if she never got to witness
the fall of Gilead she proved that they couldn't make her fall. Margaret Atwood want's us
to see that inner strength doesn't come in one shot, but rather is built in turmoil and
through life's experiences. Offred's predecessor left a note for her:  NOLITE TE
BASTARDES CARBORUNDORUM. Offred's internal conflict was part of the grinding process, and
this message was manifested through Offred when she decided to fight back. At times she
wanted to give up and accept the will of the regime, but her memories and her humanity
wouldn't let her. In the end it was a culmination of desire and strong will that enabled
Offred to maintain her sanity and that made her escape, even more worthwhile.
This conflict teaches us an important lesson about the danger of not fighting against
social evils. Peter S. Prescott says Atwood's theme is caution , current social trends
are dangerous to individual welfare. (151) In studying Offred's rebellion we can see that
she suffered an internal conflict. Johnson states: Offred's plight is always human as
well as idealogical and so is the inevitable assertion of her needs. (148) The struggle
to resist oppression is something that all rebels face. Victoria Glendinning tells us
that ,Whatever the accepted norms there will always be dissidents and our handmaid is one
of these. What has been overlooked by the regime is the subversive force of love.(146)
Rebellion is an instinct and all people have. It's an inherent thrust for fighting
oppression. Offred is driven by a thirst for freedom to love and be loved. People don't
die from lack of sex, but from lack of love(Atwood,131) All true rebels have a cause and
this is Offred's. By studying her conflict in choosing to rebel we can see the great
danger in having a victim mentallity. Mary McCarthy argues:  It is true that a leading
trait of Offred was her unwillingness to stick her neck out and perhaps we are meant to
conclude that such unwillingness, multipled, may be fatal to a free society.(150) The
role of a rebel is crucial when it comes to bringing about change, but it is the
majority's acceptance that determines what changes will really last. It is a great
sacrifice that rebels make for the sake of their fellow man. That's why we must respect a
rebel who stands up for his cause while sacrificing his own well being for the sake of
others. A rebel like Offred had to win an internal battle in order to start and external
one. Offred won this conflict and decided that her humanity was worth the risk and Atwood
wants us to do the same. Don't just accept things because society says so take a moral
stand. Be your own dictionary, define yourself.