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Essay / In Margaret Atwood's 1985 book The Handmaid's Tale, she uses flashbacks, appeals to pathos, and references to religion to show how important feminism is to America and how we should do it. Do not let our future descendants become complacent and forget the struggles their ancestors endured. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Throughout Atwood's book, she uses myriad flashbacks to show how the world has changed in the past four years since the Republic of Gilead. was founded and how Offred went from being a woman who transferred library books to computer disks to a glorified womb with legs. Throughout the book we discover that her mother was a very active feminist throughout her life and participated in many rallies in the 70s, most notably in the book "Take Back the Night" - "I Forgot my mother.” was once as pretty and serious as this... The camera pans and we see the writing, in paint, on what must have been a sheet: TAKE BACK THE NIGHT. This is particularly notable since one of the movement's main arguments, aside from ensuring parks were safe for women after dark, was that women have autonomy over their bodies and the freedom to choose whether or not to have children, also seen on page 122 and referenced again by her mother when she speaks to Offred as a teenager telling her, "You were a wanted child." These flashbacks send a very strong message since Offred only thinks of her mother in reference to her rights as a woman. -existing. In fact, she often complains about being so hard on her mother and wishes she had listened to her more when she was younger and sometimes talks to her mother in her head to show her the irony of certain situations. On the way back to the commander's house after one of her comrades Janine gave birth, she talks about how her mother always dreamed of a feminine culture, and now, as they all ride in the back of 'a van lamenting not having given Gilead is still a child, that's what they do. Through it all, Atwood shows that Offred finds powerful women impressive now that she is a servant, not in the sense of powerful but rather in the sense of status as we see how little she cares for Serena . Joy, the Commander's wife, but for women like Moira and the first Ofglen who are actively trying to leave or destroy Gilead. The two women become closer to her, Moira being her friend from the pre-Gileadean era and Ofglen being the first member of the Mayday movement; a movement of people trying to overthrow the theocracy that is Gilead. Offred having friends during the novel is one of the few examples of female solidarity we see other than Martha and the Commander's wives. Solidarity is the backbone of any movement, and the Gileadian government has created an ingenious way to shut it down before it begins with their secret police: The Eye. The citizens of Gilead are trained to distrust each other, which makes it easier to stop rebellions since they rarely break out. Fear of torture and death has prevented many women in Gileadean society from creating groups and movements to leave their lives as second-class extremist citizens, making the idolization of these women entirely logical. Attwood makes many appeals to pathos when she shows the solidarity of women helping women and women supporting women. One of the largest demonstrations of female solidarity.
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