How does the setting help convey Atwood's larger message? YOU MUST STATE WHAT YOU THINK HER LARGER MESSAGE IS!!! =) PS sorry for not being on time with the postings. I have not had access to the internet as often as I expected. I hope your break is going well! Ms. Moss
name: Dan
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Atwood uses setting to convey Atwood's larger message in the novel on how women’s roles in society is looked down upon. Offred, while in her usual walks with Ofglen, walks in abandoned stores mentions the Cosmetics and Jewelry stores “empty” (215) and “their glass windows scrawled with soap” (215). Cosmetics and Jewelry stores are for women to make themselves appear beautiful to others. The fact that these stores were empty, and rudely written on shows the dissatisfaction and disapproval the Republic of Gilead has with women’s vanity. Atwood maybe trying to tackle people’s beliefs on vanity and the lack of importance it has in society. However, in this novel, she is trying to prove that vanity is of value in society and that there is an importance to them. When Offred sees the nail polish the Japanese tourist, “it made her hungry” (39), and tells the tourist that “they”, the women in this society, are happy when they clearly aren’t. The lack of happiness in Gilead and Offred’s “hunger” to wear nail polish shows indicates that vanity is what gives women the feeling of happiness. Atwood is implying that this feeling of looking pretty and beautiful is what brings women empowerment and confidence. Although, vanity is considered as one of the seven deadly sins in the real world, it has already become a necessity in today’s world to look and feel beautiful. Losing these cosmetics and jewelry stores will cause a lost of feeling happiness and confidence within themselves, as those who invest in cosmetics and jewelry will lose the feeling of beauty without these things. Therefore, through setting, Atwood is able to convey her large message of the novel, which is that women’s values are of importance to society as it is what empowers them and give them joy. She is also saying that women are looked down upon in society for this, and that feeling beautiful isn’t a bad thing.
Name: Naftali
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In Margaret Atwood’s novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, the concept of setting pertains a pivotal role in conveying Atwood’s larger message in the novel. From the novel’s very beginning up until well past the halfway point in its length, very little is directly conveyed with regards to the setting, The Republic of Gilead, or the location of the novel. While little is known about the novel’s broader setting or the specifics of the setting in which Offred dwells, that information provided comes to greatly reflect upon the society of the Republic. Of utmost relevance to this notion is the symbolic placement of components in the novel’s setting. One such occurrence of this symbolic placement, that of the church next to the wall upon which dead bodies hangs. As Offred describes it, “We go to the church…then to the wall where the bodies hang”(259). The close placement of these two entities, juxtaposed by their differing nature highlights a unique attribute of The Republic Of Gilead. The symbolic placement of a church, a center for religious happenings next to the government’s exhibition of those who violate its laws pertains deep relevance to large traits of The Republic’s government. It emanates the placement of religion and punishment, an abolition of the nations former Separation policies between church and state. Moreover, the symbolic juxtaposition of these two entities reflects the Republic’s values, that punishment and religion are key components of success. Other such instances, such the fact that the wall upon which the dead bodies hang belongs to what was once a university, a clear indication of societal tendency and governmental policy. In conjunction with the symbolic location of buildings, setting comes to relate aspects of the Republic’s culture in with other regards. One such occurrence is when Offred, entering a building, remarks that the building was named after “some dead president they shot”(276). This, as do the numerous references to grassy suburbs, with their large houses and lawns, come to build upon the roots of the Republic of Gilead as it is conveyed. They all serve to affirm the fact that the novel is set in what was once the United States of America, a realization directed at the reader, to strengthen the connection between the novel and its reader. This subsequently comes to increase the reality of that situation presented by the novel drawing it away from fantasy ever nearer toward reality and relevance. All this established, setting in “The Handmaid’s Tale” comes to evoke both realism and meaning from the novel. In its largest sense, it comes to affirm Atwood’s message reading the evils of authoritarianism and subsequently the realities of human nature. Moreover, the novel’s realistic nature and setting in the United States comes to evoke a strong sense of reality and an association between those happenings in the novel and those in reality. This ultimately serves to further the implications of Atwood’s message to her respective readers.
Jeffrey Witter
ReplyDeleteResponse to: Señor Dan
I completely agree with Herr Dan. The dilapidation of the so-called “vanity shops” reveals how low the concept of woman’s vanity has become. However, I would like to point out that the concept of vanity has not only been exterminated by the government of the Republic of Gilead, it is more the patriarchal society that has deemed vanity unacceptable. The “glass windows [of vanity shops] scrawled with soap”(215) may not represent deliberate hatefulness towards woman’s vanity shops, but rather the neglect that the vanity industry has felt as a whole due to extra commodities for women being deemed unacceptable by the society that they live in. To add on to Comrade Dan's post, another great example of the concept of womenfolk’s vanity being devalued in the men-dominated society is the difficulty of obtaining moisturizing cream. When alone with the Commander, Offred asks for, “hand lotion, or face lotion. Our skin gets very dry.”(203). This shows how cosmetics are greatly missed by the women, and how without them, they feel self-conscious and deprived. This setting helps to reinforce the larger meaning of the novel, which is how it is necessary for women to have the freedom to make their own decisions to maintain a happy and democratic society for all. Since the women are deprived of certain possessions, it creates a sort of 2-class society, with the women being treated as second class citizens. Monsieur Dan's point about how this reinforces Atwood's feminist tone is very accurate. Every post-apocalyptic book usually contains some sort of warning to the author's contemporaries. Atwood warns of the type of restricted society that is instituted when women are denied certain freedom's, such as the freedom to purchase certain commodities.
Michael Tamin
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Due to the fact that Offglen mentions an old Puritan church, and that Harvard is acknowledged, it is safe to assume that the setting is in or near Massachusetts. This is significant, as the novel connects largely as a whole to certain aspects of Puritan society in their Massachusetts colonies.
The connections to Puritan society is crucial to Atwood's larger meaning of the dangers of suppression of a society. Just as the Puritans were viewed negatively for their punishment against moral sins and the shunning of those not "religiously fit" in "The Scarlet Letter", Atwood negatively portrays a society that denies rights to women and suppresses all forms of feminism.
By comparing the Gilead society to the Puritans', Atwood is providing a warning to never again return to the ways of the Puritan; to never again suppress others and deny them their deserved rights. Although this novel is largely feminist, the idea may also apply to other groups.