Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale"

Ancient societies like those depicted in "The Holy Bible" were very primative, brutal societies, surrounding themselves with execution, oppression, and ignorance. Men and women would be stoned for their smallest commited offense until death; women were essentially possessions, objects owned by men and forced to stay home and care for the children; and people had little understanding of basic ideas, whether they were that the world was round, not flat, or that the solar system revolved around the Sun, not the Earth. Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" depicts a futuristic dystopic society very reminiscent of such past societies. The society in the novel has based itself around ideas presented in "The Holy Bible", but in the process of such, has actually reverted back to these primative, brutal ways, again surrounding itself with execution, oppression, and ignorance. This reversion is exemplified repeatedly through the text, but can be found specifically discernable in the following pieces of information and scenes provided within the novel: execution; women who break specific laws of the society, or handmaids who cannot get pregnant are taken away to "the colonies" where they are assumed dead, as those who cannot or will not perform any functions in the society would be considered generally useless unless a more demeaning position can be found for them, such as prostitution. Oppression; women in this society are quite simply objects, generally used for sexual purposes, cleaning, or gardening, depending on the position they are selected for. Some women are used to be impregnated by commanding men, and some others are simply prostitutes forced to submit to the sexual "needs" or desires of the same commanding men. Ignorance; people in this society are led to the belief that men cannot be sterile, that it is in fact the women who's bodies can be sterile. This is not only an ignorant idea reminiscent to those of biblical times, but it was also a generally accepted notion in such times just as within the novel. However much some things in the society of "The Handmaid's Tale" may have changed, it would seem the majority of them were only reversions to biblical times.

Personally, the quote which most appealed to me within the novel was: "Blessed be the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed be the meek. Blessed be the silent." I was particularly entertained by this quote because it effectively displayed how the society's government misused "The Holy Bible" and how, if something could not be twisted in meaning to fit the society's needs or demands, it would just be forged or falsified to complete the required action. The society evidently took "The Beatitudes" from "The Holy Bible" and indoctrinated and oppressed the women with them. "Blessed be the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" is a quote being used in the novel to give the women the belief that all will be well, that they will inherit the kingdom of heaven and eternal paradise as long as they continue to submit to their society's cruel demands. "Blessed are the merciful" is a quote similarly telling the women that they ought to remain merciful and refrain from even attempting to revolt or damage the precious paradigm. Of course, part of this quote purposefully and almost surgically removed so as not to give the women any false notions of escape in this society. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall have mercy" is the original quote depending on translations used, but their promise of mercy is removed as it is evident that no such glory will be bestowed upon them. Yet another quote is "Blessed are the meek", which is also edited to change its meanings and connotations, as the original quote was "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth", but it is again evident that the women in the society will be not be inheriting the earth, but are instead urged to be patient and docile, to accept their unjust punishments and oppression. The final quote is not actually part of "The Beatitudes" or "The Holy Bible", as "Blessed be the silent" is a sentiment created by the novel's society to urge its women not to speak and not to protest, but to again just submit and accept their mistreatment and abuse.

I personally did not like Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" as I felt the protagonist, Offred, was unrealistically and uncharacteristically accepting of her society's demands. Of course, she resented the society for what it did to her and for what it had her do, but I still felt that as a woman who had lived decades before the society was created and had known what freedom was like, she was abnormally submissive to the society. Sure, any outward actions against the society would have resulted in punishments, not excluding that of death, but it is still unimaginable that she would never have made but a single attempt in all of her time through the novel to escape or to rise up against the government.

Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We"

It is often stated that one ought not fit theories to their beliefs, but beliefs to their theories; a logical sentiment. The truth is concrete; it cannot be formulated falsely. The truth can be covered, hidden, or distorted, but the truth will always remain verily so regardless of one's beliefs. If a person creates truths to fit their beliefs instead fitting beliefs around the truth, all forms of foolishness might ensue. This is found evident in Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We", as the protagonist, D-503, attempts to formulate all brands of equations to support the most comforting beliefs his twisting mind generates. Example: D-503 attempts to create a formula to explain love, a concept he had yet to explore in his life. His entire perception of the world hinges upon the uselessness, meaninglessness, and downright harrowing dangerousness of love. D-503 does not understand his newfound emotions, love inclusive, and therefore attempts to dismiss them. If they are illogical they could not possibly fit into his exact, cold, concrete mathematical world, as such existences as OneState could never harbor irrationality. So instead of understanding this frightening love and crystalizing beliefs to it, he wildly attempts to create a formula expressing love as the end-all equivalent of death, a theory he constructs to support his beliefs.

My favorite passage from Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We" would be:  "Every three seconds the mighty tail of the INTEGRAL will spew out flame and gasses into cosmic space, and then off it will fly, the fiery Tamerlane of happiness...." I, personally, felt specific affinity toward this passage due to the hypocriticism of this statement. The protagonist, D-503, progresses the novel repeating and professing his belief that past societies, and all the peoples encompassed within them, were savage and pathetic, yet he compares the INTEGRAL, his entire life's work and his society's greatest achievement, to an ancient conqueror, one who existed within those savage, primeval, and forthright pathetic times. One can understand the meaning of his statement, that the INTEGRAL will take to space and conquer all peoples and places with the happiness it brings, but regardless, he is actually either acknowledging the greatness of some parts of the ancient world or he is tearing down all that his society has worked for. Either way, D-503 is contradicting all of his past monologues (a statement toward either madness or major character development), and is equating his beloved and all-important, perfect society to the savage, pathetic ancient ones passed.

I did not personally like this novel because I felt it was very unrelatable, often referencing important objects or ideas in the society, but generally refusing to explain them until much further into the novel; I felt the protagonist, D-503, was far too erratic, which although it aided in creating his character's descent into madness and paranoia, it was often distracting from the actual plot and made his thoughts and monologues intermittently discernable at best.