Topic proposal for The Handmaid's Tale

My topic proposal for my third and final essay this semester on The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood will be to write about the techniques used in Nazi Germany to oppress people, and how this closely relates to the Gileadean government and their oppression of women in the Handmaid’s Tale. Margaret Atwood paints an incredibly intriguing world in which a women is nothing more then viable ovaries who are not permitted to read, or write or fully live. This world is very similar to the world created for the Jews in Germany and I believe by researching and comparing these two worlds, I will fully understand and appreciate the text of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The Nazi’s in Germany during the 1930’s and 40’s, oppressed large groups of people, mainly being the Jewish. I find this topic very similar to how women were oppressed and brainwashed in the Handmaid’s Tale and how this power over people can lead to unimaginable horrors and living conditions. I absolutely believe by furthering my understanding of the techniques used by totalitarianism governments and how they gain control of large numbers of people, will lead me to fully understand the text of Atwood’s book. The Handmaid’s in Atwood’s book are very similar to the Jewish that were oppressed in Nazi Germany during the holocaust. I often wonder why such a large group of people would not fight back or somehow try to take back control of their lives, even when the cost is death? Would it not be better to die trying than to do nothing at all? This is a question I hope to answer in my research, so I can better understand the submissiveness of the oppressed and brainwashed, and I can learn more about what it may have been like to live in a world where you are nothing more then a commodity for trade.

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