Biblical Allusions in Handmaids Tale

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Wilson Vuong Ms. Reinheimer IB English Language A for Juniors, Period 6 25 October 2012 Word Count: 900 Props!-Aganda An Analysis of Biblical Distortion in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale Imagine a world where freedom only exists as the freedom from, a choice for no choice, a place where one is labeled simply by their gender and reproductive organs, nothing more. This is the world of Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, embodied by the country of Gilead, a theocratic-conservative totalitarian government who controls their citizens through propaganda and threats. In order to amplify the intent of her novel, Margaret Atwood uses biblical allusions to authenticate Gilead’s heavily conservative society. She imposes the story of human rights into the novel to show a contrast between our current secular society and a Moral Majority-approved Judeo-Christian society to bring a negative light to conservative ideals of her time. Throughout the novel, biblical allusions can be seen in the name of the stores and in the “Ceremony” and are utilized as both subliminal propaganda and justification for the infringement of human rights. The beginnings of all sins lie in temptation, this is why in the Lord’s Prayer, Christians ask for assistance to avoid temptation completely as to not face the hard decision between sinning and not sinning. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Gilead’s government takes this concept to another level. This can be seen when Offred is explaining to the reader the back story behind the various name changes of the stores, “You can see the place, under the lily, where the lettering was painted out, when they decided that even the names of shops were too much temptation for us,” (Atwood 25). This explanation shows the government believes it is their responsibility to censor temptation for the people but even this concept is a farce. The true
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