Handmaid's Tale 1

From the disturbing opening sequence of the novel to the seemingly liberated ending, we are presented with the story of a woman's journey from controlled to controlling. What struck me most about the first half of the novel are the clear lines being drawn between what is natural and what has become naturalized within the new society. We are presented with what was once looked upon as natural through Offred's many flashbacks. When we are placed back into Offred's present situation we see just how naturalized things have become as opposed to then. Most notably the roles of people have become increasing naturalized to fit the ideology of the "religiously" controlled society of Gilead. This shift brought to mind some of Darksyde's argument against an "anti-science" minded set of people in our current society. This most notably landed in the laps of intelligent designers, scientologists and extremely religious minded sectors of the nation. Taking this and placing it in the context of the novel, we see a "Utopian" society set-up to resemble such a state of being; a state of being completely removed from that of science. Offred, and all of the women, are now in a completely naturalized, controlled position within society. They are no longer allowed the control that the advancements of science and technology had once given them. They are now stripped of that control, and instead, given a menial sense of control simply over one another. In the more science oriented way of living, although women were still looked upon in naturalized stereotypes they had control over whether or not to adhere to those stereotypes. In the newly formed land of Gilead, a complete patriarchy has been formed in order to subdue the interests of women to being any more than what the Bible or the Commanders say they should be.