Hi all,
Considering that the A-level prose exam is tomorrow, I though it would be an apt time to put my notes on the War of the Worlds and the Handmaid’s Tale. Should anyone read them before tomorrow, I hope they help!
The contextual information is a collection of information either already present on the blog or from additional reading.
Good luck everyone!
Hi all, this is my coursework plan. I have chosen to focus my coursework on the nature of belief systems and their influence within ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood and ‘The War of the Worlds’ by H.G. Wells.
Title: “Excessive dedication to a belief system will blind people”
In light of this statement, explore the problematic nature of the authoritative exploitation of excessive dedication to belief systems in Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and H.G. Wells’ ‘The War of the Worlds’, and compare the ways in which these texts have been read.
| Section 1 key argument | Content/ Quotations | Significant Contextual Factors | Critical Writing/ Views |
| Excessive dedication to belief systems. Marxism Liberation Theology True Believers – WOTW rebel groups are formed of multi-faith members, the curate – their belief systems give them hope – THT – The Christian faith is still observed in its true form – Offred still prays her version of the Lord’s prayer – Ustopia – Belief in God, and Christianity, is still prevalent despite the defamation of Christianity by the theocracy of Gilead | The curate, in WOTW, is A religious man who has spent his life working for the church. His conception of life is based on his faith, which fails to help him account for the arrival of such malicious creatures. The evacuation of London, arguably the seat of Western civilization at the time, is pure chaos. People are starving, dying of thirst, and acting no better than animals as they fight to survive. This decline is what the narrator identifies as the rout of civilization – “And this was no disciplined march; it was a stampede… It was the beginning of the rout of civilisation, of the massacre of mankind” – “We can never anticipate the unseen good or evil that may come upon us suddenly out of space” THT – “May the Lord open” – the classic response to “blessed be the fruit.” It also suggests that they’re praying for God to bring fertility to the Handmaid – asking God to “open” the Handmaid’s womb to a new soul. | Marx’s class theory portrays capitalism as one step in the historical progression of economic systems that follow one another in a natural sequence. They are driven, he posited, by vast impersonal forces of history that play out through the behaviour and conflict among social classes. According to Marx, every society is divided into social classes, whose members have more in common with one another than with members of other social classes. Fundamentalism, northern Protestants who in the late 19th and early 20th centuries united in opposition to theological liberalism. It is a form of militant opposition to the modern world – the core concerns of the movement that emerged within American Protestantism, defending the authority of the Bible and both separating from and saving their sinful world. Ustopia – Belief in God, and Christianity, is still prevalent despite the defamation of Christianity by theocratic power. | Offred is “of Fred” or “belonging to Fred.” “Ofglen” means … Those words grant Offred the faith that her own narrative – David S. Hogsette Religion was not completely rotten, in Wells’ eyes, nut suspect as providing a self-centred escape from the facts of the human condition. In The Open Conspiracy (1928) he suggested it might be adequately providing an avenue “for service, for subordination, for permanent effect, for an escape of the distressful pettiness and mortality of the individual life”, but that it more surely led the majority to intolerance and ignorance. – ‘Flashes of the Fantastic: Selected Essays from the War of the Worlds’ |
| Section 2 key argument | Content/ Quotations | Significant Contextual Factors | Critical Writing/ Views |
| How belief systems are manipulated/ exploited. Societal conformityAbuse of power Superiority of authorityWOTW – Martians – relentlessness WOTW – Artillery Man – warped ideology of patriarchal society – women subservient to the women – The Handmaids “blessed are the meek”THT – Gilead as a theocracy – patriarchal society ensuring societal conformity under the guise of Christianity – indoctrination THT – Aunts – convinced they are doing good – only act in the name of power for the sake of personal salvation | According to the artilleryman, the Martians have destroyed London and set up a camp at the north end of the city. He claims it is “all over.” Humankind is simply “beat.” – “the weak, and those who go weak with a lot of complicated thinking, always make for a sort of do-nothing religion, very pious and superior, and submit to persecution and the will of the Lord…These cages will be full of psalms and hymns and piety.” “Blessed are the meek” shows the extent of the manipulations of the patriarchal theocracy of Gilead as the Handmaids are subjected to only approved and warped sections of the Bible in order to ensure submission and conformity – the continuation of the bible quote that the Handmaids are not subjected to is “for they shall inherit the earth” therefore depicting the revolution of the oppressed. Gilead believes the kind of freedom existed in past was some of the reasons that anarchy occurred – Aunt Lydia tells the handmaids – “There’s more than one kind of freedom, freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.” | Fundamentalist doctrine of “divine inspiration” was far more demanding than any previous form of traditional Protestant belief. Certainly, all Protestants believed the Bible was true. Since the 16th-century Reformation they had upheld it as a completely trustworthy guide in all matters of belief and practice, the unique and undisputed word of God. A theocracy is a system where the priests are the rulers of the people, often doing so in the name of gods or one true God – most theocracies are oligarchic by design, with only a few ruling the many. During the days of the Holy Roman Empire, it was the Pope who was placed in charge of the entire government, making decisions that ranged from war declarations to wedding certificates. Some of the rulers in a theocracy are often treated as being anointed under claims of divine commission, even if the primary structure is ecclesiastic. | In Foucault’s term, knowledge is power, and power has control over knowledge, therefore the Republic forces the transitional generation to gradually accept the ideal system of the Republic. The regime believes in future they will have ultimate control over the past generation’s thought and belief in order to disempower their attack against the official language. As a means to gain the power of language, the authority manipulates the language for their own purposes – Maryam Kouhestani Wells presents a drastic opposition to this reasonable protagonist when he introduces the curate. The curate’s life was dedicated to religion, and when the Martians destroyed the church at which he preached, as the narrator put it, “this tremendous tragedy had driven him to the very verge of his reason.” The narrator noticed immediately that the curate was not in a right state of mind. By adding this character as the narrator’s unwanted sidekick, Wells is implying that “religion collapses under calamity” and is therefore a weaker belief system than science and reason. – Alex C. Hawley |
| Section 3 key argument | Content/ Quotations | Significant Contextual Factors | Critical Writing Views |
| What hope do they offer as an antidote to the manipulation/ abuse of power? The influences of good/ change as a catalyst for the fragmentation of manipulation – the breakdown of the systematic abusive of power present in both texts Liberation of the masses – liberation theologyFreedom of choice – WOTW – humanity is seen in two aspects; those who submit to authority for the sake of harmony, and those who resist to the power of the authority for the sake of what “is right”The resistance – THT Hope is a fundamental catalyst for the opportunity to break away from a corrupt and abusive authority | In response to Aunt Lydia, “blessed are the meek”, Offred retorts, “And blessed are those who suffer for the cause of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven” – June is acknowledging that the quote in its entirety speaks to the ultimate uprising of the ‘meek’. “No doubt the thought that was uppermost in a thousand of those vigilant minds, even as it was uppermost in mine, was the riddle – how much they understood of us. Did they grasp that we in our millions were organized, disciplined, working together?” – recognition of those who were in opposition of the suppressive authority and power of the Martians. “We play two games. Larynx, I spell. Valance. Quince. Zygote. I hold 7 the glossy counters with their smooth edges, finger the letters. The feeling is voluptuous. This is freedom, an eyeblink of it” – Offred uses the word freedom, as if to say that for an instance she is uncontrolled. In other words, for the moment, she controls language, language does not control her. | Liberation theology, religious movement arising in late 20th-century Roman Catholicism and centred in Latin America. It sought to apply religious faith by aiding the poor and oppressed through involvement in political and civic affairs. It stressed both heightened awareness of the “sinful” socioeconomic structures that caused social inequities and active participation in changing those structures – liberation theologians believed that God speaks particularly through the poor and that the Bible can be understood only when seen from the perspective of the poor. They perceived that the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America was fundamentally different from the church in Europe—i.e., that the church in Latin America should be actively engaged in improving the lives of the poor. | The Handmaids’ Tale beautifully shows different ways in which language can manipulate humans’ minds and make them behave obediently… Sometimes, the power that is everywhere needs to penetrate any aspect of individual life secretly and in a hidden way. One of these hidden ways is through language. By showing the power of language, Margaret Atwood becomes a strict critique of societies in which individuality is undermined. – Mahshid Namjoo He (the Artillery Man) sounds very much like a man who refuses to become the slave of any colonizing power with overwhelming firepower. His resistance has a brutish appeal to those who can assure themselves that his blunt eugenics will be kind to them. – ‘Flashes of the Fantastic: Selected Essays from the War of the Worlds’ |
Coursework is among us and with all of us currently on a quest to a devise questions, divide our wide-ranging thoughts and ideas into sections and come up with pseudo-cohesive drafts, I think this is the most fitting way to return to the normal posting schedule. From my notes, I am definitely drawn to analyzing the racial implications of this book and War of the Worlds and by making that clear from the start I’ll know roughly where I need to go.
Glad to be back and hope this helps.
PS: Black History Month starts this Friday. Yay!
Aunts: A class of typically older women who are “true believers” of the totalitarian ways of Gilead. They are responsible for teaching the Handmaids and grooming them for their duties under the respective houses of the Commanders. They mirror black overseers during American Chattel slavery externalising the same oppressive ideals they’d internalised during their enslavement. This is one of many allusions to slavery and other forms of oppression created in a Handmaid’s Tale.
A Woman’s Place: The book written by Serena Joy prior to Gilead detailing her conservative beliefs. One passage from her piece of work: “Do not mistake a woman’s meekness for weakness.”
Birthmobile: A small van that transports Handmaids to a fellow Handmaid’s birthing at her Commander’s house. Handmaids are present at birth to encourage labour through repeated breathing chants.
Blessed are the meek”: Aunt Lydia quotes from Matthew 5:5 but eliminates the subsequent “the meek…shall inherit the earth.” Offred points out this omission while taking a bath ahead of a Ceremony with the Commander and his Wife. From a liberationist reading, this moment can be interpreted as a subtle commentary on how sacred religious texts are bastardized and manipulated to keep the oppressors powerful and the oppressed submissive to the unfortunate status quo. This tactic is eerily and possibly intentionally similar to the tactics employed by slave owners and those who benefited from power during the Holocaust. Furthermore ‘shall inherit the earth’ speaks to the power innate to women as from an evolutionary perspective, the choices cis women made with their bodies contributed to the flourishing and continuation of humanity. This and many other explicitly women-centric elements of the book place it firmly in the expansive canon of feminist literature.
“Blessed are the silent”: As Offred notes, this phrase was added by an Aunt or someone more powerful to teach the Handmaids that silence and submission are valued. ‘Silence’ for women was and, sadly, to a certain extent, is still promoted as a virtue.
1 Corinthians 14:34-35, Paul wrote: “As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says.
“Blessed be the fruit”: How the Handmaids greet each other; this is said to encourage fertility. This may be yet another biblical reference.
‘God blessed them and said to them “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over ever living creature that moves on the ground”’. Genesis 1:28
Ceremony: When a Handmaid is ovulating, she is invited to the Commander’s bedroom to have sex with him while lying between his Wife’s legs in hopes of conceiving.
Colonies: Toxic areas that are cleaned by people shunned by Gilead, including Unwomen
Commanders: The highest-ranking men in the Gilead army; the only men assigned Handmaids to conceive.
Econowives: Working-class women who are married to men who do not become Commanders during Gilead rule; these households are not assigned Marthas and Econowives do everything.
Eyes: Secret police officers who work for the Republic of Gilead; they are responsible for detecting traitors and monitoring all suspicious activity in Gilead. Eyes drive in black vans and also have the power to make arrests in public.
Gender Traitor: Someone who engages in same-sex activity; gays and lesbians who are discovered by the Republic of Gilead are sent to the Colonies (where they will eventually die of radioactive poison) or hanged. Unfortunately, this mirrors the persecution and discrimination that the LGBTQIA+ community face on a daily basis and it is notable that a book published in the 80s covered this issue so fearlessly.
Gilead: What the United States has become after a sweeping formation of a theocratic military dictatorship.
Guardians of the Faith: It is usually young men who are low-ranking in the Republic of Gilead. Some, like Nick before he got promoted, are responsible for washing cars and driving Commanders around, while others maintain order on the street and carry machine guns.
Handmaid: A fertile woman who is assigned to a Commander and his Wife for two years to help the couple conceive. A Handmaid typically is divorced, was married to a man who had been divorced before Gilead, or has never married. Handmaids are assigned to a maximum of three houses and sent to the Colonies if they fail to conceive for all three. While sex and intimacy can mean a lot of things for different people, handmaid’s are stripped of their rightful autonomy to make that decision and have the meaning decided for them.
Identipasses: ID cards used in Gilead; Offred and Ofglen show their Identipasses at various checkpoints during their walks to the market. This detail lends credence to the idea that Attwood uses an amalgamation of different and intersecting examples of oppressions worldwide. This example is reminiscent of what black south Africans had to go through during Apartheid, Indians under colony rule and the Jewish community during the Holocaust. This flare of historicism can make us as reader question whether this book truly belongs in the dystopian fiction canon as the atrocities depicted and immortalized in its fictionalized portrayal all happened/ happen in real life. What are the ethics of picking and choosing struggles for a book without speaking to them in much depth?
Jezebels: Prostitutes who are employed by a government-controlled club frequented by foreign ambassadors and Commanders like Offred’s Commander when he takes her out for the night. Moira becomes a Jezebel after getting caught following her escape from Handmaid training. Jezebels are allowed drugs and alcohol. This is yet another example Attwood using the oppression of marginalized women to further the narrative. The Jezebel, a stereotype of a sexually voracious promiscuous black woman, was the counterimage of the demure Victorian lady in every way. The original conception of this idea stemmed from Europeans’ first encounter with seminude women in tropical Africa. Instead of confronting their own cultural biases and committed themselves to understanding a different way of life, they fell into the predictable trap of ethnocentrism and instantly demonized and fetishized. The African practice of polygamy was attributed to uncontrolled lust, and tribal dances were construed as pagan orgies, in contrast to European Christian chastity.
The supposed indiscriminate sexual appetite of black women slaves justified their enslavers’ efforts to breed them with other slaves. It also justified rape by white men, even as a legal defense. Black women could not be rape victims because they “always desired sex. During and after Reconstruction, “Black women… had little legal recourse when raped by white men, and many Black women were reluctant to report their sexual victimization by Black men for fear that the Black men would be lynched.” This is eerily similar to modern attitudes on how women who may have a more ‘provocative’ presentation or have a body shape society sexualises you were ‘asking for it’
Keepers: Healthy babies birthed by Handmaids.
Little America: The area of Toronto where Gilead refugees who fled to Canada for safety have settled down.
Loaves and Fishes: The name of the grocery store where handmaids do their shopping. None of the products sold there have any words on the packaging, only pictures, because it is illegal for women to read in Gilead.
Marthas: Women who are infertile and work as cooks or servants in the house of a Commander.
Mayday: A secret underground resistance group that uses the term “Mayday” to identify each other. Anyone at any level can be a Mayday.
“May the Lord open”: How the Handmaids greet each other; this is said to encourage fertility.
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum: Translated from Latin, “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.” The phrase was carved in Offred’s closet by the Handmaid who lived there before her. The Handmaid hanged herself shortly after.
Particicution: A form of execution in which a prisoner who has committed a serious crime like rape is beaten, trampled, and eventually killed by a circle of Handmaids.
Prayvaganzas: Public ceremonies sorted by gender. In the book, high-society girls raised in Gilead are married off to Commanders and other high-ranking officials in Prayvaganzas.
Rachel and Leah Reeducation Center: The Handmaids’ training center and home between assignments.
Red Center: A colorful shorthand name for the Rachel and Leah Reeducation Center that just so happens to match the color that the Handmaids are forced to start wearing there. In colour theory, red is a stark primary colour that is associated with fire, violence and warfare. On the flip side, it can be linked with love, passion and lust. Historically, it has been linked with the Devil and Cupid.
Margaret Atwood has just published her sequel to ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ called ‘The Testaments’. It may be worth a read / find some articles on it to enhance your textual context!
A selection of practice questions for you and a couple of model essays:
Read More »Simone de Beauvoir was a very prominent French philosopher of the 20th century. One of her most famous works was a book called ‘The Second Sex’, which provided an analysis of the position of women throughout history. It influenced many writers during the 20th century and since, including Margaret Atwood and Carol Ann Duffy. If you are studying ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, ‘The World’s Wife’, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, or any other text which provides a feminist angle, ‘The Second Sex’ may be worth a read (or at least a few chapters).
I made notes on the Introduction and First Chapter to give you an idea of the ideas explored in the book – there are some very good quotes to provide a feminist/literary context analysis for your texts (especially Handmaid’s).
It is much harder to collate analysis for an entire novel than it is for poetry or drama. However, it will be very useful if you can create a few revision tools:
For example, create chapter summaries with key quotes from each chapter. When you come to revise, you can pick a quote from one of the chapters and practice doing some analysis and comparison with your other chosen text. Give yourself a time limit and see if you can create an essay paragraph based on your chosen quote.
Additionally, I found it useful (particularly for Handmaid’s Tale) to have a set of flashcards with 2-3 key moments from each chapter on one side and the chapter number on the other to test myself. You will save yourself copious amounts of time in an exam if you can recall in which chapter is a certain quote or event that you want to analyse.
The following notes I’m providing were taken from the York Notes Handmaid’s Tale Revision Guide. Revision Guide analyses are not exhaustive, neither are they overly detailed, so I would recommend combining these notes with the ones you already have – do not just rely on revision guides.
*I’ve also highlighted contextual information I thought would be helpful!
Articles are a really useful way to find information for context as well as pertinent arguments for your essays. The more you understand about the texts, the easier it will be to bash out essays!
Here’s a list of articles I found particularly interesting, followed by condensed notes that I hope you’ll find helpful. (Please take a chance to read the article BEFORE you read the notes in case anything is unclear).
Read More »
WymCol English Blog 