Notes

berlin wall was still up when atwood was writing--- did it had antything to do with the wall of slavaging in the handmaids tale.
Nations never build apparently radical forms of government on foundations that aren't there
already. The deep foundation of the US was not the
comparatively recent 18th-century Enlightenment structures of the republic, with their talk of
equality and their separation of church and state, but the heavy-handed theocracy of 17th-century
Puritan New England, with its marked bias against women, which would need only the opportunity
of a period of social chaos to reassert itself.

secreat polices in real life linked ot the eyes, oculd the eye be related to the illumanti ideas.

Since ruling classes always
make sure they get the best and rarest of desirable goods and services, and as it is one of the axioms
of the novel that fertility in the industrialised west has come under threat, the rare and desirable
would include fertile women – always on the human wish list, one way or another – and
reproductive control.

The group-activated hangings, the tearing apart of human beings, the clothing specific to
castes and classes, the forced childbearing and the appropriation of the results, the children stolen
by regimes and placed for upbringing with high-ranking officials, the forbidding of literacy, the denial
of property rights: all had precedents, and many were to be found not in other cultures and
religions, but within western society, and within the "Christian" tradition, itself. (I enclose "Christian"
in quotation marks, since I believe that much of the church's behaviour and doctrine during its two-
millennia-long existence as a social and political organisation would have been abhorrent to the
person after whom it is named.)

The Handmaids themselves are a pariah caste within the pyramid: treasured for what they may be
able to provide – their fertility – but untouchables otherwise. To possess one is, however, a mark of
high status, just as many slaves or a large retinue of servants always has been. Since the regime
operates under the guise of a strict Puritanism, these women are not considered a harem, intended
to provide delight as well as children. They are functional rather than decorative.

1984

mary her relative hanged for ebigna witch

her dads job, her lifestyle, her childhood

idea that dictatorships have higher ups that indulge in delights in secret
But such locked-door escapades must remain hidden, for the regime floats as its raison d'être
the notion that it is improving the conditions of life, both physical and moral; and like all such
regimes, it depends on its true believers.

Dystopian convwenstions
Utopia: A place, state, or condition that is ideally perfect in respect of politics,
laws, customs, and conditions.
Dystopia: A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and
the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic,
technological, moral, or totalitarian control. Dystopias, through an exaggerated
worst-case scenario, make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or
political system.

Characteristics of a Dystopian Society
• Propaganda is used to control the citizens of society.
• Information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted.
• A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society.
• Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance.
• Citizens have a fear of the outside world.
• Citizens live in a dehumanized state.
• The natural world is banished and distrusted.
• Citizens conform to uniform expectations. Individuality and dissent are bad.
• The society is an illusion of a perfect utopian world.

Types of Dystopian Controls
Most dystopian works present a world in which oppressive societal control and the
illusion of a perfect society are maintained through one or more of the following
types of controls:
• Corporate control: One or more large corporations control society through
products, advertising, and/or the media. Examples include Minority Report
and Running Man.
• Bureaucratic control: Society is controlled by a mindless bureaucracy through
a tangle of red tape, relentless regulations, and incompetent government
officials. Examples in film include Brazil.
• Technological control: Society is controlled by technology—through
computers, robots, and/or scientific means. Examples include The Matrix,
The Terminator, and I, Robot.
• Philosophical/religious control: Society is controlled by philosophical or
religious ideology often enforced through a dictatorship or theocratic
government.
The Dystopian Protagonist
• often feels trapped and is struggling to escape.
• questions the existing social and political systems.
• believes or feels that something is terribly wrong with the society in which he
or she lives.
• helps the audience recognizes the negative aspects of the dystopian world
through his or her perspective.