Freedom to vs. Freedom from - 1145 Words

Kinkhabwala 1 Anjali Kinkhabwala October 6, 2008 WMST 275 Literature Essay #1 In the Days of Anarchy To live in a country such as the United States of America is considered a privilege. The liberties that American citizens are entitled to, as declared in the Constitution, makes the United States an attractive and envied democracy. It would be improbable to imagine these liberties being stripped from American society. However, Margaret Atwood depicts the United States as a dystopian society in her novel The Handmaid’s Tale. The first society is modern America, with its autonomy and liberal customs. The second, Gilead, a far cry from modern America, is a totalitarian Christian theocracy which absorbs America in the late 1980s in†¦show more content†¦Not recent. Old love† (Atwood, 51). There is no other kind of love left in Offred’s room in the Commander’s house. The dried flower petals, Offred compares the stains on her bed to, indicate how times have changed and how sex is no longer out of love, but instead for reproductive purposes. Gilead oppresses love, and justifies the position of the handmaid’s by exploiting their fertility for the salvaging of a dystopian nation. By taking away human will and decision, the â€Å"freedom from† society was able to control and instill fear. With Offred’s periodical sense of longing for the past, it would seem that her will and capacity for emotion would be stained along with her freedom. Offred vividly describes the Handmaid scene in which she is made to lie across the Wifes legs while having impassionate intercourse with the Commander. Offreds picture of herself and body changes drastically from her idea of sexuality in modern America. Her will to feel â€Å"freedom to† again however, has not passed. She attempts to evoke passion through sexuality as she had â€Å"freedom to† with Luke in modern America. She has a forbidden, but not-so-secret sexual relationship with the Commander’s gardener, Nick. In Gilead sex is no long er an act of pleasure, but of biological necessity. However, with Nick, the performance of sex is defiance against the rules of the â€Å"freedom from† society. Offred is risking consequence through her affair with Nick, inducing aShow MoreRelatedFreedom Vs. Free From Oppression1094 Words   |  5 Pagesworld history, there is a point when one encounters the question of freedom. What is freedom? Different meanings are attached to freedom, especially when one questions what exactly they are free from. Free from slavery? Free from dept? Free from oppression? There are so many different types of freedom, that it s hard to just give out a sentence and claim that s freedom . However when looking at America a clear vision of freedom appears and it does so mostly because of its history. 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