The Handmaids Tale as a Biblical Allusion Essay -- Handmaids Tale Es

The Handmaids Tale A scriptural Allusion bet a country where choice is not a choice. One is labeled by their age and economical status. The deep red cloaks, the blue embroidered dresses, and the pinstriped elevate are all uniforms to define a persons standing in society. To be judged, not by beauty or personality or talents, precisely by the ability to pro fabricate instead. To not believe in the puritan religion is certain death. To read or write is to die. This definition is represent to be true in the book, The Handmaids Tale (1986) by Margaret Atwood. It is a flagitious story of one young woman and her transformation into the Gilead society, the society draw above. In the book, we meet Offred, the narrator of the story. This story is not the first to create a society in which the moreover two important beliefs in a society are the ability to procreate and a fixed belief in God. It is seen several times in the Old Testament, the Bible. The Biblical society is not as rigid as the majority rule of Gilead, which Margaret Atwood has built, unless it is very similar. The Handmaids Tale holds several biblical allusions. The first biblical allusion is that of the land of Gilead. Gilead is mentioned several times in the Bible as a gear up of fertile lands. The Bible states, To the east the Israelites occupied the land. . . , because their blood had increased in Gilead (Numbers 321, NIV) and The tribes, who led very large herds and flocks, saw that the lands of Jazer and Gilead were suitable for livestock (1 Chronicles 59, NIV). The Biblical land of Gilead was a land of prospering livestock. Families and tribes came to Gilead because of the lands lush, super C and fertile soil. The Republic of Gilead was also... ...n individual, but each person is noticed only by the clothing that they wear. Imagine a country where the husband is the notch of the family, and no other members of the household hold any rights at all. Imagine a country where reading and writing are crimes punishable by death. One can imagine, but no one can dig out the pain and suffering and emotional death that one must meet to live in a society such as the Republic of Gilead. This story of the future may very well be a story of the past a story based upon principles found in the Bible, but taken so literally and enforced so strictly that the country becomes a theocracy to hate. Bibliography Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaids Tale. Boston, Massachusetts Houghton Mifflin Company, 1986. The NIV Study Bible. Barker, Kenneth General Editor. Grand Rapids, lettuce The Zondervan Corporation, 1995