Description
General Requirements – This essay is supposed to be an essay of critical analysis of a work of literature, in this case The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Critical analysis involves an attempt to explain a work of literature by analyzing elements such as dominant themes, repeated symbols, or significant techniques. A critical analysis should NOT be an evaluation of whether you liked or didn’t like the book. A critical analysis should also NOT be merely a summary of the plot of the book. In your essay, you should concentrate on analyzing one or more significant aspects of The Handmaid’s Tale. Your essay must make specific references to elements of the story from the book, including some direct quotations from the book to support the points you make. Your essay should summarize some of what occurs in the story, but your essay should not be simply a summary of the story. Your essay also should not just be a string of quotations from The Handmaid’s Tale. You should use summaries and quotations in order to explain what the story means or how it means what it means. You should summarize some parts of the story and follow the summary with an explanation of what you take that part of the story to mean.
Your essay will consist of three main elements: summary, explanation, and quotation. Summarize key parts of the story that apply to your overall analysis of a dominant theme of the book, explain how those parts of the story develop the theme or symbolism you are discussing, and support some of your explanations with appropriate quotations. Keep quotations fairly short, no more than a couple of lines per quotation. Cite your quotations with the page numbers on which the quotations are found. You can also use other material to support or further explain your ideas on The Handmaid’s Tale, but if you use additional sources, make sure that you cite the sources for all material you use, using the MLA format for documentation. Essays should be approximately 1000 words in length. Essays must be typed and double spaced. You can write your essay on any significant theme or symbol you find in The Handmaid’s Tale. You can discuss more than one theme in your essay, but your essay must be unified, so that if you do discuss more than one theme, you must show how the different themes work together for an overall understanding of the book. Focus on one of the following topics in your essay.
Prompt:
Explain the idea of a theocracy as it applies to the country of Gilead, where the novel is set. Explain what a theocracy is generally and how the structure of the society and the apparent rules and laws that the people live under in Gilead correspond to the principles that underlie a theocratic form of government. Use details to elaborate on how religion forms the basis for the way that the people in Gilead live and the restrictions that are put on them. Support your analysis of the theocratic functions of the society with details such as the role of the handmaids in the story, as well as the restrictions put on other women in the society; the ways that people greet each other; the judgments that they place on each other’s actions; the attitudes about sex and gender; and the male domination of the society. Where possible, indicate the specific scriptural sources that the rulers in Gilead use to justify their domination. Include also a discussion of the problems inherent in societies in general when the power of government is tied too closely to the dictates of one particular religious sect.