The Handmaid's Tale
Comparing texts forces us to question our values in the context of the author’s zeitgeist and our own. The dystopia novel The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), written by Margaret Atwood, and the film adaptation Children of Men (2006), directed by Alfonso Cuarón, both examine the abuse of power by totalitarian government regimes which come about as a result of chaotic disasters. These oppressive governments’ abuse of their given power creates a dystopic world, and with it come restrictions to individual freedom. By viewing the two texts together, we are able to gain a greater understanding of the composer’s context.
In The Handmaid’s Tale, the issue of infertility prompts the establishment of Gilead, a totalitarian regime which abuses its power in …show more content…
The United Kingdom, one of the last stable nations in the world, becomes a militarised police state in response to the influx of ‘fugees’ fleeing their war-torn and chaotic countries, which collects and imprisons these immigrants. The point-of-view shot as the bus enters the Bexhill Detention Camp shows faceless victims being tortured and humiliated. The scene deliberately evokes images of the Abu Ghraib prison, where US Army and CIA committed human rights violations against the Iraqi detainees, as well as Guantanamo Bay, where prisoners were tortured by the guards. The shaky camera shot of Kee and Theo as they pass a pile of luggage at the entrance of Bexhill deliberately recalls images of piled suitcases and shoes commonly found in Holocaust memorials. The close-up shot of Theo dying on the small boat at the end of the film, sacrificing himself for the sake of humanity, alludes to Jesus dying for our sins. This Christian symbolism is also seen in Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The biblical allusions in the name of the food store “Loaves and Fishes” and the expression “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” are used by the Atwood as a means of bringing to light the effects of following the Bible in a literal sense. By recreating several well-known images of historic suffering, Cuarón allows us to link ‘our own’ historic or memorialized suffering
In The Handmaid’s Tale, the issue of infertility prompts the establishment of Gilead, a totalitarian regime which abuses its power in …show more content…
The United Kingdom, one of the last stable nations in the world, becomes a militarised police state in response to the influx of ‘fugees’ fleeing their war-torn and chaotic countries, which collects and imprisons these immigrants. The point-of-view shot as the bus enters the Bexhill Detention Camp shows faceless victims being tortured and humiliated. The scene deliberately evokes images of the Abu Ghraib prison, where US Army and CIA committed human rights violations against the Iraqi detainees, as well as Guantanamo Bay, where prisoners were tortured by the guards. The shaky camera shot of Kee and Theo as they pass a pile of luggage at the entrance of Bexhill deliberately recalls images of piled suitcases and shoes commonly found in Holocaust memorials. The close-up shot of Theo dying on the small boat at the end of the film, sacrificing himself for the sake of humanity, alludes to Jesus dying for our sins. This Christian symbolism is also seen in Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The biblical allusions in the name of the food store “Loaves and Fishes” and the expression “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” are used by the Atwood as a means of bringing to light the effects of following the Bible in a literal sense. By recreating several well-known images of historic suffering, Cuarón allows us to link ‘our own’ historic or memorialized suffering