Today, the world is full of information and most likely everyone has access to information through all the different sources available internet, television, and the news. Although information is available, facts and context are always manipulated to the benefit of those in power to inform. The novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood shows how control, oppression, and manipulation of information of those in power shape society today. Is what we know fiction or reality? Or are we all oppressed, manipulated and shape like in The Handmaid's Tale? Therefore, the manipulation and control of language, information, and education is used as the powertool of the government to control western society.
The novel presents a city in the future being ruled and dominated by a patriarchal government. This city is called “Gilead”, which goes through fertility problems and young women are made sexual slaves, through religious brainwashing. The dominant power by those in government through Christianity and control of information has oppressed the weakest, the least privileged, and uneducated members of society. Atwood’s language in The Handmaid’s Tale is always referring to The Bible as the main point and origin of wrongdoings in the story. Also, the characteristics of this city where the story is taking place refers to The United States and how there is no separation of church and state dictating others their ideals. Mackenzie Konkin in her article, “The Gilead Mirrors Christian Fundamentalism”, emphasized the alteration of The Bible context and the mist interpretation of the bible throughout the The Handmaid’s Tale. As Mackenzie Konkin mentioned in her article, “The phrase ‘under his eye’ is taking in the most literal sense; God and His servants are watching ” (Konkin 2). This Bible verse is used to bring fear and created obedience towards the government who are seeing in the story as chosen people to apply God's laws in society. That’s a literal sense of this bible verse being misinterpreted, manipulated, and taken out of context because the phrase refers to the omniscient and omnipotent presence of God to know everything and have the unlimited power to be the only and ultimate judge of mankind. Another important fact about the government of “Gilead”is that it is represented by the wealthy, the commanders and the guardians they’re the ones who controlled and manipulated the information given to the residents including the handmaids.
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The residents of “Gilead” have the information that the government wants to share with them, and the least privilege are meant to be shaped by the ideals and power of the one percent. The handmaids are prohibited to read, write or speak. They have no access to the real world just being molded and brainwashed by their teachings and their ways of living. In the same way, America today is being controlled by the one percent and the people in government. To better illustrate it, if we take a closer look at the president’s impeachment case, the information handled to residents is very minimal and the trials are kept in closed hearings. In other words, the less we know as citizens, the best they can control us and manipulate the facts and information. On the contrary, if the residents of “Gilead” like Offred have access to the Bible themselves, it would give them the ability to learn, discern and fight the oppression made with the Bible teachings. The residents could be able to form their own intellectual arguments with the same laws of the Bible like John 9:25 that says, “He answered, Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” Offred could confront the one percent and their manipulation of the Bible interpretation to benefit their wrongdoings letting them know that the word of God had opened her eyes.
The same observation of controlled misinformation and manipulation of facts is seeing today with the president Donald Trump trial; as residents of the United States if the actual information about the case is shared with us, the residents might say, if the president is guilty of committing a crime I do not know. As the Bible states, “I don’t know whether he is a sinner,” the man replied. “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see.” Mackenzie Konkin explains in her article about this form of government work when she said, “Fundamentalists do not want the church and state to be separated from each other; they want their worldview to dictate others.” (Konkin 2). The abused and degradation of human rights through man power and misuse of information is not only through religion but through government and educational institutions. In The Handmaid’s Tale, the mentality of the residents is shaped by the government until otherwise; they could think broadly and see things through their own eyes. Today we see nations oppressing women in the name of religion, justifying oppression by making it a normal cultural way of living. Just like in the Handmaid’s Tale; a good example of that is mentioned by Mackenzie Konkin in her article when she says “The new Christian Right, for instance, is currently seeking to limit women’s options for contraception and abortion. As the Taliban emerges in Afghanistan, its forbade women from working, receiving in education, and leaving the home without a male chaperon, and introduce strict dress requirements” (Konkin, 4). As controversial as it sounds, in the 21st century we are living in a society that controls and oppresses women and minorities; not far from the Handmaid’s Tale fiction.
The ladies in “Gilead” like the men, are trained and composed to believe that they are under the reconnaissance of the eyes – Gilead mystery police; there are posts everywhere with guardians and machines that control and oversee everybody; nobody is permitted to move openly in the city without passes.
The control in “Gilead” is an outrageous type of carceral surface of society. The Gilead Republic, discipline and Punish, legitimizes society's disciplinary advances and carceral structures. The bodies are controlled both spatially and physically, the female bodies in the novel, regardless of whether Wives, the Marthas' or Moira's and Offred's, are by all methods accommodating. This type of carceral control is seeing today in many forms of the American justice system; when the law reinforces and persecute black man and the least privilege citizens while white collars are less likely to be convicted of a crime. Every one of the handmaids is made an object of the government, their developments, bodies, mind and beliefs are the objectives of others. In the Gilead society, womanliness is built uniquely on female's patience and decontamination of the body, wherefore, order and discipline are helpful for female bodies to make them good in a male commanded society. In Red Center, Offred gains from Aunt Lydia, who reminds all handmaids 'The Republic of Gilead knows no bounds. Gilead is inside you.' (Atwood 32) The handmaids have no mind of their own as the aunts remind them constantly that the beliefs of Gilead are who they are .
The Handmaid’s Tale is a collection of diaries written by an individual who is restricted in a fundamental regime. Offred uses the language of the past that she has, however, the language of the past is an opposing discourse to the new language of the authority. The official language seeks to reject and repress the previous language and replace it with biblical discourse. “Gilead” as a fundamental regime attempts to abuse the biblical and religious values as their basic ideology to establish the social norms. Offred’s diary illustrated an explicit script of the social and conventional norms that mock the present society through language. Similarly, to Malcom X letters from prison, where he learns the gift of power and freedom through language. Offred’s diaries kept her alive and give her hope of a change of a way out like the letters of Malcom X to the outside world. The evident of the official language used in Gilead comes from Offred’s commentary and explanation of the new realm. The powerful regime can ignore the past, but it is never possible to erase the human memories which serve to threaten the authorities..
Although actions and deeds can be controlled; minds and thoughts are not a system that can be easily dominated because people are not completely dominated with the beliefs of the new realms. Aunt Lydia, who instructs and disciplines the handmaids according to the official language, attempts to indoctrinate them the importance of normalizing the regime’s idea and belief as something ordinary and acceptable. 'Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary' (Atwood 43). The official language must be accepted as normal and ordinary discourses and women whether to be handmaids, marthas, econowives or jezebels are forced to act according to the norms. The regime acknowledges them that ideal future will be gained when women accept the norms and attempt to forget their past. The world we live in today, specifically America, the land of the free implies those language regimen and ideals every day by the people in government. The government officials and the president of the United States of America refer to statements he publicly said and express in the past as being manipulated, misinterpret to simply rearrange the language to fulfil a present purposes.
For example, Aunt Lydia tries to persuade the handmaids as the transitional generation that should accept the new belief system, “You are a transitional generation. It is the hardest for you. We know the sacrifices you are being expected to make. It is hard when men revile you. For the ones who come after you, it will be easier. They will accept their duties with willing hearts.” (Atwood 127). The result of the imposition and control of language is society's mold by the government for generations to come. Nina Renata Aron mentions in her article The Handmaid’s Tale is a Dystopian Novel that Feels Way to Relevant Right Now that, “Nations never build apparently radical forms of government on foundations that aren’t there already” (Aron 4). This was the phrase that she quoted from Atwood in The Guardian in 2012. Nina Renata Aron uses this phrase to emphasize that The United States was built and founded on those same grounds of theocracy as The Handmaid’s Tale.
Atwood’s book is a pure representation of the power-language in our society today to shape, control, and oppress women through manpower and misinterpretation of the Bible’s teachings. For example, the Bible quotes in Ephesians 5:22-23 “Wives submit yourselves to your husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the house as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the savior.” Based on this portion of the bible we could interpret what is happening today in American society where the president overrules and controls his wife as well as mistreating women openly and publicly as we saw him speaking and referring to Hilary Clinton during the 2016 campaign. But not far from that bible verse where women are asked to submit to their husbands; in the same book and chapter just one verse over Ephesians 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wife as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” Instead of interpreting the complete teaching of the bible most men like the president of the US just take the portion of power being the head of the house and their wives; not the portion of the teaching that clearly asks the man to love and take care of the woman’s well-being with their own lives as Christ and as their own body. In fact, knowledge is power, and power has control over knowledge, that is the reason as for which language and education are the key to freedom in our society. As in Gilead the government forces the transitional generation to gradually accept the ideal system of the Republic. A strategy to obtain power through language, the authority manipulates the language for their own purposes just as America is today. As a matter of fact, language is the foundation for thoughts and those who can control the language can also restrict the thought, therefore, the concept of “freedom” in Gilead for future generations will only exist as “freedom from”.
Since language is freedom, the use of it and the real meaning behind words are an important factor to either gain or lose freedom and power. In the article Homo Luden in Gilead: The Handmaid’s Tale by Nilsen Gokcen, she said “Offred realizes meanings in language that she had not paid attention before. Now she puts up a big fight in order not to lose her only foothold to survive.” (Gokcen 147). Nilsen Gokcen points out the specific moment in Offred’s journey with the commander when she is aware of the power she has in knowing words and its meaning playing scrabble; and how that knowledge will open the doors of hope for her freedom. Even though that reading and writing was forbidden, nothing can really stop her from grabbing the power of language.
For instance, Gilead believes the kind of freedom that existed in the past was some of the reasons that anarchy occurred. Aunt Lydia tells the handmaids, “There’s more than one kind of freedom, freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.” (34) By underestimating discourses of the past, the Republic can control and reinforce the language. “Freedom to” which is the concept of freedom we know it, will no longer exist and the usage of the word “freedom to” will be strictly forbidden in future generation. Gilead, also denies literacy for all women to have a permanent control on them. The regime forbids all literature and replaces it with biblical stories read by Commander. It is not possible for power to be exercised without knowledge; it is not possible for knowledge not to generate power. Rob Luzecky ilustrates in his article Oppression, Speech, and Mitsein in The Handmaid’s Tale how the use of language and speech in the novel reflect the nature of Offred’s feminist power, strength and hope find in the most despair moments throughout her journey. The hope that never let Offred fail was the prior knowledge of the world within her before her captivity and the ability to use the power of language to maintain hope and survive. Offred consciously deconstructs the social reality through her narrative discourses. She is aware of the power that surrounds them and produces knowledge, the knowledge that reinforces the power. Her narrative becomes a weapon to keep her sanity and struggle against the perpetual rules.
Language and the use of it is the real key to open the doors to knowledge. As humans we are born with the need to communicate and express ourselves is nature. It is also part of our nature the curiosity and desire to learn and to know our surroundings. When language, information, and education , is manipulated by the government and the wealthy one percent; these rules indicate that those who have control over the words and language have dominant power. For those who cannot read and write, there is no form of communicating that opposes the authority’s belief and no form of thinking other than what the regime learns them to believe. The oppressed society and the least privileged minority became the modern-day slaves. After all when the language, information and education is controlled by the government it creates a system where the minds and behavior of the individuals its program to archive the government goals. The control and manipulation of language and knowledge are the barriers of the prison that the western government used to control society nothing different than The Handmaid’s Tale fiction novel.
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