Handmaids Tale Vs. Fire Dwelle :: essays research papers fc

In the two books Margaret Atwood&8217s The Handmaid&8217s Tale, and Margaret Laurence&8217s The Fire Dweller&8217s, the protagonists are very different in character. However, both of these women lose their identity due to an outside influence. In each of the books we see the nature of the bemused identity, the circumstances which led to this lost identity and the consequences which occurred as a expiration of this lost identity. In the book The Handmaid&8217s Tale by Margaret Atwood our main character (Offred) has had her whole human being stolen away by the government of Gilead. This new society is sexually repressed, and is founded by religious extremists. Women are only used to produce children, and have no rights at all in the new world of Gilead.In the book The Fire Dwellers by Margaret Laurence our main character Stacey MacAindra has been thrown into a life of responsibility. She has an uncommunicative husband who means well, but shows her no love. And quadruple children who she feels are being ruined by her every action. She feels that life has much more to offer than the tediousness of every day routine.The nature of Offred&8217s lost identity is very drastic. Before the new religious group of Gilead took over the world she was a very normal every day woman. She did what was expected of her judgment of conviction and continued to do so after the take over. She had a husband and a daughter who she loved very much. But the new society which she lives in love is not permitted. &8220 If I thought that this would happen again I would die. But this is wrong, nobody dies from lack of sex. It&8217s lack of love we die from. thither&8217s nobody here I can love, all the people I could love are dead or elsewhere . Offred also had the choice of forego will before her civilization changed. But then slowly women began to lose all of their rights and were no longer allowed to have jobs or even to use money, &8220Sorry, he said. This number is not valid. &822 0That&8217s ridiculous, I said. It must be, I&8217ve got thousands in my account. &8220It&8217s not valid, he repeated obstinately. See that red light? means it&8217s not valid,(p.164). &8220In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from (p.24). Social class was not a racial matter before the take over and each individual was treated equally.