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Summary OCR A-Level English Literature Dystopia The Handmaid's Tale Contextual Information
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OCR A-Level English Literature Dystopia The Handmaid's Tale Contextual Information
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‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ ContextEvidence Contextual Link
Destroyed Margaret Atwood’s father was an entomologist and she spent much of her
Environment, childhood in rural Canada, informing the themes of environmentalism in
Infertility her work
The SS were one of the most feared organisations in Nazi Germany, with
The Eyes, Guardians thousands of members who wore all-black uniforms, ran the concentration
camps and eliminated Hitler’s political opponents
Modern Western culture is centred on appearances, including the rise of
The Eyes, Offred
selfies and social media, making us complicit in our own surveillance,
Body Image
vulnerable to scrutiny and judgement
In Nazi Germany, Jews had to wear yellow bands to divide them from the
Red dresses, Tattoos rest of the population, underpinning the regimes’ hierarchy and views on
their importance and worthiness
Those Jews who were ‘not useful’ to the regime were immediately killed or
Infertility, Colonies sent to concentration camps where they underwent harsh conditions and
eventually died
The Nazi’s ran a Lebensborn Programme, which was a breeding
Legally prostituted programme designed to promote an ‘Aryan future’ and combat Germany’s
Handmaids, Offred’s falling birth rate. One element of the scheme involved members of the SS
daughter ‘mating with suitable German women. Aryan children were also kidnapped
to populate the Nazi ‘Third Reich’ (generation)
Theocratic When writing her novel, Atwood took interest in a press item which
Government, Bible reported on a Catholic congregation in New Jersey being taken over by a
Manipulated fundamentalist sect; - fears of the spread of fundamentalism
Mary Webster (an ancestor of Atwood) was demonised, attacked, tortured,
and nearly murdered by her community for the sin of being an independent
Colonies (infertility),
woman who didn’t conform to the repressive expectations of appearance
the Wall, Offred’s
and behaviour that were placed on women in 17th Century New England.
rebellion/escape
Atwood says the novel’s dedication to her is a ‘symbol of hope’, as she
survived despite oppression
A propaganda video called ‘The Silent Scream’ was spread as part of the
Documentaries
backlash against abortion in the US in the 1980’s. There were a rash of
shown at the Red
abortion clinic bombings, arson cases, and a proposed law that would give
Centre
foetuses civil rights protection
10
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