A little bit of literature

“My arms are raised; she holds my hands, each of mine in each of hers. This is supposed to signify that we are one flesh, one being. What it really means is that she is in control of the process and thus of the product. If any. The rings of her left hand cut into my fingers. It may or may not be revenge. 

(...)

Arousal and orgasm are no longer thought necessary; they would be a symptom of frivolity merely, like jazz garters or beauty spots: superfluous distractions for the light-minded. Outdated. It seems odd that women once spent such time and energy reading about such things,thinking about them, worrying about them, writing about them. They are so obviously recreational. 

This is not recreation, even for the Commander. This is serious business. The Commander, too, is doing his duty. 

(...)

I want Luke here so badly. I want to be held and told my name. I want to be valued, in ways that I am not; I want to be more than valuable. I repeat my former name, remind myself of what I once could do, how others saw me.” 

Vocabulary build-up

The noun arousal means “the act of arousing; a state of heightened physiological activity.” The transitive verb arouse means “To cause (someone) to be active, attentive, or excited; to stimulate sexual desire in.”

The noun garter means “An elasticized band worn around the leg to hold up a stocking or sock.” 

Comments

Following our celebration of Women’s History Month, we bring Canada’s most eminent novelist, poet, and short story writer, Margaret Atwood, whose works have been translated into over 30 languages. She is best known for her strong, often enigmatic, women characters, and open-ended stories. Under the influence of the French Feminist Philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir, and other writers of the Second Feminist Wave (1960-1980), Atwood developed her feminist criticism-based fictional literature and was acclaimed for her masterpiece of 1985, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, in which she approaches a religious dystopia to criticize American society. Through interesting metaphorical elements, the book presents a critique of male chauvinism and religious power structures in the United States, which were reinforced in Ronald Reagan’s government. Atwood’s novel had a social impact on bringing feminist concepts to popular culture at the time. But with the production of the TV Show, she gained fame and a renewed importance within the contemporary feminist movement. The religious totalitarian government of Gilead depicts a dystopian reality in which women, especially the fertile ones, were separated from their families by the State and transformed into handmaids in order to procreate and save the country from demographic collapse. Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” clearly presents criticisms based on the underappreciation of the female gender’s role in society and the exclusion of women from public life, bringing to life important discussions to different generations of women and men (who must be enlightened on the issue as well).