How and why is a social group represented in a particular way - Essay Example

In this writing, the emphasis will be on Margaret Atwood’s literary writing of The Handmaid’s Tale, as well as on the way Atwood has supported and written against the balace bwteen the two genders. Atwood’s tale main characters are played by the female gender and the story is even based on the same gender and even the narrator of the story is a female. The portrayal of the gender roles in Atwood’s novel is not restricted to the characters and the narrator; it goes far beyond explaining, highlighting, and conflicting with the views of feminism.

Atwood does not project a world in which females have the power and ability to stand shoulder to shoulder with the male gender, she rather portrays an image of the society where females are governed by others and are not free and are subordinates to the elites (male gender). The story even projects that the male gender has gained their ability to govern the female gender with the assistance of aunts. Aunts in the novel are those who brain wash the female gender and preach them about how to become perfect slaves of the males.

Aunts do not portray a positive image of the female gender as it is quite difficult to identify who they are in the real life. These aunts completely act against the ideas of equal rights for women. They have represent a female world where they are suppressed and live under the command of the male gender. These women are undoubtedly portraying an image of the women which is totally against the empowerment of the female gender in the society. Nevertheless, they have shown such activities which appear to go against men.

They are constantly showing a negative taste for the male gender. Aunts have played different roles in the novel at different points of time; one of the roles was to underestimate the importance of female unity as seen throughout the novel. On the surface they seem to be completely against the