Deprivation And Reconstruction Of Female Identity

Margaret Atwood(1939-)is one of the most distinguished and prolific contemporary Canadian female writers.As a novelist,her works are quite forward-looking and full of warnings,often connected with reality and containing plentiful social hot issues.The Handmaid’s Tale(1985)is a speculative fiction.It describes people’s miserable life under the regime of totalitarianism.Through the description of women’s life in this future society,this novel,with strong feminine consciousness,highlights various surviving predicaments that women are confronted with in the capitalist patriarchal society.In the late twentieth century,socialist feminism stamped on the Canadian feminist stage,and quite a few outstanding feminist scholars entered the scene.Combined with the social background of creating the novel,the present study interprets The Handmaid’s Tale under the theoretical framework of socialist feminism,aiming to analyze female identity,female consciousness,female image and other women’s problems disclosed in this novel.It deeply probes into women’s unequal treatment both in family and society under the long-standing patriarchy oppression,discusses women’s survival predicament under capitalist oppression and explores women’s physical and mental alienation due to the dual oppression.This thesis tries to explore an effective approach to fulfilling Gileadean women’s emancipation on the basis of socialist feminism.As a gallery with plenty of women characters,The Handmaid’s Tale indicates that true gender equality can be achieved only if the whole social structure is changed.Women must keep clear independent consciousness and men should take the initiative in participating in women’s liberation movement and fighting for women’s liberty after realizing their privileges.Only by this way can women reconstruct their identity and achieve true liberation in a real sense.Women’s problems and social problems in the future unfolded in the novel serve as warnings to the contemporary world.The present study is hoped to give people some profound reflection on current social problems and the future world,such as gender equality,ecological problem,totalitarianism and other challenges.It appeals to more people to take joint efforts to construct an equal and harmonious world with green beautiful environment for future generations to live in.