Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale: Novel and Film Essay -- Compare

Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale Novel and FilmThe Handmaids Tale, a science-fiction figment written by Margaret Atwood, focuses on womens rights and what could happen to them in the future. This novel was later made into a movie in 1990. As with most cases of books made into movies, there are some similarities and differences between the novel and the flash. Overall the film tends to stay on the akin track as the book with a few minor details changed, and only two major differences.Atwood sets the story not too far into the future, and the women have lost almost all of their rights. The original government was overthrown and taken over by Christian religious fundamentalists that believed that society was bollocks and women were not taking advantage of their biological duties. The society now is women staying at home, servants, or Unwomen, who are the women who are declared infertile and did not have some(prenominal) social status. The Unwomen are sent to the colonies, which are toxic waste sites, to work, and the life expectancy there is less than three years. The main character, Offred (Kate was her real name), is a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. Handmaids are the few fertile women left in the United States, and are sent to fieldholds and become pregnant by the man of the house and are trained for giving birth at the Red Center. Offred is sent to a house of a powerful Commander. The Commander also has a married woman that lives in the house. The other servants in the house are Rita and Cora, the Marthas who do the cooking and housework, and Nick the chauffer, who later becomes Offreds lover. Offred is allowed to leave the house once a day to bring grocery errands with a walking friend, Ofglen, who is another handmaid. Off... ...h the arranged marriages and Handmaids. He also says, Sometimes when you try to make things better, its not better for everyone.In the movie, the reasoning is approached the same type of way. Offred tries to ask the Commander about why the government changed and he replies Nobody knew how to feel anything anymore...about respect, reverence, values you can feel in your heart, or in your case, your womb. What the Commander says here is almost the same as what he says in the book some women could not fulfill their destinies because of how society had become corrupted. Generally, the film follows the plot line of Atwoods book quite well other than a few exceptions. The changes the movie made probably do work better just because of the fact that it is a movie. Some things are better explained in books than they could ever be explained in a movie.