Compare and contrast Orwell's 1984 and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
...ure oppression willingly as long as they receive some slight amount of power and is critical in emphasizing the feminist aspect of the novel. The two novels have issues which can be compared and contrasted, such as control and referring to the past – but both 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale were written under the major intention of warning the readers of totalitarianism. Firstly, the citizens of both Oceania and Gilead are under rigid control. For example in 1984, the “Party” (Orwell 12) controls everything from sex to free individual expression – this can be compared to the expression in The Handmaid’s Tale, “Under His Eye” (Atwood 45) and also to the “Eyes” (Atwood 20) of Gilead that watch Offred’s every public move. Language is another tool used by the authority to oppress their citizens; Orwell discusses “Newspeak” (Orwell 45), a language invented solely to eliminate rebellious thoughts. Similarly, Atwood describes an official vocabulary that ignores and warps reality to serve the needs of the new society’s elite. Despite these similarities, however, the references to this control are different. Whilst 1984 was written to alert readers in the West of the totalitarian governments such as those in Spain and Russia, The Handmaid’s Tale refers to the U.S.A, and “Gilead” is indicated to be the land that replaced it. This link between Gilead and America can be seen in hints such as Offred’s narrative, “Westerniz...