A Comparison of Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale and Zadie Smiths White Teeth - Essay Example

Although a thorough discussion of thematic similarities and the shared tones of these pieces would require a dissertation-length response, this author will attempt to point out but a few of the most relevant imagery to convey similar understandings. Atwood’s character, Offred, experiences the stifling effects of male patriarchy and chauvinist-dominated religious society. As such, hers is a journey that is punctuated by repression, rebellion, and revelation. What is of particular note with Offred’s character, as well as a pervasive underlying thematic element within the work, is the extent to which the author engages the topic of religion as a means of painting a stark and ominous background under which the action of the story takes place.

As if the conservative representation of a totalitarian system that seeks to marginalize while at the same time dominating women is not enough, the author incorporates strong overtones of religious fanaticism as a means to paint a profoundly rigid culture that bears little signs or hope of evolution from within. Time and again exceedingly strong connotations are equated with that of the religious observance that is foisted upon the people of Gilead. These include but are not limited to the use of the words: demand, require, obedience, moral, teaching, law, and god.

Similarly, although the second work incorporates 3 tales that slowly evolve and intertwine until a final resolution is met, this extraordinarily brief analysis will consider but one of these three initial stories. As presented in the novel, Samad, an individual of Bangladeshi descent, seeks to impose strict adherence to Islam upon his two children. As a function of their growing up in Western culture, Samad’s efforts are somewhat fruitless. As a function of this, Samad sends his children back to Bangladesh to gain an appreciation for Islam and what he deems a “correct” education; devoid of the ills and corruptions of Western society.

The imagery used to describe this somewhat torturous decision that Samad must make incorporates many of the same elements as the Atwood novel described previously. Because religion is the motivating factor, Samad is, not unlike the administrators of the state of Gilead, willing to go to extreme measures to ensure that a correct interpretation of the religion is followed. To Samad, the evils of the world (specifically the West and its corrupting influence upon his family), is something to be feared.