How do concepts of exile and masquerade operate in handmaid's tale, and comfort woman - Term Paper Example

The book touches on many themes the most prominent being that of women’s rights, and also those of exile and masquerade. The theme of exile is most prominent in the ‘Unwomen’ segment of society. It also frequently appears in the desire that many characters have for voluntary exile from the Giledean state. The Comfort Women is a painful story woven around the lives of two women. One is the story of Akiko a Korean comfort women1 married to an American missionary. The other protagonist is her daughter struggling to come to terms with her life specially her cultural identity.

The theme of exile in this book is present in the book because the characters are in places physically and emotionally in which they feel disconnected from reality. Akiko after the hell that she goes through struggles to survive alone in America and also to maintain a balance between her spiritual life and her external American life. Her daughter on the other hand is embarrassed by her mother’s obsession with the spirit world because it is something that has no connection to her American life.

The book also has element of the theme of masquerade in the sense that Akiko hides who she really is from everyone around her including her daughter. In a way she wears a mask to hide the marks of what the past has left on her. The theme of exile is an important one in Handmaid’s tale. Those exiled are victims of the society’s structure, in the sense that they either could not fit into any of the categories assigned by the government or they have been disconnected from mainstream society simply because they serve a function that society does not want to highlight.

One category is the ’Unwomen’. This does not include only women but in fact political rebels, homosexuals or anyone who does not fit into any of the categories. They have been exiled from society forced to live in toxic waste dumps in the fringes of society. This category is used as at