2005, Form B. One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character in a novel or a drama struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work.
Offreds struggle begins when she is captured after trying to cross the boarder out of the Republic of Giliad and is told that she is part of a small group of women who are still able to bear children and will serve their country by becoming handmaids. It is when she first learns this knowledge that a dominating power now has control over her decisions and life. This supreme power becomes reality when the wife of the Commander taks Offred with giving her children. It is now that Offred begins a struggle within herself about weather to resist and attempt to regain her freedom to do things or do as she is told.
Offred's struggle increases as she that her "encounters" with the Commander are unsuccessful and she cannot conceive with him. She feels that she has regained some of her individual power but fears for her life as she cannot complete the task she has been ordered to do. Things take an odd turn when the Commander's wife suggests she try another man and give that baby to the Commander as his own. Having this opportunity to break the rules and rebel against the values that she was forcibly taught is somewhat foreign but reminds her of the life she used to have. It is here that she decides it is better to live life as an individual and wont give up the baby that she is about to have.
Her ultimate struggle for power comes when the Commander learns that she is going to escape with her baby and the man she loves. Offred feels that by escaping she has regained some of her power from the supreme authority and gained a different sort of power over that authority which commanded her to do these things. She believes that she can once again have a normal life in a world that used to exist but no longer does.
The internal struggle of power from authority is one of the many themes found in Atwood's novel. Individualism and freedom are strongly enhanced through the characters and their situations while they may not break through to the world they live in.
3 comments:
Hey Melanie! Great job with this essay! I can see that you're really figuring out how to analyze literally works and connect them to the overall meaning of the author. Something that caught my attention was the fact that two of the body paragraphs start with the same first two words, so you might want to change that to better catch the readers' interests. Other than a view little grammar things like that, it looks good!
-Nikki
Hey Melanie!
I really liked this essay! I can definitely see improvement from last week!
First of all, I really liked the introduction. It captures the reader's attention, and gets them to think about the prompt.
Just a few things: there are a couple of grammatical errors, but it's nothing big. In the 2nd paragraph, Offrends should be Offrend's.
Also, I'd try to keep the conclusion shorter. I liked the way you wrote it, but for the sake of time, it'd be much easier if it were shorter!
Great job!
Erin
This essay is really good. I loved that you had just enough detail of the story, that a reader that hasn't read the story you are talking about will understand, it's just the right amount. I agree that the two body paragraphs beginning with the same word is a little distracting. Over all this essay was really good!! Nicely done.
-Laura
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