Blog Post 4
by bswise
By Bethany Wise
It is apparent to those who have read A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood that the town of Gilead is a totalitarian society which leaves no room for individual rights. There are spies everywhere constantly threatening to turn you in if you express yourself inappropriately in the eyes of the government. Jane Armbruster recognizes this horrendous way of life in her article Memory and Politics- A Reflection on The Handmaid’s Tale. However, she makes an interesting claim regarding the relevance of Gilead to America today. “Margaret Atwood’s nation of Gilead…exists today in the United States of America—not in the near future as the author proposes” (Armbruster, page 146). Due to the extremity of Gilead’s society and the lack of Armbruster’s adequate evidence, I find the claim that America today reflects Gilead’s society to be absurd.
Armbruster refers to contemporary “commanders,” under whose power we as a nation are under. While she never directly addresses who these commanders are, I had assumed them to be the government. She claims that the commanders have lied to us and told us that workers’ jobs and our personal security depend on military budget. They have also convinced us that we need to abuse natural resources such as natural gas and forests in order to live. Socially, we are so distracted by our culture that we are naïve to the fact that we are under the same power as those in Gilead. Deciding which TV shows to watch or what brand of shampoo to use are the types of trivial activities that contribute to our ignorance.
Personally, I find Armbruster’s claim to be ridiculous. Not only are the characters in Gilead aware of their bondage, but they are also striving for a way out. This type of attitude is not depicted by Americans and, in comparison to the characters from A Handmaid’s Tale, we are quite content with our way of life. Unlike Gilead, America has a Constitution which protects the rights in which Gilead had violated. Women are not forced by the government to have sex with other men in order to not be executed or sent away. We are allowed freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, and many other rights in which Gilead had stripped its citizens of. The two societies, politically, could not be more different.
The claim made in this article is a very strong claim, and Armbruster does not give adequate evidence to support it. Any similarities between America and Gilead are subtle and trivial. It is offensive to say that America reflects the society of Gilead which, literally objectifies women and strips every one of the rights granted by our Constitution.
afterprometheus 
This is a very convincing and impressively argued piece. In a longer version, you might take on what evidence she does provide in order to refute it with counterexamples (as you already have) and to show you interpret her examples from the text differently than she does.
Okay, sounds good. Thanks!