Taming of Women and Nature in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing and The Handmaid’s Tale

Abstract

Margaret Atwood uses her writing as a powerful weapon to fight for vital issues like global warming and subtle and systematic destruction of nature in the name of urbanization. Drawing a parallel between the exploitation of nature because of so-called development and that of women by men in patriarchal society, she warns humanity against the dangers of misuse of pesticides and radioactive substances. In Surfacing her protagonist, though a victim of male torture, as nature is that of industrialization, comes out as a survivor in the end. Having rejected the city life she comes to the Quebec Island in search of her father but her search turns out to be the search of her own identity. Atwood shows that the natural life of Canada is completely shattered and she has lost the perennial beauty of her landscape and looks more like a typical American colony. In The Handmaid’s Tale she creates an imaginary state called Gilead where all men have become sterile and women barren because of illegal ecological malpractices. Atwood has depicted the crucial issue of environmental degradation brought in by the technocratic society and how it has affected the life of women on this planet. There is no denying the fact that while talking about the evil of taming women on one hand and nature on other hand, Atwood does not defy male rights but wants that women’s rights are not violated and denied.