Resilience and Resistance: Women’s Struggles in The Handmaid’s Tale and A Thousand Splendid Suns
Keywords:
Gilead, Afghan Society, Male domination, Brutality, Women’s sufferingAbstract
The Handmaid's Tale and A Thousand Splendid Suns depict the struggles of women in oppressive societies - Gilead and Afghanistan - where they endure exploitation, mistreatment, and reduced autonomy. Both these novels highlight the physical and emotional torment faced by female protagonists who are essentially reduced to vessels for reproduction. The study aims to uncover the shared condition of women in these seemingly unrelated societies, emphasizing the commonality in their experiences of victimization, sexual harassment, and suppression by both genders. Despite their suffering, the female characters resist discriminatory practices, challenging the prevailing brutality and exposing the underlying ideologies perpetuating their oppression.
References
Atwood, Margaret., The Handmaid's Tale. 1st ed. Penguin Random House,1985.
Hosseini, K. and Leoni, A. A Thousand Splendid Suns. 1st ed. Riverhead Books, 2007.
Jacob, Susan. “Woman, Ideology, Resistance: Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and The Third World Criticism”, Margaret Atwood: The Shape Shifter. New Delhi: Creative Books, 1998, p.27.
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Wagner, Linda W. Martin, “Epigraphs to Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale”, Notes on Contemporary Literature 17.2 March 1987, p.4.
