Last Wednesday, we started studying about “The Giver” in depth. Ms Li showed us three youtube videos entitled “The Handmaid’s Tale”. She instructed us to write whatever we thought on a worksheet that she had given us the day before. It had an oval in the middle stating the words "Features of a Utopian Society".
Before watching the videos, Ms Li gave us a brief introduction on the movie. She said that it was set in a dystopian community called the Republic of Gilead. The community was founded in the post-pollution world where humankind were so affected that only one out of a hundred women were fertile and could bear children.
Upon hearing the brief synopsis, my first thought was that the plot was a really weird one. I would never have thought that the depiction of a dystopian community would be one involving woman's fertility. The movie then started.
While watching the movie, I was rather disgusted by the practices of the community. They actually twisted the meanings of the bible just to justify the atrocities that they commit. For example, they tried to brainwash the handmaids by making them sing distorted lyrical hymns before bed.
At the start of the movie, it showed how Kate, the main character, was captured when trying to cross the border. I felt sympathy for her because she was forced to become a handmaid while her child was still wondering in the snowy landscape.
I felt very strongly against what the handmaid’s were forced to do. They were just treated as tools to produce children and were forced to participate in sexual activities. Not only that, the handmaids were considered as the property of the commanders they served. For example, Kate’s name after getting a placement was “of-fred”. The people running the country however made the handmaid’s role out to be one of "serving God and your country".
The handmaid’s were given severe punishments for minor transgressions. In the movie, a handmaid was given many brutal slashes on the leg just for a minor transgression. It was very disturbing to hear her painful cries and to see how her leg was covered in blood as a result of the punishment.
Also, when one of the handmaids was forced to share about her experience of being raped, the other women were forced to blame her and call her degrading names such as "hore" and "cheap". I felt completely outraged then. It wasn't her fault at all!
Throughout the whole movie, I felt that the most ironic thing was that the people running the handmaid’s camp were women themselves. I felt that they would have been able to empathize with the handmaids because they were of the same gender. However, they turned out to be the ones trying to brainwash the women instead.
I was a little disturbed by the scene where they showed the nuns being hung in public just because they wouldn’t engage in sexual activities and bear children. There was also another very disturbing scene where the nuns were being shoved into a truck while struggling and screaming that they would not go against their oath.
The Handmaid's Tale left a extremely deep impression on me. I feel that I am very lucky to be living in a society where women and men are of equal status. I fully agree with Ms Li that creating utopian communities will always result in elements of dystopia coming in.
Last Wednesday, we started studying about “The Giver” in depth. Ms Li showed us three youtube videos entitled “The Handmaid’s Tale”. She instructed us to write whatever we thought on a worksheet that she had given us the day before. It had an oval in the middle stating the words "Features of a Utopian Society".
Before watching the videos, Ms Li gave us a brief introduction on the movie. She said that it was set in a dystopian community called the Republic of Gilead. The community was founded in the post-pollution world where humankind were so affected that only one out of a hundred women were fertile and could bear children.
Upon hearing the brief synopsis, my first thought was that the plot was a really weird one. I would never have thought that the depiction of a dystopian community would be one involving woman's fertility. The movie then started.
While watching the movie, I was rather disgusted by the practices of the community. They actually twisted the meanings of the bible just to justify the atrocities that they commit. For example, they tried to brainwash the handmaids by making them sing distorted lyrical hymns before bed.
At the start of the movie, it showed how Kate, the main character, was captured when trying to cross the border. I felt sympathy for her because she was forced to become a handmaid while her child was still wondering in the snowy landscape.
I felt very strongly against what the handmaid’s were forced to do. They were just treated as tools to produce children and were forced to participate in sexual activities. Not only that, the handmaids were considered as the property of the commanders they served. For example, Kate’s name after getting a placement was “of-fred”. The people running the country however made the handmaid’s role out to be one of "serving God and your country".
The handmaid’s were given severe punishments for minor transgressions. In the movie, a handmaid was given many brutal slashes on the leg just for a minor transgression. It was very disturbing to hear her painful cries and to see how her leg was covered in blood as a result of the punishment.
Also, when one of the handmaids was forced to share about her experience of being raped, the other women were forced to blame her and call her degrading names such as "hore" and "cheap". I felt completely outraged then. It wasn't her fault at all!
Throughout the whole movie, I felt that the most ironic thing was that the people running the handmaid’s camp were women themselves. I felt that they would have been able to empathize with the handmaids because they were of the same gender. However, they turned out to be the ones trying to brainwash the women instead.
I was a little disturbed by the scene where they showed the nuns being hung in public just because they wouldn’t engage in sexual activities and bear children. There was also another very disturbing scene where the nuns were being shoved into a truck while struggling and screaming that they would not go against their oath.
The Handmaid's Tale left a extremely deep impression on me. I feel that I am very lucky to be living in a society where women and men are of equal status. I fully agree with Ms Li that creating utopian communities will always result in elements of dystopia coming in.
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