link
Although the events occurring in the book are not dubbed as prostitution, the events in the book and the basis of the sex slave trade have many of the same foundations. In both, the women have little to no say of what happens to their bodies and men have the ultimate control.
In the book, the handmaids are used as vessels to carry children for other families and are not given the option to leave their "compound" so to speak, unless authorized to do so in order to go to the hospital or carry out their duties as a child bearer. In the sex slave trade, the women are transported to and from their sellers and buyers to "preform their duties". The article discusses this issue and how prevalent it still is in today's society, and how it often goes overlooked. The difference between these two things are that typically, to most, the sex slave trade is extremely frowned upon, and is illegal. However, in the book, the handmaids are an accepted part of life that all sorts of people use in order to live a "normal life", and are looked upon gloriously.
In the class discussion the other day, the question was asked of who had it the worst in the situation between The Captain, Serena Joy, and Offred. At first, I answered that Serena Joy for sure had it the worst, and that she had most of my sympathy. While I still stand by my first statement, while reexamining this situation, it occurred to me that Offred is put into a horrible situation, and is treated much like a sex slave. The situations are slightly different, however she has no say in what she has done to her and is living in horrible conditions. While she can think for herself she cannot express her beliefs and cannot carry them through without suffering horrible consequences (which through implication, I think is death). She is treated like an item, not a human being, and her wants are completely ignored by all who have control of her life.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Friday, November 16, 2012
Children of Men
While the movie, Children of Men was quite honestly extremely disgusting (showing a woman give birth in the back of a shack, which was inexplicably repulsive) at times, it did portray an interesting take on what will be the fall, or shall I say the alpacalypse, of the modern world. The movie never explicitly names what caused the entire population to die off and start a modern warfare between literally every single person on the planet earth and infertility.
In my opinion, the most shocking, and sadly fairly realistic, event that occurred in this movie was the concentration camps for the "fugees", aka illegal immigrants whose homes were destroyed. In the world we live in today, we tend to be afraid of what we don't know, which in the case of this movie, were the people from other towns. Instead of allowing the immigrants to move into England and attempt to live a normal life, they hunted them down and made it nearly impossible to enter the country unless taken into one of their camps. Instead of putting the prisoners into a jail that we today put criminals in, the government had decided to put the illegal immigrants into camps where they were usually either killed, tortured, or both. One of the reasons that I am assuming they did this is because in a prison system like we have in America, the prisoners are clothed and fed because majority of the time the imprisoned have a release date to be sent back into society. In the movie, however, the government killed or was the cause of the prisoners' deaths because then there would be no risk of them entering the country.
It seemed to me, throughout watching the film, that the government didn't even want to help the current citizens of England alive. On multiple occasions in the film there would be propaganda of some sort for a pill that would kill whoever had taken that pill in their sleep. This form of assisted suicide was endorsed by the government so they wouldn't have to assist anyone in their country besides themselves. While I was watching the film, I wondered if the cause for the infertility and the warfare and destruction of all of the nations was caused by either multiple governments or the government of England itself. To me it seemed strange that if the disaster had been environmental or natural, there would only be one country left standing on the entire planet. Also, the midwife in the film said that the infertility started out through women having miscarriages all of the time, and eventually resulted to infertility. It seems strange that there would be this type of situation that would just occur on its own, and not planned by anyone.
All in all, this movie definitely made me think, and I would recommend it to anyone who not only enjoys literature and films that are dystopian, but anyone who enjoys films in general.
In my opinion, the most shocking, and sadly fairly realistic, event that occurred in this movie was the concentration camps for the "fugees", aka illegal immigrants whose homes were destroyed. In the world we live in today, we tend to be afraid of what we don't know, which in the case of this movie, were the people from other towns. Instead of allowing the immigrants to move into England and attempt to live a normal life, they hunted them down and made it nearly impossible to enter the country unless taken into one of their camps. Instead of putting the prisoners into a jail that we today put criminals in, the government had decided to put the illegal immigrants into camps where they were usually either killed, tortured, or both. One of the reasons that I am assuming they did this is because in a prison system like we have in America, the prisoners are clothed and fed because majority of the time the imprisoned have a release date to be sent back into society. In the movie, however, the government killed or was the cause of the prisoners' deaths because then there would be no risk of them entering the country.
It seemed to me, throughout watching the film, that the government didn't even want to help the current citizens of England alive. On multiple occasions in the film there would be propaganda of some sort for a pill that would kill whoever had taken that pill in their sleep. This form of assisted suicide was endorsed by the government so they wouldn't have to assist anyone in their country besides themselves. While I was watching the film, I wondered if the cause for the infertility and the warfare and destruction of all of the nations was caused by either multiple governments or the government of England itself. To me it seemed strange that if the disaster had been environmental or natural, there would only be one country left standing on the entire planet. Also, the midwife in the film said that the infertility started out through women having miscarriages all of the time, and eventually resulted to infertility. It seems strange that there would be this type of situation that would just occur on its own, and not planned by anyone.
All in all, this movie definitely made me think, and I would recommend it to anyone who not only enjoys literature and films that are dystopian, but anyone who enjoys films in general.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Life as we knew it
page 297
"My family has it," I said. "Don't you have any kind of medicine? There must be something." Linda shook her head. "It's the flu, hon," she said. "It just runs its course. Only thing is no one has the strength left to fight it off."
"It's a bad strain," Maggie said. "Like in 1918. The kind that would kill you anyway."
"But my family," I said. "What should I do for them?"
"Make them comfortable," Maggie said. "And don't bring them here when they die. We're not taking any more bodies."
...
"Honey, listen to us," Maggie said. "It doesn't matter... But whatever's going to happen is going to happen. And it'll happen fast."
first link.
link.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, there has recently been an Ebola outbreak. Out of the 52 reported cases, 35 cases have been scientifically confirmed. The death rates are rising at an exponential amount, and although the authorities are doing as much as they can in order to try to control the spread of the disease and stop the amount of deaths, the disease is so contagious that this is near impossible. Not only is it incredibly contagious, but since the conditions of the people living in the town are not as "modernized" as those in the United States, it is even easier for the people of Congo to contract the disease. Also, this disease is able to mutate itself quite quickly, which makes people harder to become immune to the disease as once they develop some form of immunity to one strain, another one may be in effect.
I connected the passage from Life As We Knew It to this passage of this epidemic because the passage discusses the flu that is going through the town that seems to be killing everyone that it infects. In the selected passage, the nurses are telling Miranda converses with the nurses of the condition of her family and asks what should be done in order to help them survive. The nurses tell her that not much can be done in relation to the actual curing of the disease, however she could give them aspirin and alcohol rubs in order to diminish the side effects of the disease, which is exactly what is being done for the Ebola victims.
In both of these instances, the victims are being treated the same way; diminishing the symptoms, removing the victims from the "healthy" people, and making the victims as comfortable as possible.
"My family has it," I said. "Don't you have any kind of medicine? There must be something." Linda shook her head. "It's the flu, hon," she said. "It just runs its course. Only thing is no one has the strength left to fight it off."
"It's a bad strain," Maggie said. "Like in 1918. The kind that would kill you anyway."
"But my family," I said. "What should I do for them?"
"Make them comfortable," Maggie said. "And don't bring them here when they die. We're not taking any more bodies."
...
"Honey, listen to us," Maggie said. "It doesn't matter... But whatever's going to happen is going to happen. And it'll happen fast."
first link.
link.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, there has recently been an Ebola outbreak. Out of the 52 reported cases, 35 cases have been scientifically confirmed. The death rates are rising at an exponential amount, and although the authorities are doing as much as they can in order to try to control the spread of the disease and stop the amount of deaths, the disease is so contagious that this is near impossible. Not only is it incredibly contagious, but since the conditions of the people living in the town are not as "modernized" as those in the United States, it is even easier for the people of Congo to contract the disease. Also, this disease is able to mutate itself quite quickly, which makes people harder to become immune to the disease as once they develop some form of immunity to one strain, another one may be in effect.
I connected the passage from Life As We Knew It to this passage of this epidemic because the passage discusses the flu that is going through the town that seems to be killing everyone that it infects. In the selected passage, the nurses are telling Miranda converses with the nurses of the condition of her family and asks what should be done in order to help them survive. The nurses tell her that not much can be done in relation to the actual curing of the disease, however she could give them aspirin and alcohol rubs in order to diminish the side effects of the disease, which is exactly what is being done for the Ebola victims.
In both of these instances, the victims are being treated the same way; diminishing the symptoms, removing the victims from the "healthy" people, and making the victims as comfortable as possible.
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