Grade: 7

Question: The struggle against injustice is a theme that speaks to readers. Compare the ways in which Atwood and another author have depicted unjust worlds.

Injustice is a theme of great importance which has been explored by authors for centuries. The reasons authors have for exploring unjust worlds can differ – some may wish to highlight tendencies in our society, while others wish to show the possibility of hope. Two contemporary authors who have explored the theme of injustice are Margaret Atwood and John Lewis who, respectively, wrote and published The Handmaid’s Tale in 1985 Canada and March in 2014 in the United States. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood depicted an unjust world through exaggerating tendencies seen in Reagan’s US in the 1980s and utilizing the speculative fiction genre to construct the dystopian totalitarian state Gilead. She uses an array of literary devices throughout the novel to emphasize the inherent pain and suffering in an unjust world. Examples are the main character Offred as the first person narrator, the use of symbolism, and contrast. Lewis, along with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell, depicts his struggles as an African American child in the US and his journey as a non-violent activist in the Civil Rights Movement in the graphic novel. March is autobiographical, though one can argue the narrative gradually becomes less focused on Lewis and more on the unjust world in the segregated South. As a graphic novel, March is able to utilize visual devices such as a specific art style, facial expressions and framing, but also relies on literary devices like language style and contrasts. These two works are quite different in nature and medium, however it is clear there are similarities in how they explore injustice and depict unjust worlds.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood utilizes devices such as first person narration, symbolism and contrast to articulate her warning against misogynistic tendencies in the 1980s and depicts the suffering within an unjust world. Through extrapolating on issues seen in the 1980s, Atwood is able to defamiliarize the reader with the tendencies seen in their own contemporary society. This opens their eyes to the injustice around them in the world and makes them more susceptible to Atwood’s message. One of the primary ways this is done is through the use of the first person narrator, Offred. She is also the main character of the novel, and can be considered to be quite an untraditional one, as she is not central to the plot of the coup of the United States or the resistance against Gilead. Instead, as she is silenced in her prisoner-like role as a Handmaid, she observes what happens and has her own internal struggles as a result of the injustice happening around her. To have an unconventional character as the narrator allows the reader to focus less on the specific details and facts about Gilead, such as who the Commander is or if the resistance movement will succeed, and more on Offred’s own feelings. She is suffering in multiple ways, and through sharing both her thoughts and feelings with the reader, they can become sympathetic to her. When Gilead was established, Offred was ripped away from her daughter and has no way of knowing whether she or her husband Luke are alive. She either obsessively thinks of her daughter as her heart breaks, or she tries to “shut off” her emotions to protect herself from the pain. Furthermore, the existence as a Handmaid is painful as she is suppressed, silenced and essentially systematically raped. Already from the first chapter in the book the reader can see Offred contemplating suicide, as even a violent death at her own hands is something she would consider better than living in Gilead. To have these first hand accounts of the ways a totalitarian state has harmed an individual highlights to the reader just how unjust this world is.

Another important device in The Handmaid’s Tale that illustrates the unjust world is symbolism. The leaders of Gilead have structured society into hierarchical categories which are depicted through symbolic colors. The Handmaids are the most notable as they must wear blood red uniforms, which symbolize fertility and menstrual blood. This shows that women in Gilead are essentially reduced to their function, whether they can procreate or not. Another interpretation of the Handmaids’ uniforms is as an allusion to the scarlet letter of Hester Prynne where it represents traditional sexual sin. While the reader understands through Offred’s pain and descriptions that she does not wish to be a Handmaid, some of the Wives still consider them and call them derogatory words such as “slut”. They view the systematic rapes of the Handmaids as institutionalized adultery, which the reader will understand is another layer of injustice, how women are turned against each other. Just as Handmaids are categorized by the color red, Wives must dress in blue which has associations with royalty and purity. This shows the Wives are superior to the Handmaids, though they too are of course oppressed by Gilead as women. Marthas, the household and domestic workers, must wear green as that is associated with physical labor. Whereas the Commanders, the men in charge, do not have to be limited to a specific color. It is clear through this that Atwood utilizes symbolism to exaggerate and enhance the hierarchy found in Gilead to show how unjust worlds categorize and limit people.

A last device Atwood uses in The Handmaid’s Tale to further depict an unjust world is contrasts between Gilead and the US before the coup. Offred still lives in the same town as before, which allows her to more effectively contrast her current life with her previous by superimposing the past on the present as she describes her surroundings. As Offred walks outside with another Handmaid she compares New Boston now with how it used to look. While the streets may be cleaner in Gilead and it may technically look more peaceful, Offred describes it negatively as she finds this new look unsettling and uncomfortable. Such contrasts are continued throughout the book as Offred has flashbacks to her life with her husband Luke, who the reader presumes is dead, versus her life now as a Handmaid. These contrasts between the past and the present allow the reader to understand two things. First of all, just how unjust Gilead is and how it tortures the individuals who live under the suppressive regime, and additionally that the signs were already there in Offred’s past. Not only are contrasts found, but similarities as well which allow the reader to understand how the US was able to turn into Gilead. It is evident Atwood consciously built the unjust world of Gilead to signal to the reader to become more aware of the oppressing structures to be found in their own societies. Through utilizing devices such as first person narrator, symbolism and contrasts, Atwood underlines the suffering within an unjust world and warns the reader to be aware of authoritarian and misogynist tendencies.

In March Lewis depicts the unjust segregated South through the use of the visual narrative, language style and contrasts. While The Handmaid’s Tale can be argued to be speculative fiction where nothing is truly “made up”, but rather extrapolated upon, March is a biographical graphic novel that depicts historic events from the Civil Rights Movement. Segregation and Jim Crow laws marked everyday life for African Americans in the US, which sparked the movement in the 1950s and 60s. Lewis was a part of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), an organization promoting non-violent resistance against segregation and racism. March was written as a response to the increase of police brutality and racist violence in the US in 2013. His purpose was to promote the non-violent approach to opposition and perhaps motivate and inspire hope in the younger activists by recalling the past. Lewis is able to use a larger range of devices to depict his unjust world considering his medium of graphic novel, as he can use both visual and literary devices. The visual narrative in March is central in creating and displaying the theme of injustice to the reader. Especially considering that most readers today have learned about the Civil Rights Movement in the US, to have it visualized and depicted directly in the book can highlight the true injustice African Americans experience.

Facial expressions are a key device in articulating the pain and suffering black people and activists endured during this period of the US’ history. There is a low degree of abstraction in the novel, so the facial expressions of the characters are realistic and express emotion. This is effective for essentially all characters in March, as it firstly creates a closer connection between the reader and the main character and narrator, John Lewis. This is because they see his excited and heartfelt facial expressions as a child. To have his joy visualized in this way creates a contrast when it is diminished as he cannot go to school and is faced with racial discrimination and violence. Furthermore, the anger and hatred depicted in the facial expressions of white people, for example when they attack the non-violent activists during a sit-in protest, also contributes to the theme of injustice. As the readers have established a close connection to Lewis and his friends and know they are not causing anyone any harm, to see them be mistreated highlights how unjust this world was. Another visual device with a similar effect is the transitions between frames, where the readers must themselves engage in the process called closure; they must imagine what happens in between the frames. A typical technique Lewis utilizes in March is to depict the moment before a violent moment, but not the violence itself – for example a boot on its way down on a head. While the visualization of emotions can create a closer bond between the reader and the character and highlight further the injustice seen, sometimes the reader’s imagination is more effective than pure depictions of violence. Imagination may go further and create an even more violent reality than what the authors could have depicted in visuals, which makes closure highly effective in communicating the injustice in the 1960s US.

In addition to visual devices, Lewis utilizes language style to articulate the unjust world he depicts in March. The language style in the captions, where Lewis the narrator is speaking, is often more formal and mature than the language in the speech bubbles. This is John Lewis narrating from 2013, after segregation was legally ended. His maturity may greatly contrast the violence and racism depicted in the visuals, which both highlights what he has had to go through as an African American in the US and may instill some hope in the reader. Lewis’ message with March is that non-violent activism is the most moral and effective strategy of resistance and through this strategy oppressed people may be able to navigate out of the injustice they experience. This allows for a more hopeful, supportive tone than the oppressive, dark one seen in The Handmaid’s Tale. Additionally, language is used to connect the different injustices occurring in the US to show that they together accumulate into an unjust world. Parallelism, specifically tricolon, is a device Lewis often utilizes for this purpose, for example when he says: “THE EVIL OF RACISM, THE EVIL OF POVERTY, THE EVIL OF WAR”. Here he connects all three types of injustice so the reader can see the correlation and understand further that non-violent activism is necessary against any form of injustice, not just the one depicted in March. Thus, Lewis spreads his message to a wide audience of different backgrounds.

Lastly, contrast is used in March to depict unjust worlds by comparing the past with the present and the oppressor with the oppressed. As March is written with a frame narrative where Lewis in 2008 tells the story of his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, it allows for easier comparisons between the past and the present. Lewis seems to reassure the reader that it is better now, although minorities still face discrimination in the US. For example, when the phone rings in the 1970s, it is to notify Lewis that someone has bombed his friend’s house because he was resisting oppression, while when it rings in the present day it is at Lewis’ job as a politician. The unjust world of the 1960s and 70s seems more violent in comparison, while the present seems more peaceful and hopeful. Additionally, the contrast between the non-violent activists and the ones oppressing them contributes to the reader’s understanding that this was unjust. When the non-violent activists are positively characterized as reliable, peaceful people, while the oppressors are characterized as angry, hateful and spiteful, it makes it clear to the reader that this is an instance of injustice. This “black and white” split between two groups of people is criticized throughout Lewis’ novel and it makes it clear that segregating races is only harmful and creates injustice within society. Thus, it can be concluded that Lewis’s use of visual devices, language style and contrast allows for the injustice in the 1960s and 70s to be highlighted and understood while simultaneously promoting non-violent activism.

The Handmaid’s Tale and March both depict unjust worlds, however the purpose of these authorial choices are different which creates contrasting effects. The biggest contrast between the two works is that The Handmaid’s Tale follows Offred who currently lives in an unjust world who looks back through retrospective narration on her past life, whereas Lewis is currently safe and retells his past in an unjust world. This creates different tones in the two works which affect the reader’s interpretive process. The Handmaid’s Tale has an oppressive, consuming tone as the reader becomes “trapped” in Offred’s head through her narration, which symbolizes how Offred herself is trapped in her own body and function. The novel feels desperate and essentially makes the reader live in Gilead beside Offred. This is exemplified by the introduction to the novel which is in in media res, so the reader barely knows anything and is left confused to navigate as Offred slowly reveals what has happened to her. This stands in great contrast to March, where the reader knows exactly what the novel depicts and while there is a frame narrative, it is often signaled to the reader what year is depicted. Unlike in Atwood’s work, where it is usually unclear how much time has passed between chapters or moments. March does also begin in media res for a few pages before the spread page with the title with a scene depicting the protest at Edmund Pettus Bridge with its violent backlash from the police. However, even here it becomes quite clear to the reader where the characters are and what is happening to them, which is purposefully not communicated in The Handmaid’s Tale. The effect of this difference between the two works is that they present two different messages to the reader regarding unjust worlds, which also better suit the author’s purpose. Considering The Handmaid’s Tale was written as a warning against society’s tendencies and treatment of women, the overall tone in the novel of despair and suffering makes this warning seem more legitimate and the injustice seem more severe. Whereas in March, the message advocating for non-violent resistance also becomes more trustworthy by the hopeful tone which shows how this strategy has succeeded against unjust worlds in the past. Furthermore, the devices available to Atwood and Lewis, due to the medium of their works, contribute to how they depict unjust worlds differently. Lewis’ ability to utilize visual devices aids in communicating the unjust world in the 1960s, however Atwood is not able to use the same devices. Though, the same effect of utilizing the reader’s imagination either through showing the visual narrative or through the device closure would be helpful for depicting Atwood’s world as well. Thus, she uses imagery extensively instead and invites the reader to imagine the world Offred lives in. Offred is silenced and instead of speaking uses her time to mentally describe what she sees and experiences in detail, often by playing around with language. How she does this differs slightly based on her mental state, she may either methodically list everything, clinically like a scientist, or use metaphors to paint the reader a picture. Either way, it has a similar effect of allowing the reader to see through her eyes and imagine Gilead for themselves. This makes the reader feel closer to Offred and her world and the injustice she experiences may then be taken more seriously. It is evident that the effect of imagery in The Handmaid’s Tale is similar to the effect of facial expressions and closure in March, despite them being different devices and mediums. Though the works are different in nature and message, they may still utilize similar approaches to criticize the unjust worlds they are depicting. This is further seen through the fact that they both use contrasts as a way of depicting the injustice. Here the different purposes of the works are again highlighted through the effect of comparing the past and the present in the two works. This contrast is more hopeful in March, while concerning and perhaps even scary in The Handmaid’s Tale, as the reality of the tendencies in the 1980s becomes more evident. The similarities and differences between the authorial choices and purposes of their works in The Handmaid’s Tale and March are interesting and show how unjust worlds may be presented.

The complexity of injustice is truly highlighted in the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and the graphic novel March by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell. While March is biographical and The Handmaid’s Tale is debated to belong to either the speculative fiction or science fiction genre, both works can be said to be realistic. The tendencies and behaviors presented in both works can be seen around the world even today, especially in the US where the plots of both works are set. Atwood’s warning is thus still prevalent and Lewis’ message may still be relevant postmortem. The Handmaid’s Tale utilizes devices such as first person narrator, symbolism and contrasts to depict the unjust world of Gilead. While March uses its visual narrative with facial expressions and closure, language style and contrasts. Where The Handmaid’s Tale cannot use visual devices to play on the reader’s eyes and imagination, Atwood instead uses imagery to make the reader visualize Gilead. These similarities despite the differences in medium show that authors are able to establish connections with their readers regardless of how the works are written. Furthermore, the largest differences between the work is their purpose and effect, as the authors had different intentions with the works. Atwood’s warning against the 1980s society laid the foundation for how she utilized literary devices and techniques to construct and criticize Gilead, whereas Lewis favored a dramatic, yet hopeful atmosphere to promote non-violent activism against injustice. It is clear the two works both achieved their aims of depicting unjust worlds. In conclusion, the similarities in the ways Atwood and Lewis depicted unjust worlds were their approaches, while the differences were the effects and purposes of these approaches.

Main feedback:

-Add a bit more on the 2013 context: protests against police shootings of unarmed black men in a society where there is still racial inequality. Black Lives Matter established the same year as March was published.

-Add a plot summary at the start.