Throughout history, many governments, political figures, religious groups and other organizations have used language to influence the population of each geographical area. Understanding this language and how it can be used not only to influence decisions ranging from simple choices like what to eat for dinner to life-changing choices like who should be president can help understand major social structures like as economy, religion, education and political classes. Understanding how the same language can be used to remove basic constitutional rights while convincing the general population that this is best for them or will keep them safe can prevent this from happening in “real life.” In Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, religious, political, and legal language was used to transform a relatively normal society, similar to that of any town or city in the United States, into a patriarchal, puritanical, socialist society where fertility was a commodity and women were few in number. more than slaves, rich men ruled everything and poor men led the battles. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay One of the most fundamental uses of language is communication. If an individual cannot communicate, they become lost in a dark and gloomy place where nothing makes sense. In fact, some would say that true language is what separates humans from the rest of the animals. Thinkers such as Blake and Lacan have gone further and argue that language not only gives us the ability to think, but also the ability to create (Wiggins). Every man, woman and child perceives the world around them through a special filter called perception. The trick is to filter these perceptions and find the true meaning of the chosen language. This is exactly what deconstructionists do. They sift through language in literature and examine the original meaning of words, changes in usage over time, and the perception created by the context in which the words are used (Tompkins, Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism Post- Structuralism, Deconstruction, Postmodernism (1955-present)). In short, they study changes in denotation and connotation in written language and use their results to analyze literature and find its deeper meaning. People use language to communicate their perceptions of the world around them. In a way, it is a form of creation because what one person perceives will not be the same as what the next person perceives. Writers are the ultimate creators, according to Blake and Lacan, because they use language not only to demonstrate their perceptions of the existing world around them, but also to create new worlds within the existing world (Wiggins). If this concept is true for writers, think for a moment about those who are the ultimate writers. These are the people who use language to change our perception of the world around us. They are the advertisers, the politicians, the lawyers, the ministers or the priests – those who can make us believe that up is down and black is white. What could any charismatic leader do with a few well-chosen words? Well, Hitler started a world war, OJ Simpson marched, Abraham Lincoln freed slaves – the list goes on. The fact is, people will live or die based on a few well-chosen words. In Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, this is exactly whatwhich was done. The language was used to convince a fairly large population that small losses of freedoms they had always lived with were good things in light of civil unrest, so that when large losses were implemented, they would not put them back. not really in question. This was achieved subtly and brilliantly over a period of time, so that the initial outrage at a loss faded and, when that loss became the accepted norm, another was put in place. Once the major reforms were put in place, language was used to control the population, because essentially, to convince them that the new society was the right society, to convince them that it was the safest and most effective way. natural to live. The most notable change in this society was that people became commodities. For some reason, environmental changes in Gilead (Atwood's name for the company in question) have made it increasingly difficult to conceive, and birth defects in the offspring of those who could conceive became more widespread. So anyone who could have a normal, healthy child became valuable. While it might seem like it would affect women more than men (women design and wear, after all), that wasn't the case. Men were just as obligated as women to participate in the attempt to conceive. Fertility was the real commodity, it turned out that fertility resided in people. For women, fertility meant becoming property in the truest sense of the word. A fertile woman was rented to families who could afford it, but who could not have children themselves. This woman was used to conceive, carry and breastfeed a child to a certain extent. Once the child was seen to be healthy, it was given to the wealthy couple to raise as their own and the woman would go to another couple to start again. Language played an important role in convincing these women that it was their duty to accept this as a norm. Ironically, it was a cross between biblical language and political language that was used to do this. “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” (Atwood) was a misquotation of a biblical reference and something Karl Marx said in his “Critique of the Gotha Program”. It was used to emphasize what a socialist point of view was that everyone should give to the entire society according to, in this case, their abilities. This was a socialist view in that Marx, who borrowed it from the French socialist Louis Jean Joseph Charles Blanc, believed that ability was the real commodity and that people should use their abilities for the benefit of the whole of society. society rather than just themselves (Marx). . However, it was also biblical. The actual Bible quote reads: “each according to his ability” Acts 11:29. It was in reference to a group of people under siege that the disciples of Jesus provided assistance, as they were able to give. Again, this concept refers to giving what you can to those in need. Thus, language is used to create a class of people who are commodities, just as slaves were in our own history. Of course, the same language could also have been used to influence the class structure of those who could not conceive. Gilead had a military system of government. The rulers were the upper class, those who could afford to educate themselves. The lower or uneducated class became foot soldiers. Of course, he does notIt was all about men. Women ruled over nothing other than the other women in their household. If ability is used to denote a place in society, then it makes sense that those who are more educated would occupy positions of power. This is historically comparable to military service from the beginning. The upper class, those with money, could purchase rank in any army in the early history of military service. Even in modern military history, there is a form of classism. Those who are wealthy can go to college or university and enter military service as officers – without having to spend years as an “infantryman.” Those who are not wealthy or who cannot go to college for whatever reason enter the lower ranks and are at higher risk. Indeed, as one upper-middle-class woman pointed out, “people like us don't have kids in the military” (Daly). Language is used here to position men according to their rank in society. The men in power, those mentioned by Atwood, were "commanders" and the foot soldiers were "angels" and "guardians of the faith." The angels are the soldiers, the guards are the police and the odd jobs. Of course, some men from the lower classes took up domestic service – Nick, who looked after and drove the commander's car is one example – and some became spies for the government called “eyes,” but for the most part all the reader sees is the military hierarchy of commanders, guardians, and angels. The women of Gilead have been reduced to one of five classes, all but one of which are not allowed to read or write. Aunts are the only women in this society allowed to read or write because they must report and educate the rest of society as to their place in it (Atwood). These are the teachers, the educators, those responsible for re-educating those who must be brought to conform to the new norms of society. The upper class women are simply wives, they are married to the commanders. Lower class women who have husbands are called “thrifty women” who have to do everything in the household (Atwood). Women who belong to a lower class, but are not married, become “Marthas”. The Marthas work in the commanders' houses. These are the servants, the servants and the cooks. Their name derives from the name of Lazarus' sister who served Jesus (The Holy Bible ESV), implying that such service to commanders and their wives is akin to the service of Jesus. Fertile women are called "handmaids" (Atwood) in biblical reference to women who wash the feet of the Lord's servants (The Holy Bible ESV). These women do not really belong to a higher or lower class, but to a class of their own. They are respected because they provide children for upper-class families, but they have no rights. They are even stripped of their name and called by a name that reflects who they are serving, such as "Offred" who was the servant belonging to Fred's (Atwood) household. Of course, in any social structure there are those who protest. the changes. These are usually disenfranchised people, people who don't fit into the social structure as well as we would like. In Gilead, as in all societies, these were people who did not fit what was considered the norm. These people were given a general name – not a name that described them as a person, but a name that made them less than a person so that it.