Quote from Handmaid's Tale - "....they believed the new reports that Islamic terrorists were responsible"

[GoldenBear]

Okay, so this book was pretty boring in the beginnings, but now I get to the part where they discuss how the American society was overthrown for the new Gilead society.

And if you haven't read it yet, here's a clip from Sparknotes:

"The entire population was much too complacent. After the president and Congress were assassinated, they believed the new reports that Islamic terrorists were responsible. The revolutionaries played upon the racist fears of Americans to calm their anxieties. People welcomed the Identipasses and other "security measures." While they were thinking about safety and security, their civil rights were being taken from them. Atwood clearly wishes to point out the dangers of trusting authority too much."

Not only that, our project for this is to show how the book ties in with real life.

=-O

 

[Vincent]

I didn't think any portion of the book was boring. The possibility that our society could turn out that way held my attention throughout. The details the novel reveals about the extent of the inequality were so astonishing that I kept wondering if it could get any worse. This book is one of my favorites.

 

[GoldenBear]

Eh, I guess the radical notion that society would change by that amount was just a bit out of the realms of believability for me.

 

[tcsenter]

<< Eh, I guess the radical notion that society would change by that amount was just a bit out of the realms of believability for me. >>

People are people, even Americans, and they are vulnerable to psychological exploitation. Look at marketing in the U.S., if marketing wasn't successful do you think BILLIONS would be spent annually? Marketing companies employ psychologists and psychoanalysts to determine what makes people 'tick', where they 'live' (emotionally or psychologically), their loyalties, what they identify with, and then capitalize from that information. It works, sadly.

Add some destabilization, fear, anxiety, etc, and you'll have them all but eating out of your hands.

 

[GoldenBear]

Well, if that's not enough, then how about the complete assassination of congress?

That's a heck of a lot of bullets..and no military response? Can that be explained?