The Handmaids Tale

Essay Project
Choose one of the topics listed below and write a researched and edited
final essay to be submitted on June 1, 2015.
Select an essay topic that will challenge you and connects with your own
ideas about the novel. You must use at least one additional resource in your
essay and incorporate quotes from this source as well as the novel itself.
Your sources must be properly cited both within the text and at the end of
the essay (MLA style).

Essay Topics:
1. Is Atwoods novel ultimately a feminist work of literature, or does it
offer a critique of feminism?
2. Discuss the various ways in which Atwood uses setting and
environment to highlight Gileads oppression.
3. Discuss the use of religion in the novel. Is it a comfort, a condemning
force or something else?
4. Examine the use of language in the novel. Why does Atwood not
explicitly explain her new words? How is Biblical language used and
why?