“The most common way people give up their power is to think they have none” -Alice Walker. What this quote really means is that people are hopeless and don't realize what they could do. They only focus on what will happen next and their safety, but they do not realize that they are giving up their power to the government, leaving them powerless. Margaret Atwood examines power and people's attempts to control each other. People in Gilead are viewed based on their social classes. This includes Handmaids, Wives, Commanders, Aunts, Angles, Eyes, Marthas, and Stewards. Either they have the power in their hands, or they don't have it at all. In The Handmaids Tale, Gilead the dystopian state is the reason for all the misery and abuse of power. In the book, narrator Offred explains how Gilead came to be. Gilead was created because of the low birth rate, mass killing of congress and president, and pollution from radioactivity and toxic waste. From there, social classes were created to determine people's roles in society. The Handmaids are used to bear children for the Commanders, while the Wives are under the Handmaid, and the action of sexual intercourse takes place. The Commanders are the highest ranking men of Gilead, and their Wives are considered sterile, which is where the use of Handmaids comes into play. The narrator Offred is a Handmaid and explains how she feels "erased" and how she is helpless and becomes suicidal. In the pre-Gilead period, women's rights were abolished and given to the closest male member of the family. This is where Offred feels helpless because her husband Luke wanted to make love that night when the law for women was passed, but she refuses...... middle of paper...... and Offred they are having sex and she is under Offred, she has a wave of jealousy and sadness inside her. The reason she reacted is because she can't reproduce, she can't have sex with her husband, and she does the same act a couple of times a month. She starts yelling at Offred to leave after the Commander finishes his job with Offred, and Serena Joy is seen to be furious. This shows that she is powerful when it comes to making her husband have an affair with another woman. The people in The Handmaids Tale are powerless in their society, forcing them to give up their power and knowledge. Gilead has created a state where only specific people gain power, which creates a corruption of power. The power creates misery and paranoia for the people in Gilead. In Gilead, people had their freedom taken away, subsequently creating a totalitarian state.