2020 IB Extended Essays

The dictatorship that exists in God Dies by the Nile contrasts the authoritarianism that is present in The Handmaid’s Tale , in that the oppression of women occurs in an authoritarianism government through the indoctrination of the society, whereas in God Dies by the Nile the persecution is due to fear and tyranny of the Mayor. There is an aura of hopelessness and a constant fear of the dictatorship in God Dies by the Nile that is not as evident in The Handmaid’s Tale . This bleakness is vital to the novel as an agent of change as El-Saadawi is aware that shock and atrocity is needed to catalyse change as the oppression of women is deeply imbedded in her culture. The story of Kafr-El-Teen is the common broader reality of many villages and thus a blunt and uncensored portrayed is required for the novel to effectively act as an agent of change. Whereas within The Handmaid’s Tale Atwood considers her own audience - her message of warning must be slightly more delicate to initiate the cultural revolution she wants as she does not want her warning to be disregarded as outlandish and horrific by western readers who do not see extreme forms of oppression in daily life. 4.0 The portrayal of sex and marriage Sex being used as an instrument of power against women is a central theme within in God Dies by the Nile and The Handmaid’s Tale . After the Gileadean puritan revolution, the women were indoctrinated to bear children for the elite of the theocratic government to ensure the survival of humanity. Within Gilead, we see a black and white perception of sex. Sexual acts are only positively portrayed when it is for procreation. The bodies and sexuality of females became the property of the state and are merely a tool of surrogacy. As a result, Offred dissociates herself from her own body, remarking how “[her] flesh arranges itself differently. Where she used to see “[her] body as an instrument” ( p80 ) and an extension of herself, herself no longer matters and her body is only important because of its womb. Her body has been used and dominated so many times that she no longer recognises it as her own, but merely something that she is “congealed around” like a cloud

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