Unwomen, Colonies & Giving Away Offred's Daughter
English Lit: Edexcel A Level The Handmaid's Tale, topic 4.5.4
Unwomen, Colonies and Giving Away Offred's Daughter
The Unwomen and the Colonies reference Soviet Union prisoners. The giving away of Offred’s daughter to another family references the Indian Adoption Project.
Unwomen and the Colonies
- In the 1970s, the Soviet Union made prisoners work in uranium mines to collect enough of the chemical element to develop their arsenal of atomic weapons. Many prisoners who worked in these mines died.
- In The Handmaid's Tale, it is suggested that the Unwomen try to clear the land of nuclear waste. As a result, their life expectancy is about three months.
The Indian Adoption Project
- The Child Welfare League of America of 1958 developed what they called “The Indian Adoption Project”. This was the widespread kidnapping and relocating of Native Indian children to white, middle-class American families.
- They were motivated by the ideology that the children were being neglected by not being brought up with ‘American Values’.
- The children were taken by the government, along with the help of churches, and given to more ‘deserving’ families.
Test yourself on Unwomen, Colonies & Giving Away Offred's Daughter
Why do the Unwomen have life expectancies of around three months?
What was the ideology driving the Indian Adoption Project in America?