Savagely Speaking

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a thrilling and dark literary classic. As a novel, it has depth, vivid imagery and it covers issues that are very relevant to this day. But, as most of you may know by now, Hulu has recently released web series based on Atwood’s classic. I recently read both the book and watched the full series – the effects of which I posted on my own blog – and I can safely say that the series are an accurate representation of the original novel, even though there were some chronological changes to the story. After a short review, I’ll be assessing and comparing both the series and the novel – so as so decide which is better for different audiences. The Handmaid’s Tale , I found, is a very heavy novel to read – especially if you struggle with similar issues as stated in the story. It describes a dystopian world where the human population has become mostly infertile so that many women – usually those have “sinned” – are gathered up like cattle and used ...

There’s no doubting that   Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland   by Lewis Carroll is a masterfully-written piece of literature. And while much of it describes an erratic world filled with imbalances and nonsensicalities, Carroll brings a number of universal issues to light through the use of extended and prosaic metaphor. Such issues include the struggle to find identity, internal growth, integration and equality, the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in terms of society, change in circumstance, several mental health issues – and so many, many others. Some of these issues are depicted through narrative, others are embodied by certain characters. The issue of domestic abuse in  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland  is brought up in a short passage in a chapter called  Pig and Pepper , and is embodied in the character known as the Duchess. At the beginning of the chapter, Alice is greeted by a footman and a Fish-Footman, who declares outside the abode of the Duchess that she ...