Margaret Atwood The Handsmaid Tale: chap. 11

In chapter 11 of The Handmaid Tale by Margaret Atwood, The speaker is answering a question about bearing children. She says "Give me children or else I die. There is more than one meaning to it.". In this dystopia woman are thought to be disposable things that are only needed for the womb. Women in this society can not read, hold high positions in government or household, or think for themselves. The only objective is to produce a family. This is why women in this society hold a great fear when it comes to having children. When a woman is found to be barren, they are not women and sent away to rot and die. This is this woman's fear. Also on a historic term, children are thought to be little symbols of hope for their parents or the generation before them. In slavery, the slaves tend to have a bunch of children in hopes to have them make a change and rebel against the previous social image. The children they have may be their only hope. Also in other countries families have children, boys in particular, to bring them out of poverty. Boys work hard and bring the wealth back to the family. Since in this society male is the primary importance that is probably why child barring is truly important. There are a lot of factors that tie into why woman want to have babies in dystopias, but just the simply sense of survival is why woman want to be able to give a child at any given time.