How are the protagonists' challenges presented in 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale, as they face denial of freedom and individuality by a totalitarian...

George Orwell's 1984 and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale are both set in dystopian future worlds in which the protagonists and the rest of their societies are controlled by the government. The novels establish the oppressive worlds in which Winston and Offred live and trace their attempts to rebel against the totalitarian regimes.

In 1984, Big Brother represents the government, and the future London in which Winston lives is covered with signs reminding the...

George Orwell's 1984 and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale are both set in dystopian future worlds in which the protagonists and the rest of their societies are controlled by the government. The novels establish the oppressive worlds in which Winston and Offred live and trace their attempts to rebel against the totalitarian regimes.

In 1984, Big Brother represents the government, and the future London in which Winston lives is covered with signs reminding the citizens "Big Brother is Watching." The society is under constant surveillance. Every house has a telescreen that broadcasts compulsory exercises and watches and listens to citizens' private lives. The Thought Police even capture citizens for having rebellious thoughts. Eventually, Winston starts recording his thoughts in a journal, which is an act of rebellion, and starts a relationship Julia. They are both rebels, though Winston wants to take the revolution further than Julia does. Eventually, they are arrested and tortured at the Ministry of Love until Winston betrays Julia and declares his love for Big Brother. The novel shows that the oppressive society has broken Wilson, and by extension, rebellion is hopeless in this society.

The Handmaid's Tale depicts a dystopian future in which a religious oligarchy rules the Republic of Gilead. Women's bodies are controlled, as they are assigned roles like handmaids, who are the women in the society who bear children for the upper class citizens. A nonspecific plague has resulted in an extremely low birth rate; the government uses religious rhetoric to justify its oppression of women and extremely conservative guidelines for individual behavior. Offred begins an illicit affair with Nick and begins to quietly rebel against her position. At the end of the novel, she gets in a van, and we are unclear whether she is escaping, as her friend Moira once did, or being arrested. The ending is ambiguous, but as in 1984, it's possible that she is also punished severely for her attempted rebellion. The novel does allow us to hope that Offred fled Gilead, though. 

Both novels depict their protagonists' oppression and attempts at rebellion in dystopian societies that deprive them of the individual freedoms we may take for granted in our everyday lives. Thus, the novels serve as warnings of what could happen if we allow our rulers to gain too much power.