The Civil Unrest Of The Handmaid s Tale The Sons Of...

Amidst the civil unrest that occurred prior to the beginning of The Handmaid’s Tale, the â€Å"Sons of Jacobâ€Å" were able to establish their theocratic society by executing insidious machinations calculated to control the United States, and thereafter successfully turning it into Gilead. The Sons of Jacob employed several schemes in carrying out their theocracy over Gilead, a substantial part of which shall be discussed in this paper. Perhaps the most important act of the regime in gaining control of the society is the prohibition of reading by most women. They practically blocked the access towards literacy, which the majority enjoyed in the once-democratic United States of America. From this, it was clear that the new regime was more†¦show more content†¦The answer to the above stated question may seem to be hard, but a careful perusal to the history of Gilead would reveal that the change brought about by the Sons of Jacob was gradual and calculated. It was not done overnight. The terrorist attack brought about panic among the populace. The dazed public, with no leader to govern them, was puzzled at the current state of things and needed equilibrium to restore their respective inner peace. This power vacuum served as the cue for the Sons of Jacob to come in. Their cunning circumvented the wisdom of the public and covered under to veil of â€Å"restoring peace† to America. The population were of course more than willing to benefit from the help being offered by these Christians. The Sons of Jacob were religious in stature, so majority of people believed them, and not to mention the additional motivation of drawing power from them in the time of crisis. With the euphoria of being saviours from such a tragic state, the group was able to slowly exercise control towards the populace by first suspending the power of the Constitution, taking away the right to read (for some), setting a caste system for everyone to follow, among others. Again, the heavy inf luence of language in society can be seen here since the vessel in proper execution of the multifarious plans of the new leaders had something to do with language (in