Atwood defamiliarizes the world into Gilliead in order to enhance the threat of the backlash in which Gilliead has become the hyperbolic result of. The backlash is a strong threat to those who do not see it coming, i.e. Offred; however, Faludi intends on informing the world why the backlash should be concerning. The backlash is made up of chimeras which are internalized into human history which cause it to go undetected and permit it to break women’s roles back into their ancestral parts. It intends on breaking women down to their most basic functions, but Faludi wrote in Backlash that it's more complicated than that: “The ‘Man Shortage’ and the ‘infertility epidemic’ are not the price of liberation; in fact, they do not even exist. But…show more content… The whole premise of the Gilliead is based off of the backlash succeeding in completely wiping out all feminist motives and returning them to their ancestral state. Inside and outside of The Handmaid’s Tale the most basic role of women is to reproduce, characterized by Atwood as a handmaid. Atwood’s description of the Handmaid’s including their training and clothing create the image of what the most basic role looks like. It is a look of fully clothed, script speaking, and fertile women. This look to some degree agree with the mother’s views in which support the feminist movement going on in Faludi’s world. The mother agrees in the sense of dress being clothed but not to the degree of Atwood. More generally, the whole excuse the government uses in the novel to why they have made this world called Gillied is due to the Infertility epidemic. They want everyone to believe that their is a fertility issue and to solve this for the human race, they need to control the population. This epidemic is a chimera as Faludi calls it. It does not actually exist but is there for people to see as an answer. It is after the birthing ceremony that Offred finally realizes what the society has become and how it relates to her mother’s preachings: “Mother, I think. Wherever you may be. Can you hear me? You wanted a women’s culture. Well, now there is one. It isn’t what you meant, but it exists. Be thankful for small mercies”(Atwood 127). The society as Offred states is a “women’s culture” but very unlike the one the feminist group is fighting for. The “small mercies” are granted from the backlash that it spared some sort of women culture. It stripped away their rights and freedoms, but put forth a new culture that was based on women. Also in the present world of Gilliead the mother is sent to the
