Particicution in the Real World
Warning: contains upsetting content. Read at your own risk.
In The Handmaid's Tale, one of the most disturbing scenes is that of the Particicution, where handmaids are encouraged to tear an accused rapist to death. Such events are reminiscent of lynchings, but with one key difference; as far as I know, lynching were not publicly sanctioned events. And since Margaret Atwood stated that all events that occur in this book are drawn from real world events, I became curious as to whether or not Atwood drew inspiration from other sources.
Although I was unable to find examples of state sanctioned events where humans physically tear apart other humans (comment below if you do), I found another form of public execution that is, if not more, disturbing that the Particicution.
Stoning is a capital punishment where the criminal is buried up to the chest or neck in the ground and people gather around to throw stones at them until they die. A very slow, painful process. And in the sources I have read, stoning is still a legal punishment in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, and various other countries. And unfortunately, in most examples that I have found, women accused of adultery are often the victims of this unnecessarily cruel sentence, and usually it is men that carry out the execution. For this reason, I feel that perhaps Atwood took these instances and flipped it around. For her Particicutions, it is now females that carry out the punishment against a male that is accused of rape.
What do you all think? Or do you think Atwood drew inspiration from elsewhere?
In The Handmaid's Tale, one of the most disturbing scenes is that of the Particicution, where handmaids are encouraged to tear an accused rapist to death. Such events are reminiscent of lynchings, but with one key difference; as far as I know, lynching were not publicly sanctioned events. And since Margaret Atwood stated that all events that occur in this book are drawn from real world events, I became curious as to whether or not Atwood drew inspiration from other sources.
Although I was unable to find examples of state sanctioned events where humans physically tear apart other humans (comment below if you do), I found another form of public execution that is, if not more, disturbing that the Particicution.
Stoning is a capital punishment where the criminal is buried up to the chest or neck in the ground and people gather around to throw stones at them until they die. A very slow, painful process. And in the sources I have read, stoning is still a legal punishment in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, and various other countries. And unfortunately, in most examples that I have found, women accused of adultery are often the victims of this unnecessarily cruel sentence, and usually it is men that carry out the execution. For this reason, I feel that perhaps Atwood took these instances and flipped it around. For her Particicutions, it is now females that carry out the punishment against a male that is accused of rape.
What do you all think? Or do you think Atwood drew inspiration from elsewhere?
I find it fascinating that Atwood decided to flip the gender of the victim because as you pointed out females today are much more likely to die by stoning than males. Maybe Atwood is rightly assigning blame to the perpetrator of the attack/rape or maybe it is because the men are harming a valuable resource of Gilead. Overall, particicution is an absolutely horrible way to die and I think it is very indicative of larger societal problems.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting how the Particicutions are actually based on a historical event because they become more significant in the overall context and theme of the novel. The fact that the roles of the women and men are switched is fascinating because it plays to the larger idea of how important the women, especially fertile ones, are to the society of Gilead. I don't think the Particicutions would have had the same effect in Gilead if it was the men beating up a woman.
ReplyDeleteI believe the Particiculation is another one of Gilead's manipulation schemes. Essentially, Gilead misleads the handmaids into unleashing their pent up feelings onto a single entity (in this case: a suspected rapist), so they ignore the injustices Gilead commits on a regular basis. This idea of misdirected anger has many relevant modern and historic connections to our society. For example (like we learned in U.S. history), the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine was a major political issue preceding the Spanish-American War. At the time, the U.S. government condemned the Spanish for sabotage, justifying their declaration of war and increasing public support during a period of relative isolationism. Controversy arose when an investigation concluded that the sinking was most likely due to the mishandling of magazines within the coal bunker, igniting them and resulting in the explosion and eventual ruin. Although this example does not directly translate to Gilead, the general idea of a federal power using their position to mislead their subjects into believing/supporting a cause is what Atwood wishes to warn us about with the Particiculation.
ReplyDeleteTaken literally, the tearing apart of a person reminds me of quartering which was pretty horrendous. However. I think stoning sounds a bit more true to Margaret Atwood. Particularly, because both require a high level of involvement from the average person. I think the point of flipping it from male to female goes right along the lines of The Handmaid Tales theme of general oppression of women more than anything else I could find online.
ReplyDeleteI think that Atwood might have been trying to distance the Republic of Gilead from our past societies by flipping the role of man and woman in this scene. In addition, she might just be trying to educate her audience and show how our society used to treat women. Either way, I do find it interesting that she chose this, but I don't think it holds that much significance.
ReplyDeleteI think it's possible Atwood is trying to use punishments as a commentary on the society as a whole. In a country where we often use injections and other more humane forms of lethal punishment, a regression to stoning is emblematic of the regression of the society as a whole. Further (and somebody can correct me if I'm wrong), I believe stoning is mentioned at one point in the Bible too, which means Atwood could also hypothetically be providing commentary on religion.
ReplyDeleteIt is funny that you should mention stonings, because stonings occur in the Television Program. However, I'm not sure that I agree that Stoning is more painful. When you are stoned, a single stone could knock you out, whereas in a particicutions, the body is being ripped apart which could take absolutely forever since it is a challenging activity.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting that Atwood took everything from some type of real life event. It made me constantly think when I was reading the book, "where did this come from?" or "I wonder which time period this came from." I liked how she took real life events but twisted them into something different for the book, to get the reader thinking about this new society.
ReplyDeleteI defininately see how Atwood may have been drawing inspiration from this type of punishment. As someone mentioned earlier in the comments, I do think that its quite interesting that Atwood swtiched the victim's gender by having women be the attackers. I think that she might have done this to showcase the degree of cruality that the Republic of Gilead makes women subject to. That all said, great connections supported by your research!
ReplyDeleteGosh the stonings sound brutal. I'm surprised that this form of capital punishment still exists. In Gilead, I think the particicutions - at least the one where everyone is beating up the alleged rapist - serves another purpose. It can be used to vent the frustrations that handmaids might have. But for stonings, I wonder if the same effect is served.
ReplyDeleteI think Atwood certainly drew inspiration from historical events, such as the brutal stonings you mentioned. Similarly, I think all of the dystopias we've read about have gained some sort of inspirtation from history itself.
ReplyDeleteAtwood definitely got a lot of her ideas for the book from historical events. However, I never would have thought the Particicutions were relevant to the practice of stoning. This is a very interesting observation. I think it also shows the more serious, underlying corruptions of their society. The government realizes that what they are doing is morally wrong, so they encourage this horrific act of violence as a way for the Handmaids to let out their anguish that is a result of the treatment they face everyday. It is twisted and revolting, and I think that this is what is the most disturbing of all
ReplyDeleteI agree with Amina on this one. Though I would not be surprised, it seems unlikely that the Particicutions were based off of stoning, since only three governments that you have mentioned have ever sentenced somebody to be stoned to death (though some people do partake in "honor killings", which is a whole different story.)
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