Aspen Reid

Pace
AP English IV
30 November 2014

Fate and Free Will: Cloud Atlas vs. The Handmaid's Tale
fate versus free will is a common theme between The Handmaid's Tale and Cloud Atlas.
The Handmaid's Tale written by Margaret Atwood shows the fate of an entire population while
Cloud Atlas written David Mitchell shows both the fate and free will of a few people. Atwood's
novel uses restriction and points the blow at women, but Mitchell's novel portrays how the fate
of one person or people affects the fate of a future person or people. The concept of fate and free
will is comparable by governments, the use of gender roles, relationships, and historical
happenings.
In The Handmaid's Tale a new government controls everyone's fate, but in Cloud Atlas
the government plays a role in the fate of only a few of the characters. Gilead, in The
Handmaid's Tale, id s government where everyone is divided into certain jobs. The women of the
government have their fate picked for them, specifically the handmaids who are to have the
children of their commander or be declared an unwoman and assigned to be the wife of a total
stranger. In Cloud Atlas however, the government doesn't really change the fate of anyone
greatly. It does play a role in the fate of Sonmi-451, who was sentenced to be executed for her
knowledge gained outside of what was programmed for her to know, but she doesn't have much
on the side of free will anyway as she is a synthetic human, so she is programmed to be a certain
way. Both novels have governments that affect the fate of their characters in different ways.

The use of gender roles plays a part in the fate versus free will concept of both novels. In
Cloud Atlas, men and women are not totally equal, but both are respected and even though men
are mostly in charge of making sure the family is fed, they are essentially equals in other senses.
To contrast, men in The Handmaid's Tale have all of the power. They have stripped women of
their rights to read and write and forbid them to speak out of turn. Their government has turned
the fate of women into that which is solely to serve men.
Gilead, in The Handmaid's Tale, is a place where people are not permitted to fall in love
or date while in Cloud Atlas, they are free to do these things as they please. In Gilead, the sole
purpose of women is to reproduce for whoever they are assigned to. Those who can't have other
jobs, but none of them are permitted to have a significant other unless assigned to one after being
declared an unwoman. The characters in Cloud Atlas, however can choose to have relationships
if they so choose to. For instance: Robert Frobisher's lover is Rufus Sixsmith, but he sleeps with
his boss's wife and falls in love with her daughter. His fate is in the clouds and he never knows
what to expect.
Both Cloud Atlas and The Handmaid's Tale use historical happenings to convey their
points as well as aid in getting across the concept of fate and free will. Cloud Atlas starts out in
the eighteen hundreds with slavery and the fact that Ewing helps out a stowaway slave instills his
fate in that the slave will one day help him somehow, perhaps to save his life. In The Handmaid's
Tale, history repeats itself. They bring back handmaids and women are once again at the bottom
of the power ladder.
As many similarities as these two stories have, they are still very unique. The Handmaid's
Tale predicts a future where fertility is low and thus the government has taken precautions to
attempt solving this issue. However, Cloud Atlas shows a future with synthetic humans and

technological advances. Both novels use the concept of fate versus free will in similar ways
while still remaining individual stories based in dystopian worlds.