Gilead's Language System in Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale"

The Handmaid's Tale, a dystopian futuristic novel by Margaret Atwood recounts the story of a totalitarian state, Gilead, which endorses the dehumanization of women with the excuse of effacing all scurrilous events and resolving a catastrophic problem of waning population rates. Gilead's tyrannical power lies in its ability to reduce multiplicity of thought in its subjects by banning all types of reading and writing, and reducing the daily vocabulary to a number of "politically-correct" assertions. …

…meaning both in executing its power and in spotting dissenters - a very basic, non-abstract system but highly psychological and perfidious. The use of language is essential to the functioning to the system, and the adaptation of Gilead's subjects is only a matter of time. As Aunt Lydia says, "Ordinary, [...] is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary." (pg. 34)