How Does Margaret Atwood Show Moral Ambiguity?

Words: 978
Pages: 4
Open Document
Moral ambiguity is the lacking of clarity when it comes to making ethical decisions. That is, when a topic, situation, or question has moral implications, but the moral action to take is vague or not clear, either due to conflicting values, ethical beliefs, or situational perspectives. According to Margaret Atwood, author of “When Privacy Is Theft”, the genre of the novel Dave Eggers “The Circle” is as follows, “In genre this novel partakes of the Menippean satire—distinct from social satire in viewing moral defects less as flaws of character than as intellectual perversions. It also incorporates passages of symposium-like Socratic dialogue by which the central character is manipulated, through rational-sounding questions and answers, into performing the increasingly outrageous acts that logic demands of her.” (Margaret Atwood, When Privacy Is Theft). …show more content…
She has to make an overwhelming effort to manage with the social world of the Circle. She then avoids key social events, engages in sexual experiences and relationships she would prefer to be kept a secret, and keeps the pain she is experiencing because of her father's illness private. Mae essentially has to decide if she should abandon the Circle in an attempt to keep everything in her life private, or if she should continue with the Circle and make everything in her life visible to the entire world. This leads into one of the core themes of the book, privacy and the sharing and obtaining of information. Is it morally right to share pictures, videos and information that do not belong to you without the consent of the party in question? Mae seems to think that it is morally okay to do these things, until it comes down to sharing private matters in her own life with millions of
Show More

Related Documents: How Does Margaret Atwood Show Moral Ambiguity?

Summary Of The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

Critics Do’ raises “the question of whether men and women are essentially different because of biology, or are socially constructed as different,” which is, arguably the premise for Margaret Atwood’s novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and Atwood applies this method of thought through her novel. As the text closes Margaret Atwood addresses this question through her two narrators alongside her readers interpretation to display elements of feminist critical thinking. When ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ was published…

Words 1513 - Pages 7