Topic Proposal for Essay 3

How some people are more susceptible to the power of suggestion and brainwashing when placed in a cult environment and others are not?

The topic I would like to research for Atwood’s book is brainwashing and cults. I have always found it fascinating the power of suggestion and the human mind. This topic will help me understand how some women in the Red Center were easily trained into what the Aunt’s were teaching and how others were not so easily broken.

I will be researching modern day cults and some of the brainwashing techniques that have occurred in WWII. I have never understood how people can go from being raised with one set of values and then be turned 180 to another set. Some of the cults and brainwashing experiments I have heard of can produce some scary results. Much like Ofred in this story, she was a grown woman with a family. She was placed in a cult when the government drastically changed and over time began to behave much differently than she would have in her other life. I think that researching this topic will help me understand Ofred and her situation in this story better.