Teacher Guide

The Heart Goes Last Lesson Plan

Introduction to The Heart Goes Last

Margaret Atwood's The Heart Goes Last is a dystopian novel about a desperate couple who sign away their freedom in exchange for the safety and comfort offered by an experimental walled community. Published in 2015, The Heart Goes Last is a darkly comic novel that explores themes of exploitation, human rights, greed, and manipulation. With the totalitarian Consilience/Positron project, Atwood satirizes the American prison-industrial complex, which critics have compared to modern-day slavery.

The Heart Goes Last continues Atwood's exploration of dystopian worlds in the form of speculative fiction, a term she coined to differentiate her work from science fiction. Her other works of...

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