Introduction The destructive aspects of totalitarian regimes attracted the attention of many writers during the Cold War era. One of the main issues that they explored was the state oppression of an individual who could eventually become alienated and dehumanized. Such themes as loneliness, control, and confinement occupy a prominent place in the novels and short stories of many authors. This essay will discuss two works that eloquently illustrate the dangers of totalitarianism, namely, the novel The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood (1998) and the book of poetry The Country Between Us by Carolyn Forché (1982). There are several similarities between these two works. First of all, Margaret Atwood and Carolyn Forché show that the totalitarian states want to suppress people’s voices in order to make them isolated, confined and easily controlled. Furthermore, these writers show how the value of love, friendship and human life in general can decline because of people’s solitude and alienation. However, there is a significant difference between these literary works. The Handmaid’s Tale is a construction of a dystopian society that might have never existed; to some degree it is a warning to the readers who should be aware of such dangers as sexism, religious intolerance, and religious intolerance. In her turn Carolyn Forché focuses on the real experiences of people in El Salvador whose suffering went unnoticed for a very long time. More importantly, these descriptions can be more chilling than the imaginary world created by any writer who depicts a dystopian society. These are the main issues that should be discussed in this paper. Similarities between The Country Between Us and The Handmaid’s Tale It is possible to distinguish several themes that play an important role in these books. One of them is the acceptance of cruelty, violence, and injustice. They are no longer regarded as something outrageous or at least unacceptable. Margaret Atwood and Carolyn Forché show that people, who live in totalitarian regimes, become accustomed to the cruel behavior of the state and its injustice. This issue is eloquently illustrated by Margaret Atwood (1998). In particular, the author describes a scene when Ofglen and Offred see the bodies of people who have been hung because of their alleged treason. However, one of the characters says, “This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary” (Atwood, 1998, p. 33). Such a sentence can be uttered only by a person who often witnesses such horrible events. He/she eventually gets used to this cruelty of the government. Similar atrocities have been described by Carolyn Forché who explores the experiences of people living in El Salvador. In this case, close attention should be paid to the poem called The Colonel . In this part of her book, the author refers to the man who carries a sack filled with “many human ears” and he does not even try to hide them (Forché, 1982, p. 17). The author describes this horrible behavior in a very nonchalant way in order to emphasize that totalitarian regimes can turn cruelty into a norm or something can be tolerated. On the whole, this behavior occurs in those situations when people feel no attachment