Canadian writer, literary critic, teacher, environmental activist and inventor Margaret Atwood wrote the book The Handmaid’s Tale, originally published in hardback in 1985. “The book, set in New England in the near future, posits a Christian fundamentalist theocratic regime in the former United States that arose as a response to a fertility crisis,” as quoted from the Encyclopædia Britannica.
Offred, the primary protagonist responding to the world around her, narrates The Handmaid’s Tale in a manner that alternates between her present life and memories of her past. The memories frequently include added commentary and explanation that offers context and depth to what she discerns and how she, Offred, makes sense of the world that she inhabits. The world is one where a military coup killed the president and most members of the United States congress, leaving a country that became the Republic of Gilead.
The book picks up from a point shortly after this change to a dystopian republic, with the freedoms, decision-making and autonomy of women systematically curtailed in cruel and demeaning ways. The novel works to humanize how this would feel, and the ghastly and corrupting damage to women and society that experiencing this firsthand can have, should the worldview come to pass.
In addition to severely curtailing women’s freedoms in the name of male control, the novel also addresses assigning women to various classes. The classes included “childless Wives of the Commanders; the housekeeping Marthas; and the reproductive Handmaids, who turn their offspring over to the Wives and are called by the names of their assigned Commanders. Ranked under the Commanders are Guardians, who have police powers, and the society is permeated with government spies called Eyes. Those who cannot conform are sent to the Colonies,” as correctly mentioned by this Encyclopedia Brittanica reference. Further, African Americans (presumably as children of Noah‘s son Ham from the Bible), were additionally resettled.
The depth of the story that follows the framework above addressed tortuous household conditions regarding reproduction, life with Offred’s commander, Fred, grocery shopping with Ofglen, a handmaid to a separate commander, sightings of executed prisoners left hung in public, beastly reproductive rituals, and an odd interpersonal attempt to connect between Fred and Offred that adds depth to the narrative value for how stilted and repressive life really becomes in this world based in the not-to-distant future.
The premise of The Handmaid’s Tale is interesting. The narrative being primarily firsthand aids the engagement of the tale, with the message a timely one given political realities of the United States currently. That the narrative of this book expresses a fear for what lies behind much of what fuels the underlying disagreements about the decision-making in play is presented in an understandable and forthright manner. I rate The Handmaid’s Tale as written by Margaret Atwood at 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Matt – Monday, May 23, 2022
Matt Lynn Digital 