The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is a frighteningly credible, if somewhat tongue-in-cheek, novel of a possible future America. Replete with biblical references and peppered with traumatic glimpses of the underlying cruelty of the despotic regime of Gilead, the novel presents the effect of the utter subjugation of women on one victim, known only to the reader as Offred (indicating that she is the Handmaid of "Fred," whom she calls the Commander). While Atwood's style and her choice of setting place the novel in the genre of science fiction, The Handmaid's Tale is more effective as a satirical and pseudo-prophetic novel of dystopia, in the vein of George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm, and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Like the authors of those novels, who, like Atwood, chose a potential future centered around an omnipresent and repressive government, Atwood incorporates grim derivations of some of the more disturbing governmental trends of this century with the personal experiences of those caught in the grasp of dehumanized autocracy. Examples which come to mind include the increasing pressure to abolish the Constitutional barrier between church and state, the recent failure of the women's movement to establish legally mand
ated rights to equality, the growing schism between adherents of science and technology and those who fear the power and responsibility such advances create, and the growing sense of individual isolation from the collective of society - a phenomenon that has been on the rise for nearly a century. Her greatest challenge throughout the novel is to maintain a sense of self-identity. The long hours of boredom, the loathsome ritual of coupling with her master, the lack of social interaction with others save for a shopping partner, and the justified paranoia of being caught or framed for some illegal activity, all persistently threaten her individuality. There are many times when she battles with the desire to maintain, for examples, memories of her earlier life with Luke and her daughter, and the temptation to forget it all and let herself slide numbingly into the full acceptance of her role. My reaction to this novel is one of trepidation. While the misuse of women certainly takes center stage, the callous and self-righteous movement behind the rise of Gilead clearly brutalizes both sexes. Offred and Ofglen several times see the executed bodies of "criminals" displayed on the wall as a warning to the population. Some of the men they see hanging there are former physicians who performed abortions, a priest, and homosexuals. Even the Commander eventually is executed during a sweep of government officials involved in subversive acts - he is evidently arrested for his collection of pre-Gilead women's magazines and lingerie. Blacks and Jews are forced into exile, other religions are considered heretical. It is enjoyably ironic that Gilead has to combat, among other factions, "Baptist guerillas." In the real United States, there are factions of Baptists represented by some of the more vocal proponents of governmental adoption of traditional biblical morality. Undeniably, the novel's greatest power stems from its portrayal of the governmentally-imposed role of one woman. Stripped of her increasingly limited autonomy by the fact that she married a divorcee, bore a child with him, and then attempted to escape Gilead illegally, Offred is consigned to the role of a Handmaiden, the concept of which is taken from the biblical myth of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel. (Rachel gives Jacob her handmaid to impregnate when she is unable to conceive.) Handmaids are women who are programmed through an extensive regimen to become nothing more than baby-making instruments. They are afforded no pleasures save those for which the government can find a use, such as Women's Sa
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Approximate Word count = 1729
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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