From the Bookshelf of Topeka & Shawnee Co. Public Library…

The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)

Margaret Atwood

Start date: January 11, 2010

Finish date: January 11, 2010

Discussion: Literature with Lunch

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May 17, 2014 Maria rated it it was amazing

The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian science fiction novel that takes place in the United States after an extremist Christian group has murdered the POTUS and (all or most of) Congress in order to establish a new, experimental, totalitarian theocratic state called Gilead. In Gilead the men rule, and women are subjugated and assigned to perform specific roles within society primarily based on their fertility status. Margaret Atwood wrote it in the mid 80s and it is frequently banned or challenged ( The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian science fiction novel that takes place in the United States after an extremist Christian group has murdered the POTUS and (all or most of) Congress in order to establish a new, experimental, totalitarian theocratic state called Gilead. In Gilead the men rule, and women are subjugated and assigned to perform specific roles within society primarily based on their fertility status. Margaret Atwood wrote it in the mid 80s and it is frequently banned or challenged (I read it for my Banned Book Club read this month), which is unsurprising, I'm sure there are many people who take issue with Atwood's bleak extrapolation of Christian theology.

The novel is a first person narrative of a Handmaid, Offred, who is assigned to the home of a Commander and his wife, a couple past their childbearing years, in order to bear children for him - if she can. She is made to wear red from head to toe - a symbol of her position in society - and once a month, when she ovulates, there is a Ceremony where she lays between the legs of the Commander's wife while the Commander has sex with her in an attempt to get her pregnant. If she were to become pregnant it is clear to the reader that the child would be given over to Mrs. Commander and Offred would be assigned to a new home to try again.

This is, of course, is an insane way to live.

Atwood uses this story to make a lot of points. For example, it's often ridiculous to follow the literal interpretation of some Bible verses, as in Genesis 30:3: "She said, "Here is my maid Bilhah, go in to her that she may bear on my knees, that through her I too may have children." 4 So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her." In the novel the Ceremony takes place with the Handmaid on the knees of the no longer fertile wife, and when a Handmaid delivers a child it's on this strange birthing stool where the wife is sitting behind and above her, so that the Handmaid is once again on the knees of the wife. The physical situation of the Handmaid between the wife's legs in these scenarios is obviously preposterous, but the emotional displacement it causes during two very intimate human activities (sex and childbirth) is even more absurd. And yet in Gilead everyone is trying to adapt to these new rituals. Which is another of Atwood's points: humans are almost infinitely adaptable. I found myself thinking, "I would never go along with this. I would rather die trying to escape." But would I, really? The instinct to survive is fierce. There are countless examples of human subjugation throughout history - American slavery, the Jewish Holocaust. Humans will put up with a lot in order to keep on living.

And then of course there is her biggest and most obvious point: which is that women are often defined by their degree of usefulness to men. In Gilead women are literally defined by their degree of usefulness to men and given titles like Wife or Handmaid or Martha, and made to wear a uniform that signifies their role.

To avoid spoilers I'll avoid discussing the ending in specific detail, but it is revealed at the close of the novel that the motivation behind this revolt is a decline in human fertility - specifically Caucasian human fertility - due to humanity having totally fucked up the natural environment. Gilead is an insane attempt at trying to fix the fertility problem, but not really the environmental one. Which is just so shortsighted that OF COURSE that's exactly what us stupid humans would do. It's what we're doing right now in continuing to ignore climate change in favor of passing more restrictions against abortion and impediments to birth control. Priorities, it would seem, are important.

At any rate, you should read this. And then you should give it to a high schooler to read. Knowledge is power! ...more

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Jul 06, 2017 Shelly Pedergnana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio-books

I was only in the fifth grade when this book was first published, so I missed the frenzy this book caused when it first hit the shelves. Fast forward 32 Years later, this book shook me to my very bones. I can now understand the hype that has been re-awoken in consideration of feminine issues that have recently surfaced in politics. . I am on the fence as to whether or not I will watch the series. The ending was a little non-gratifying and I doubt that series would do any better.

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