HANDMAID'S TALE

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HANDMAID'S TALE
DYSTOPIAN LITERATURE
MARGARET ATWOOD
FIRST PUBLISHED: 1985

The story is about a woman Offred, who lives in a dystopian age. The population is shrinking due to a toxic environment, and the ability to have viable babies is at a premium. (In today’s real world, studies are now showing a sharp fertility decline in Chinese men.) Under totalitarianism, the ruling class monopolizes valuable things, so the elite of the regime arrange to have fertile females assigned to them as Handmaids. This name Offred is composed of a man’s first name, “Fred,” and a prefix denoting “belonging to”. Within this name is concealed another possibility: “offered,” denoting a religious offering or a victim offered for sacrifice. Offred’s real name is not revealed; probably because she represents the multitude and also, it doesn’t really matter. 

 The Handmaids are forced by the Aunts to join in what is called the “slut-shaming” of one of their members who is being made to recount how she was gang-raped as a teenager. Her fault, she led them on — that is the chant of the other Handmaids. Yes, women will gang up on other women. Yes, they will accuse others to keep themselves off the hook. Yes, they will gladly take positions of power over other women, even — and, possibly, especially — in systems in which women as a whole have scant power. 

 The Handmaid's tale has been translated into more than 40 different languages. It was made into a film in 1990. It has been an opera, and also a ballet. It has been turned into a graphic novel. And finally in April 2017, it became an MGM/HULU television series. Its sequel, The Testament was published in 2019.

 Is the book a “feminist” novel? If you mean a tract in which all women are angels and/or victimized they are incapable of moral choice, no. If you mean a novel in which women are human beings and are interesting and important, and what happens to them is crucial to the theme, structure and plot of the book, then yes. Atwood, however, is careful not to portray women simply as victims. 
Is it anti-religious? A group of authoritarian men seize control and attempt to restore an extreme version of the patriarchy, in which women are forbidden to have any control. In the real world today, some religious groups are leading movements for the protection of vulnerable groups. The book is not “anti-religion.” It is just against the use of religion as a front for tyranny; which is a different thing altogether. 

 There’s a literary form I haven’t mentioned yet: the literature of witness. Offred records her story as best she can; then she hides it, trusting that it may be discovered later, by someone who is free to understand it and share it. This is an act of hope: Every recorded story implies a future reader. There are two reading audiences for Offred’s account: the one at the end of the book, at an academic conference in the future, and the individual reader of the book at any given time.  

 Last but not the least, Handmaid’s tale is my personal favorite. There is no sense of hope from the beginning, yet one hopes for some silver lining. The book is open ended and hence is open to the reader’s imagination. A great read indeed and a must on every book lover’s shelf. 

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