The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
(Format used for this read: Audiobook)
Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now…
When the TV series based on this book came out a few years back, I tried to watch it….I made it thru the first episode and I stopped there.
I don’t remember what was happening in the world at large at that time or in my personal life, but it just was too emotionally heavy for me and I could not keep going.
I never picked up the book because I remembered that heaviness and did not want to revisit it.
But….this was the monthly pick for my book club, so here I am.
They always be making me read stuff I do NOT want to read 😆
In this situation though, I was glad they forced me to consume this in it’s entiretry…. it really is an EXTREMELY well written book that has SO MUCH important commentary and messaging.
Although I admit….my anger and frustration at the BS patriarchal society we live in was FLAMING the entire time I was reading.
Because even though this book is fictional, and was written in the mid 1980s, and takes place in the future somewhere….. so much of what is said and the events that transpire I could COMPLETELY see happening in our current society….which is ABSOLUTELY ridiculous AND terrifying.
I went on a whole Google search reading about the author’s intention and ideas in writing this book.
I’m going to share some of her thoughts here:
-When deciding what/how to write the story=
“I would not include anything that human beings had not already done in some other place or time, or for which the technology did not already exist. I did not wish to be accused of dark, twisted inventions, or of misrepresenting the human potential for deplorable behavior. The group-activated hangings, the tearing apart of human beings, the clothing specific to castes and classes, the forced childbearing and the appropriation of the results, the children stolen by regimes and placed for upbringing with high-ranking officials, the forbidding of literacy, the denial of property rights—all had precedents, and many of these were to be found, not in other cultures and religions, but within Western society, and within the “Christian” tradition itself.”
-Explaining the type of society in the book=
“The Handmaid’s Tale has often been called a “feminist dystopia,” but that term is not strictly accurate. In a feminist dystopia pure and simple, all of the men would have greater rights than all of the women. It would be two-layered in structure: top layer men, bottom layer women. But Gilead is the usual kind of dictatorship: shaped like a pyramid, with the powerful of both sexes at the apex, the men generally outranking the women at the same level; then descending levels of power and status with men and women in each, all the way down to the bottom, where the unmarried men must serve in the ranks before being awarded an Econowife.
The Handmaids themselves are a pariah caste within the pyramid: treasured for what they may be able to provide—their fertility—but untouchables otherwise. To possess one is, however, a mark of high status, just as many slaves or a large retinue of servants always has been.
Since the regime operates under the guise of a strict Puritanism, these women are not considered a harem, intended to provide delight as well as children. They are functional rather than decorative”
To say this book had my brain having ALL the deep thoughts while reading this book is a GIANT UNDERSTATEMENT, especially since we are on the verge of another election season (gahhhhhhhh) with lots of policies in place that affect a woman’s right to choose what to do with her own body and her own life.
This is legit a powerful book to say the least, and one that lingers with you long after you finish.
The author wrote a sequel in 2019 that takes place 15 years after the original story…I am really interested to read it and see what the author’s vision is with the characters and the setting.
I was a little confused at the end of this book and am curious to discuss with my fellow book club members….definitely won’t be a boring conversation to say the least!