1984 + Brave New World = unoriginal book (Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood)

Member Name: Murf!

Product:	Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Date:	24/08/01 (537 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting twist on the genre, immensely readable

Disadvantages: Overly dramatic, draws on BNW and 1984 too much

I suppose there's two ways at looking at this title. Either you could see the 'influences' of the book as making it a rather tired rip-off, or you could say that it helps it - both Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World are classics, and drawing on them could help The Handmaid's Tale.

I just think it's a rip off though.

From Brave New World, Atwood plunders the caste system. BNW had society segregated into five colour-coded roles, labelled alpha, beta, gamma, delta and, surprisingly, epsilon (bet you didn't expect that). All were genetically engineered for their purpose; with the hyper-intelligent alphas in powerful positions, and the braindead epsilons doing the cleaning work for the society - as they're genetically engineered to be stupid, they don't know to complain. In The Handmaid's Tale, fertility has dropped to a level so low that women have become a national resource, treated like cattle. Many women - the handmaids - are allowed one function: to breed. Their 'commanders' routinely attempt to impregnate them. The handmaids are controlled by the 'aunts', who have permission to do as they will with the handmaids, short of killing them. The strangely titled 'angels' are the police, who are rather trigger-happy, and finally, there's the 1984 'inspired' 'Eyes', who are Thought Police. All of these are colour-coded à la BNW.

From 1984 comes the total state control. The handmaids are granted no freedom; even casual conversation and gestures must be carefully executed. Put a foot wrong, and The Eyes will be after you. It absolutely stinks of Big Brother - Winston Smith of 1984 even mentions that the posters of Big Brother are designed to look like the eyes are watching you from wherever you see it.

Atwood has a rather annoying habit of attempting to end EVERY paragraph with a killer line of some kind, which gets really annoying after a while. This see
ms rather forced, to me. There are some original aspects to the book - it has a religious slant, for instance. The oppressive totalitarian state happens to be fundimentalist Christian, and abortionists, non-Christians, blasphemers, adulterers and loads of other interesting people are hung for their 'crimes'. I'm not sure whether Atwood actually dislikes religion, perhaps the novel is an illustration of Karl Marx's theory that religion is a method of control, or maybe it simply is a protest against religious folk using their beliefs to justify terrible regimes such as this.

As a whole, it's an interesting twist on the dystopian future theme, but no more. It just doesn't compare to 1984 or BNW.

Summary: