Could This Be The Future?? (Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood)

Member Name: jools30

Product:	Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Date:	12/02/02 (747 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Thought-provoking, Well written

Disadvantages: Not an easy read

Imagine a world where women are allowed no possessions or no money of their own. Where their name is taken from them and, instead, they are known only as a possession of the man whose child they are to bear.

Some men living in the Dark Ages may find this quite a good idea, but I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that as a woman I would find this situation unbearable.

Yet this is the world that we are introduced to in ‘The Handmaids Tale’. The story is told through the eyes of Offred – we do not know her given name, only the name of her master (of Fred). Offred is a national resource – in the time when women had rights she had a child. Therefore she has viable ovaries and according to the state she must now act as a surrogate for the barren wife of her master.

Offred tells us of her current situation – her lack of freedom, the clothes she must wear which signal her out as a handmaiden and the rituals which she is subjected to every month in the hope that she may conceive a child. Her situation is dire – she is only allowed out of the house to meet other handmaidens and is given very little knowledge of what is going on in the outside world. Her spirit has been broken – hers is no longer a life, it is merely an existence.

As she tells her story, she often drifts back to times before. In particular, a time when she was in love and had her own child and her own friends. She also flicks back to the time when she was incarcerated in an institution that taught women how to be handmaidens. This is where her spirit was broken – her only joy was illicit talks with her friend Moira, but those ended when Moira managed to escape and Offred was left with nothing.

For women in the Republic of Gilead (for this is where Offred’s tale occurs), there are few options. If you have viable ovaries, you become a handmaiden. Those women who are not considered worthy of being a handm
aiden may become Marthas - these are basically servants. There are the wives – important women married to the Masters, but even they do not have much of a life. And if they are barren (as many are) they are subjected to seeing their husbands trying to impregnate a handmaiden in order that they may claim the child as their own. And then there are the unwomen – those who cannot have children or who have been politically active in the past – they are sent to the colonies to clear up the exposed radiation and suffer a horrible death.

Those who dissent against the regime (men and women) are either hanged and left for everyone to see at the Wall, or sent to the colonies to await a lingering death from radiation sickness. You sense that despite being seen as the superior gender, even the men don’t have an easy time.

From the start of the book, you are plunged straight into confusion – there is no gentle introduction to life in Gilead. Instead Offred’s narrative begins and the story follows her thought process – never continuing in the same direction for long; constantly going backwards and forwards. So from the beginning there is some confusion about what is going on. For me, it took several chapters before I could understand what was going on and I think this mirrors how Offred would have felt on being plunged into her new life – confusion followed by a slow dawning of the reality of the situation.

I did not find this an easy book to read. The continual changes in location and time make it a difficult book to follow, however in some way they do create the feeling of erratic behaviour and disbelief that would have occurred at the time.

Even at the end of Offred’s tale, I still felt that there was a lot left unsaid. The ending is abrupt and although it is partly explained in the Historical Notes that follow, those Notes also ask as many questions as they answer.

As I said, I
found this a difficult book to read, although I am glad I have read it. I wouldn’t call it an enjoyable book – it is far too depressing for that – but it is certainly a thought-provoking book. When you realise just where in the modern world Gilead has emerged as a republic, it does surprise you (well, it did me!) I think that a second read would be beneficial as I am sure I would pick up on a lot more next time round.

Highly recommended but not a relaxing read.

Atwood is a Canadian by birth and still lives there. The Handmaid’s Tale was first published in 1985 and was shortlisted for the Booker prize.

ISBN – 0-86068-866-6

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