Big Brother, can you stop watching now please? (The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood)

Member Name: Mildew82

Product:	The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Date:	09/10/09 (137 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Plausible and chilling view of a dystopian future

Disadvantages: A streaming narrative that can be easy to lose track of

Written in 1985 by Margaret Atwood, a Canadian author and poet also famous for being a feminist and political activist, The Handmaid's Tale is a chilling view of a dystopian future, that whilst being purely science fiction is scarily not beyond the realms of possibility.

Atwood has received much acclaim for her work - in 1966 and 1985 she won the Governor General's Award for English language fiction, in 1987 she won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for The Handmaid's Tale and she won the Booker Prize in 2000.


The History
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Before the Handmaid's Tale can be told it is necessary to understand the dynamics of this new dystopian world.

America was beginning to buckle under the weight of extreme social problems from increasingly barren lands to increasing infertility in women blamed upon pollution and toxic dumps the president is killed and the rest of congress wiped out in a seeming terrorist attack. America is thrown into turmoil and falls "temporarily" under military control with civil liberties gradually and almost unnoticeably being removed.

But events prove that this terrorist attack was actually planned by a military coup hell-bent on completely restructuring the social order of things, but by then the ball was rolling and stopping this revolution was nigh on impossible. Dissenters would be punished - by death if necessary or sent to the Colonies - an area for agriculture which is highly toxic and will result in a slow and painful death.

So, in the not too distant future the United States of America is now the Republic of Gilead and is controlled by the Commanders of the Faithful - the highest status - that follow a dictatorial regime with extreme racial, political and patriarchal views and implement a caste system, identified by coloured clothing.

The order of men in this caste system is then as follows:

* The Commanders, the leaders of the military coup that seized control
* The Eyes, an intelligence agency to catch any violators of the rules
* The Angels, soldiers that protect the borders of Gilead - they wear green uniforms
* Guardians of the Faith, lesser soldiers that are too stupid or do not have the ability to be Angels
* Gender Traitors, homosexuals who are either executed or cast out to the Colonies

The hierarchy for women is as follows:

* The Commanders Wives, they wear blue dresses or black if they are widowed
* Daughters, they wear white until they are married
* Handmaids, they wear red dresses and have a white head-dress to obscure their peripheral vision so they cannot see the world...and any potential temptation. They are effectively concubines to the infertile Commander couples designed purely to breed for them. They are formed from fertile women that have broken social laws (ever increasing laws proportionate to the need for procreation)and have been re-educated as part of their "rehabilitation" for this purpose.
* Aunts, they wear brown and are older, infertile women given the responsibility of training and managing the Handmaids - a job they accept to avoid being sent to the Colonies
*Marthas, they wear green and are infertile women who have domestic skills which makes them perfect for domestic servitude
* Econowives, married to low-ranking men and wear a mixture of blue, red or green to reflect their role as either a wife, a child-bearer or performing domestic duties

Those women that cannot perform any of these roles - known as Unwomen - are sent to the Colonies as are Handmaids that fail to produce offspring after three attempts with different couples. Worst still, there are Unbabies aka Shredders which are all the babies that are disposed of due to displaying deformities.

The scene should now be set...


The Plot
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So here we are, in a world caught in the first transitional stage towards a "better" future we are given snippets of the new way of life through the eyes of a Handmaid named Offred (derived from her Commander i.e. of Fred). Through her disjointed narration we feel the full force of the fear and oppression the people of a lower status are subjected to, and the horrific struggle to keep everything hidden inside - one little slip up and you would be taken away in a black van never to be seen again.

This tale is one of a gradual, but highly dangerous rebellion by having both an illicit relationship with her Commander and an Eye called Nick whilst weaving a picture of the new and scary society. Offred, separated from her husband and young daughter probably forever, has become numb to her surroundings after many years of servitude, but slowly and subtly things begin to change....


My Thoughts
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As scary views of totalitarianism go, The Handmaid's Tales for me ranks right up there with Orwell's 1984. The brilliantly constructed dystopia that Atwood has created is both intricate and chillingly plausible despite the science fiction elements to the story.

We are naturally given a biased view since we are solely dependent on the narrator Offred, but there is no feeling of an unreliable narrator here. The story for as long as it goes on has no censors - we hear the good along with the bad, which gives a constant flow of changing emotions throughout the entire tale, with some truly funny moments contrasted with a shocking loss of human rights which keeps you gripped until the final page.

There seem to be three natural timelines occurring in this story woven seamlessly together - the past before the military coup seized control, Offred's time during retraining and the present. Despite the disjointed style of writing this story does flow, almost as if it were a stream of consciousness with triggers to evoke old memories which made the story seem more real somehow.

There is very little dialogue here with conversations being retold rather than lived and a lot of vivid descriptions and so the text in each chapter is divided into fairly sizeable chunks which does make it harder to read if you're a bit of a skimmer like me - I had to force myself to slow down to take in all the detail but it was worth it for such a compelling read.


So, in conclusion, The Handmaid's Tale is a fantastically woven story depicting a genuinely scary view of a future that is actually not as inconceivable as we'd probably all like to believe given the Big Brother state we find ourselves in now. If you are a fan of Orwell's 1984, or any dystopian fiction in general this novel is well worth reading.

Summary: A scary view of a grim future told through a brilliantly woven story