Thoughts on A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale is one of those books that I had always planned on reading, but had not yet gotten around to.  I picked it up at a book sale somewhere quite some time ago.  It must have been in my old town or somewhere near where I grew up because the name written in  the inside of it is an old friend's older sister.  Recently after reading an editorial on the decline in women's rights due to recent decisions like the Hobby Lobby decision by the Supreme Court, I began feeling like maybe I would have need for my vintage style "Votes for Women" button.  Sure we were given the vote 95 years ago, but who is to say these rights won't be taken away?  Lately it seems like as our country has started rightfully granting more and more rights and recognition to all types of relationships, our laws and our courts have become more restrictive on "women's issues" like birth control.  One of my friends commented that it was going to be like The Handmaid's Tale here in the good old U.S. of A. within the next five years. So I decided it was time for me to sit down and read the book.

First off, there were a couple things I noticed.  I always have at least one book with me at all times. People are used to seeing me with a book.  Having this one, however, caused people to actually comment on the book I was reading.  Sometimes the comment was just "Hey, I read that" and nothing more.  Other times it elicited a more empassioned response "I really HATED that book".  

Whatever the person's feeling was on the book, good, bad or indifferent, the book evokes some type of response.  Even for this reason alone, The Handmaid's Tale is a success because it starts a conversation.

I find myself now trying to decide where to start discussing the book.  Do I speak about the style of writing?  How it being written in the first person and seeing the world from the handmaid's point of view we aren't given a clear idea of where or when this takes place.

This is important.  Because we need to realize that it can happen here and now.

Do I write about how the handmaid herself, a woman who seems pretty regular--not very empowered, not into rocking the boat, had a fairly normal life prior to the new order, with a slight moral casualness about her (although nothing too severe...she did after all marry Luke and didn't remain just his mistress). 

This is important also.  Because we need to realize that it can happen to any one of us.

Do I address the fact that we don't even know the Handmaid's name?  That the only name we have for her is the name given to her in her capacity of handmaid--Offred, meaning she was a handmaid of Fred's.

This is important as well.  Because we need to realize that she can be any one of us.

We are taken into a world where women are judged based on the viability of their ovaries and used essentially as breeders while other women regulate them.  I found this incredibly scary because of how much truth I saw in this vision.  How many times have we judged other women based on their looks or their jobs or their level of promiscuity?  So many times we want to separate ourselves--show why we should get special treatment--be seen differently.  We shouldn't be lumped in with THEM.  We are prettier than THEY are. We are smarter than THEY are. How many men has she slept with? So many times we tear each other apart when we should be helping build each other up.  By participating in these attempts to destroy the many types, styles, and beauty that make up women,  allow ourselves to become disenfranchised.  In Atwoods world, we see women continuing this society made by men by punishing other women from non compliance.  The men are clearly the ones making the rules, but women control so much of what is going on.  Again, this is something that happens all the time.  Those with privilege want to keep it.  They are afraid that the power they have will be taken away from them.  They fail to see how empowering others could help them as well.

Continuing on that idea, often times, we don't even see that we were a part of it until afterwards--after the fear of losing what we have has passed...which is why the end part "Historical Notes on A Handmaid's Tale" was by far the scariest part of the book.  This final chapter is quite a time after, when A Handmaid's Tale has been found (in tape form, and a machine had to be made to play the tapes).  The Symposium studying the older civilization is doing so with the impartiality of historians discussing an earlier time.  There are speakers talking about the story, who "Fred" might have been.  Most likely where the handmaid was.  They were looking at the evidence in a dispassionate way.  After all, how can they judge as they don't know everything that was going on then?  It was also interesting to note how the handmaid described what was happening with the decline of births, the contaminated things that seemed to be making people sterile, was different from what the Symposium discussed as being the cause.  The Symposium's discussion on the birth decline seemed to attribute far more insidious and racist reasons behind the overhaul.

Because of being with the handmaid and her story for the entire narrative before the few pages at the end, because we are part of that history, not part of this future time looking back at it, the ending seems that much more disturbing.  We find out that the regime started to get women into line by freezing bank accounts and forcing the firing of women that met a certain profile.  We see that although some people did try to get out of the country, there were many people who ratted out those trying to leave.  We see the classic case of those who did not meet the profile as closing their eyes and figuring things would just get better.  Or maybe the fear that something could happen to them kept them from speaking out against what was happening.

We can look at this book and read it as a piece of fiction.  We can say that it cannot happen.   But when we still have to petition and actually SAY that both boys and girls deserve equal education opportunities, how far away are we really from the state barring women from learning to read?  When we have a Congressional birth control hearing comprised entirely of men, how far away are we really from the government telling all women what we can and cannot do with our ovaries? 

I love that this book opens up a dialogue and makes us see not only what we need to stand up against, but also makes us see the importance of having the courage to stand up for not only ourselves, but for others as well.

I highly recommend reading this book.  Here, I will even provide you with a link. You can purchase The Handmaid's Tale from Barnes and Noble  here