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A review by sr_toliver
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
4.0
These three quotes sum up the entire book for me.
"We lived, as usual, by ignoring. Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it."
"How easy it is to invent a humanity, for anyone at all. What an available temptation."
"Humanity is so adaptable, my mother would say. Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations."
Offred, the narrator of the story, is a handmaid in the dystopian Republic of Gilead, a place where women's rights are almost completely eliminated. Women can no longer own property; women are not allowed to read; women have no control over their reproductive rights. I would say that women have control over what they think, but even that is taken away from many of the women in the story.
The coup that began this anti-woman regime began with the eradication of the governmental system - the president is killed and so are many of the members of Congress, causing a turmoil so great that the people began to accept anything to get some semblance of peace. As part of the new order, women were placed into one of five categories: Wives (women who have only been married once in a church); Marthas (women who take care of the housework who are unfit ); Jezebels (a group of women used specifically for sex); Handmaids (women whose only job is to breed children for the Wives); and Unwomen (those who are sent to do hard labor because of their age or their refusal to convert completely).
Offred (named because she belongs to Fred; thus, Of.. Fred) is a Handmaid, forced into a 'rehabilitation' center after a failed attempt to escape the oppressive society with her husband and daughter. The story begins during her third assignment, where she is expected to have sex with the Commander in order to create a baby that the Commander and his wife, Selena Joy will raise. Offred will be transferred to a new house and be forced to repeat the process. But, when Offred is finally given a chance to rebel, even in a small way, will she take it, or will she continue to live by willfully ignoring what is happening to the people in the society?
What I like about the story is the way the author built the world of Gilead, specifically in reference to colors.
-Handmaids wear red which is a color that can symbolize power and aggression, but it can also be connected to the adulterous Hester Prynne who wore the scarlet letter in Hawthorne's novel. Offred has all of these characteristics, for she discusses the small amounts of power she has and often has dark thoughts about death and killing although she doesn't act upon it. She is also like Hester in that all the handmaids are despised for their jobs. They are the (forced) adulterers because they have sex with the husbands of other women, and they are treated similarly to how Hawthornes' society treated Hester.
-Marthas wear green which is a color that can represent the environment, growth, service, and envy. Cora and Rita, the two Marthas in the story represent these traits. For instance, they are in charge of maintaining the household environment and helping to raise the children birthed by the handmaids. They are in a service position, and there are twinges of jealousy from the Marthas in their conversations with Offred.
-Wives wear blue which could represent peace and coolness, but it can also represent sadness. Selena Joy is supposed to be the rock of the household in a way. Before the coup, she was a supporter of "traditional" womanhood as a way to bring peace to society. She is cool toward the handmaids, but she is also sad because she hates them for their duties. She needs them if she wants to ever have children, but she detests the fact that her marriage has been affected.
I disliked the scatter-brained nature of Offreds comments. There were several times when I had to stop myself and go back to figure out if we were still in the present, or if this was another flashback. I also hated the lack of punctuation which made certain parts of the novel difficult to read initially. Of course, I got used to it, but it took me a lot longer to finish the book because of these interesting stylistic choices.
"We lived, as usual, by ignoring. Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it."
"How easy it is to invent a humanity, for anyone at all. What an available temptation."
"Humanity is so adaptable, my mother would say. Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations."
Offred, the narrator of the story, is a handmaid in the dystopian Republic of Gilead, a place where women's rights are almost completely eliminated. Women can no longer own property; women are not allowed to read; women have no control over their reproductive rights. I would say that women have control over what they think, but even that is taken away from many of the women in the story.
The coup that began this anti-woman regime began with the eradication of the governmental system - the president is killed and so are many of the members of Congress, causing a turmoil so great that the people began to accept anything to get some semblance of peace. As part of the new order, women were placed into one of five categories: Wives (women who have only been married once in a church); Marthas (women who take care of the housework who are unfit ); Jezebels (a group of women used specifically for sex); Handmaids (women whose only job is to breed children for the Wives); and Unwomen (those who are sent to do hard labor because of their age or their refusal to convert completely).
Offred (named because she belongs to Fred; thus, Of.. Fred) is a Handmaid, forced into a 'rehabilitation' center after a failed attempt to escape the oppressive society with her husband and daughter. The story begins during her third assignment, where she is expected to have sex with the Commander in order to create a baby that the Commander and his wife, Selena Joy will raise. Offred will be transferred to a new house and be forced to repeat the process. But, when Offred is finally given a chance to rebel, even in a small way, will she take it, or will she continue to live by willfully ignoring what is happening to the people in the society?
What I like about the story is the way the author built the world of Gilead, specifically in reference to colors.
-Handmaids wear red which is a color that can symbolize power and aggression, but it can also be connected to the adulterous Hester Prynne who wore the scarlet letter in Hawthorne's novel. Offred has all of these characteristics, for she discusses the small amounts of power she has and often has dark thoughts about death and killing although she doesn't act upon it. She is also like Hester in that all the handmaids are despised for their jobs. They are the (forced) adulterers because they have sex with the husbands of other women, and they are treated similarly to how Hawthornes' society treated Hester.
-Marthas wear green which is a color that can represent the environment, growth, service, and envy. Cora and Rita, the two Marthas in the story represent these traits. For instance, they are in charge of maintaining the household environment and helping to raise the children birthed by the handmaids. They are in a service position, and there are twinges of jealousy from the Marthas in their conversations with Offred.
-Wives wear blue which could represent peace and coolness, but it can also represent sadness. Selena Joy is supposed to be the rock of the household in a way. Before the coup, she was a supporter of "traditional" womanhood as a way to bring peace to society. She is cool toward the handmaids, but she is also sad because she hates them for their duties. She needs them if she wants to ever have children, but she detests the fact that her marriage has been affected.
I disliked the scatter-brained nature of Offreds comments. There were several times when I had to stop myself and go back to figure out if we were still in the present, or if this was another flashback. I also hated the lack of punctuation which made certain parts of the novel difficult to read initially. Of course, I got used to it, but it took me a lot longer to finish the book because of these interesting stylistic choices.