The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood

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• ISBN13: 9780385490818
• Condition: New
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Book Reviews of The Handmaid's Tale

Book Review: "EYES" on America
Summary: 4 Stars

The Handmaid's Tale, By Margaret Atwood, focuses on the life of the handmaid, Offred. Offred lives in a futuristic, male-dominated, religious society (reminiscent of Orwell's 1984) where sterility is common. The handmaids are women with healthy ovaries who are rotated through wealthy households, with the goal being a child for the wealthy couple to raise. Offred tells her story directly to the reader focusing on her life in the past, with her husband and child, and her life in the present, in the household with her "Commander" and his wife. This book explores many themes, including religion, totalitarian government, gender roles and sexuality. Overall this book very effectively conveys these themes and I found it very well written.

Margaret Atwood uses many techniques to achieve the ultimate message found in this book. First, Atwood draws the reader into the life of the main character Offred. Offred is a character that most women can relate to. Before the revolution that toppled government as we know it, Offred was a young mother who had recently married. She was an average American woman. When the government is overthrown by the religious group known as the "Eyes," she loses the freedoms she had always taken for granted. Atwood this novel in the style of a recorded diary, the reader is pulled into the story because of the sense of urgency created. "I must be telling it to someone. You don't tell a story only to yourself. There's always someone else" (40).
Another way the Atwood makes this book exciting is through her writing style. The author uses short chapters and mixes memories in with the current action, creating a present plot and a past plot. This shows that the main character was denied any personal time in which she could have made a formal diary. Some of the writing is also a stream-of-conscious style that helps to show the pain that Offred goes through to recount some of her horrible memories. "In Hope. Why did they put that above a dead person? Was it the corpse hoping, or those still alive?" (106). The writing style effectively captures the emotions of a person deprived of all freedom. The characterization of Offred overall conveys Atwood's themes of male-domination and the effect it has on the victims.
Secondly, the author effectively draws parallels between the society Offred lives in and the society of modern America. Americans gained rights during the twentieth century through the civil rights movement and through the efforts of feminist activists. The society in the book represents a backlash on those ideas. The men who run the government (called the "Eyes") are against everything gained in these movements. "It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned Congess and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on Islamic fanatics, at the time" (174). The "Eyes" can also be seen as a representation of the "religious right" which is currently gaining support in modern America. There are many people in this country, who, like the government in this book, believe that morals should be enforced through law.
Thirdly, Atwood also uses these societal parallels to attack certain aspects of American society that could ultimately lead to the type of backlash that occurred in the book. One of the problems that the author identifies is credit. Offred describes that in the time before the overthrow of the American government, everyone had stopped using paper money. Everything was paid for on credit. "I guess that's how they were able to do it, in the way they did, all at once, without anyone knowing beforehand. If there had still been portable money, it would have been more difficult" (174). By identifying problems that the reader can relate to, this book stays engaging and conveys the themes of religion and government (and their connections).
Although this book is written very realistically, there are a couple of points that Atwood has glossed over. For example, when she describes the takeover of the government, Atwood does not go into the detail that is expected when compared to the other subjects that she covers in detail. The reason may be that how the government was overthrown is not really the issue; it is what happens afterward that is vital to the book. Still, including the description of the takeover in more detail could have brought up more points supporting her themes including the government and the religious fanatics who end up in power.
Altogether, this book achieves the ultimate goal in literature. It effectively conveys the author's opinions on the themes that she chose to include and keeps the reader's interest at the same time. Atwood does this through her use of characters and the fictional society that she creates. This society is an extreme backlash to the freedoms we enjoy today. This book leaves the reader feeling scared for their own future.

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