The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood
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Book Reviews of The Handmaid's Tale
Book Review: Alarming and engaging
Summary: 4 Stars
Alarmed by trends in attitudes towards women in the mid 20th century, Atwood took action by writing the dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale, in which popular beliefs about females are extended to their logical conclusions. The result is entirely alarming. Atwood successfully constructs an alternate, though, honestly, not impossible, universe, an unsettling world that, when read by the current generation of free, independent-minded people, seems a striking opposite of the current world. Atwood's novel is illuminating, as the author uses syntactical strategies to their fullest effect to establish a desperate, dreary mood, weaving a tale that, though not flawless, remains a blend of masterful writing and subtle cautioning.
The plot of The Handmaid's Tale needs no explanation. A prospective reader only needs to know the basics; that, in the book, women are viewed as possessions, that the government is a dictatorial theocracy, and that absolutely everything is tightly controlled. Easy enough to understand with one read, most of The Handmaid's Tale is completely engaging, partly due to the flagrantly extreme principles of the newly established government. A reader cannot help but move quickly through the book, soaking in the alarming changes that initially seem far-fetched, but later feel eerily familiar. Though generally simple and easy to understand, Atwood's plot is in no way straightforward; instead, the author unifies varying plot threads to create a jumbled narration that successfully enforces the disorientation most readers feel when reading the story. Unfortunately, this structure is one of the main flaws of The Handmaid's Tale. It is true that this form stresses both the narrator's and the reader's disjointedness, but it also makes the novel less engaging and more confusing. Ultimately, the structure, which features skips between several different plotlines at random moments, lessens the merits of the book's intriguing plot and simple language. Also undeveloped and ambiguous are the characters, who are difficult to connect with. The narrator, a handmaid, often seems distant- other characters are equally puzzling, lacking sophistication. Most are undeveloped to the point that a reader fails to care about them and simply rides on the waves of plot to move through the book.
Unexpected, rapid, and engaging, The Handmaid's Tale frequently deals out shocking pieces of information. It strongly impacts any reader, both intellectually and emotionally. When finished with a book, nobody can help but question the format of society presented- is such a government really so unfeasible, the direction in which our society is moving? Does a separation between church and state really have more advantages than disadvantages? The great thing about this book is its ability to urge readers to question society. Of course, the book is also wildly successful in provoking a response of several clashing feelings. Sympathy, disgust, shock, relief- the story shifts quickly in and out of these emotions, with great success. Note, however, that this book is not ideal for a cozy nightly read. It demands a reader who is ready to delve into a dark, disturbing tale that is almost incessantly depressing. Understand that this book will incite an array of emotions and prompt a large collection of questions. It really is stimulating.
Atwood clearly has a talent for syntax; every sentence evokes a certain mood, and every device serves to enhance the story. The syntax is simply masterful; as Offred, the narrator Handmaid, begins her tale, her descriptions are robotic and uniform. She simply lists elements in her surroundings, drawing out all hints of emotion. As she progresses into her narration, however, her sentences turn into beautifully spun descriptions that reveal even slight nuances in her mood or surroundings. Everywhere in the book, examples of elegant and revealing syntax appear. When describing her own body, for instance, Offred imagines herself as "a cloud, congealed around a central object ... inside it is a space, huge as the sky at night and dark and curved like that.... Pinpoints of light swell, sparkle, burst and shrivel within it, countless as stars." While the plot is incredibly successful in capturing the attention of a reader, it is Atwood's style, I think, that truly makes the novel a masterful literary accomplishment.
The Handmaid's Tale is not an idle tale. It absolutely requires a willingness and effort to engage, a readiness to feel a strike of feelings for a sustained amount of time. The book is excellent in plot and style, truly intellectually and emotionally stimulating.
Book Review: A CALL FOR FEMALE EMPOWERMENT
Summary: 5 Stars
In her novel, The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood effectively portrays a woman's struggle to retain her power.
The Handmaid's Tale describes a future in which a radical religious sect-the Sons of Jacob-has overthrown the United States government. A backlash to blasé attitudes regarding sex, this group aimed to cease the objectification of women, but only succeeded in creating a new form of objectification. The Sons of Jacob formed a caste society in which women must either "`fulfill their biological destinies'" (220) or be declared "Unwomen" (10).
The novel is told from Offred's-a Handmaid's- perspective. The regime forced her from her life of freedom to become a Handmaid-"a chalice" (286). Offred, like many women today, is too scared and unsure to defend herself. Readers easily identify with this character and cannot help but internalize Atwood's message of empowerment. The Handmaid's Tale drives home the theme of women's power with mastery.
The novel is intended for women. It is told from a woman's perspective and details horrors of sexism. Atwood stretches modern antifeminist thoughts to their haunting conclusions-urging women to take a proactive stance against sexism now, before it's too late. The book's fervent message is a response to growing antifeminist attitudes in the 1980's when feminists were accused of wrecking the traditional home. Atwood wrote The Handmaid's Tale to illustrate the chilling impact of the antifeminist sentiments that women belonged at home and men are more powerful than women. These attitudes are stretched to become "`But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence'" (221) and "`she shall be saved by childbearing'" (221). The author was also influenced by the American Puritans' conservative values and the Iranian monotheocracy during the 70's and 80's. She takes these values and draws them to their logical conclusions.
The book's feminist message carries through the plot, which focuses on Offred's empowerment. After being imprisoned, stripped of her name, and sent to an elite household to bear children, Offred's spirit is shattered. She is utterly powerless against the new regime, which forces her to submit to objectification or die. Every month, Offred and the Commander must perform "The Ceremony" (93)-a sexual act that reiterates Offred's loss of sexual power, as there is no choice, intimacy, or love involved. The Commander asks Offred to meet with him secretly to play Scrabble and to talk. As women are forbidden to read or write, and the meetings are kept secret from his wife, this lends Offred a small power. Later, the Commander dresses Offred like a whore and brings her to Jezebel's, a brothel for elite men, for "`just another crummy power trip'" (243). At the end of the novel, Offred must either assert herself, or fall back "into the darkness" (295) of her powerless state within society.
I fell in love with this book on two levels-as a woman and as a reader. Atwood's fervent message of female empowerment humbled me. Previously, I regarded books like Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God as feminist. Atwood's satirical take on the matter, however, coupled with the narrator's relatable personality gave The Handmaid's Tale much more impact. Unlike Hurston's novel, this book is not clean-cut or uplifting. Its messy and despondent nature renders this tale's message more powerful. Women who read this book cannot take it lightly, but are forced to confront their own way of life. Atwood achieves her intended goal-to make the reader question and, therefore, empower herself.
The questions raised by Atwood added to the imagination stimulant this novel provides. Atwood's distopian world intrigued me. The Handmaid's world is wholly imaginative, with a few connections to modern American society that ground it in reality. This odd blend of fantasy and reality forms a plausibly extrapolated distopia. Atwood's spare style enriches this world. She uses short, simple sentences such as, "I don't need to smoke this cigarette" (209), to create an austere and distant tone.
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is intellectually, emotionally, and imaginatively stimulating. She effectively urges women to recognize and demonstrate their own power. Atwood's work speaks for feminists everywhere when it states: "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum...`Don't let the bastards grind you down'" (186).
Book Review: The Feminist's Brave New World
Summary: 4 Stars
This book has often been compared to 1984, but this is rather erroneous as it lacks the epic, soul-searing and unforgettable grandeur of Orwell's work.
Nevertheless, this book is one of the finest dystopic fictions I've come across. The prose is memorable and echoes stream-of-consciousness at times while still able to adhere to a plot structure, an admirable achievement. Easy to read, quickly engrossing, and filled with fascinating insights as could only come from a woman's pen, its heroine is certainly unforgettable in her strength as in her weakness.
Briefly, the tale is narrated in the first person by an unnamed author known only as 'Offred'; in the book's future, those of the narrator's status take their male 'possessor's' name, robbing them of all personality. In an unnamed future, a vague puritanical movement initially led in a cause that claimed to be feminist, a society has formed in which all women have been divided into different classes, supposedly according to a Biblical model (the tale in which Rachel offers Jacob her handmaid (hint, hint) to conceive children in her stead). There are the Wives, clad in blue, chaste, and not permitted to have sex; only those marriages from 'the Time Before' which were first marriages had been allowed to remain. There are Handmaids, wearing red, whose sole purpose is it to bear children, which are then raised by the Wives. Marthas, clad in green, do the household work and general menial duties; Aunts are brutal overseers who train would-be Handmaids; and the Unwomen are those, infertile or too old to conceive, as well as rebels, sent to 'the Colonies' where they act variously as farmers or nuclear waste spillage cleaners.
As the title suggests, this is the tale of a handmaid, in which she depicts her internal struggle to remain sane in the face of dehumanisation, all the while interspersing the events with the story of her past, when she was a free, educated wife and mother. Rediscovering herself, she must learn to survive, but her current 'placing' eventually reveals surprises that demonstrate that human frailty has survived after all. Finding friendship and intimacy in unusual places, Offred finally appears to prepare for resistance against the regime, although the outcome is never clear...
This book is full of warnings against totalitarianism, etc, as this genre generally is; however, its political and social messages are hardly effective at all - it is the personal, human journey of the narrator that will remain. Undeniably feminine in style, it would be wiser to make this compulsory reading, not for its dystopic politics, but for its insights into the female psyche and its ability to convey thought processes authentically.
My major quibbles with this excellent work are inconsistency and a botched ending. The narrator appears suddenly to switch to a completely different style of narration, and the idea of romance presented quickly goes astray, as Offred's partner is a cliched, badly drawn character who has no seeming personality, except for a few glimpses. Also, as previously mentioned, the ending itself is vague - delightfully so, darkly full of promise and the possibility of either perdition or deliverance. This is followed, however, by an epilogue of sorts, written as a lecture given in the even more distant future on this narrative, portrayed as a manuscript found depicting the ancient 'Gileadean society' in which Offred lived. Thoroughly irritating, this almost ruins the impression left by the incredible narrative, and seems tacked on, a last thought to add a further little 'twist'. It robs the novel of a great deal of futuristic momentum, but all this may be overcome by simply missing out this section and ending the work at the narrative's end. I recommend that you do this if you wish to preserve the feel of the novel, and to savour it a little longer.
Despite these minor failings, I thought this a great read - beautiful in style, thought-provoking in plot... Not the best dystopic work, but the only work by the author that ever interested me. Recommended.
Book Review: The gripping tale of a Handmaid.
Summary: 5 Stars
The Handmaid's TaleThe plot of this story begins when the main character is caught by the totalitarian state of Gilead while trying to escape from their control. She is then taken to an institute called the Red Center where other "special" females are also held. This is the start of the rising action in the story. From there, our main character, Kate (later renamed as Offred), goes through a certain type of training or preparation at this Red Center to become a Handmaid. Here Kate learns the ways of this soveriegn state and learns that she is among a selected few who can still "bear the fruit". These women are later sent on assignments to complete their job as "assistants", which in this case, means bear children to those who cannot. This is the law of the Republic of Gilead, which is the setting of this tale. At this setting, the status of both men and women are very distinct. Women hold few roles as either Handmaid's, Aunts (those who train Handmaid's) or Wives (usually Commander's Wives). The other women are mere servants or of lower class. The men are either high- ranking Commanders and Generals, or soldiers and guards. The basis of this government rule is Biblically oriented. This explains the use of Handmaids in this society, and the bizarre manner how this government functions. This then introduces our story's conflict, man vs. society, and our story's theme of freedom. This becomes the main character's ongoing battle, along with identifying herself. Moving along towards our climax, our character, Kate, is sent on her assignment to a new commander's house. Here she faces a new dilemma, the Commander's Wife, Mrs. Serena Joy. The position of a Handmaid is a difficult and awkward one due to the fact that she's forbidden to have relations with anyone besides these commanders. And when they must have relations, which is done preceding a ceremony, the Commander's Wife must also be present, holding the Handmaid in fact, during this session. That is why the role of the Wife is powerful, yet fragile. She is the antagonist of this story, yet without doing any wrong. Continuing towards our climax, our protagonist, Kate, ends up having an affair with the commander of this household. Their innocent meetings of playing board games and reading magazines, which have been banned, go on for quite a while without Serena Joy's knowledge. Thinking up schemes of her own, Serena Joy, sets Offred up (our character's name has been changed by this point) with the commander's escort driver and guard, Nick, in attempt to get Offred pregnant by Nick's seed. Serena does this because she believes the commander may be infertile and she wants a baby already. Offred complies with this set up because she has feelings for Nick, and if she has a baby she would not have to stay there anymore, and her status of a Handmaid would rise. Moreover, being with Nick is the only real relationship she has. The turning point of this story, the climax comes along when Offred realizes she's pregnant with Nick's baby and decides that she wants to keep it for herself. The climax comes also when Serena Joy finds out about Offred and the Commander by her clothing that the Commander gave Offred to wear the night he took her out to Jezebel's, the underground nightclub. The falling action after the climax is when a group of soldiers, called the Eyes, roll up to the Commander's house in a van shortly after Serena found out, and comes for Ofrred. To Offred's surprise, the first soldier through that door was Nick. Thinking she has been betrayed, Offred is hauled away by the Eyes. But for the final twist in this story, Offred soon realizes that the Eyes are not "really" soldiers, but rebels, those who oppose Gilead and it's rule. They actually came to save her, on Nick's request. Our resolution in the end is that Nick helped Offred escape, by being a rebel himself. Beyond that fact, the end is not really clear, but it's contemplated that Offred (Kate) ends up having Nick's child and crosses the boarder into Canada. She then writes this book of her gripping tale, the tale of a Handmaid.
Book Review: Possibilities
Summary: 5 Stars
First, let me establish that The Handmaid's Tale is not a purely or even primarily political book. It has a great deal to say about the difference between the genders, contains beautiful poetic sequences (one can tell it's written by a poet), is well-constructed, deals accurately in powerful emotions, and is intellectually stimulating. To call this book primarily political, or "propaganda" as some have, is to openly display one's prejudices and biases.
I would like to discuss the political side of this book, however, particularly the plausibility of the coup. I'll focus on this because that appears to be the cause for a majority of the dissonance in this book's Amazon reviews.
While this novel's story does seem unlikely, it is far from impossible, and there are several things from Offred's description of the coup that are undeniably similar to recent events, if certainly more extreme. (Beware, spoilers ahead.)
Congress and the President were gunned down, and the catastrophe was blamed on Islamic fanatics. The Constitution was temporarily suspended, Newspapers were censored, and roadblocks began to appear requiring "identipasses." A significant circumstance that helped the coup was that all money was electronic--down to people using credit cards to buy groceries.
A much milder, but still similar, version of this has happened in real life. The real version of the catastrophe (9/11) really was committed by Islamic fanatics (unless you subscribe to conspiracy theories), and this is where the similarity is the weakest. However, many civil liberties have been temporarily suspended by the PATRIOT Act, border security has been tightened, identification is becoming increasingly necessary, nearly all money is now electronic (not as a result of 9/11; neither was the electronic money of The Handmaid's Tale), and while newspapers have not been censored by any means, there does seem to be an attitude among some that the news media is less trustworthy than the government. Incidents such as Newsweek's Guantanamo-Kuran-flushing gaffe, or specifically the reaction to said gaffe, demonstrate this plainly.
It's been claimed by another reviewer that the US Military would never support a theocracy such as Gilead. That's quite debatable. The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, according to a column by Jonathan Chalt, is under the leadership of a "born again" commandant and "a group of like-minded chaplains." "At supposedly nondenominational services," Chalt writes, "the academy's head chaplain has urged cadets to pray for those who didn't attend, and to remind them that 'those not "born again" will burn in the fires of hell.' Younger cadets who skip the prayer services have been hunted down by seniors, who call them 'heathens.' Even the football coach has joined in, putting up a banner in the locker room urging his players to join 'Team Jesus Christ.' Scores of cadets have complained of being harassed and insulted by evangelicals, and a team of visiting chaplains from Yale Divinity School found a shocking level of of religious intolerance on campus." This suggests that some among the military might not be wholly against a real Gilead. The idea of the military gunning down the President and Congress does seem implausible, but said assassinations certainly wouldn't be necessary for a real Gilead. And while the Los Angeles Times, for whom Jonathan Chalt wrote the above column, is considered fairly liberal, the report by the Yale Divinity School is real.
Stepping back to the book itself, it does seem remarkable that Margaret Atwood imagined (I wouldn't quite say "predicted;" it seems more that she's saying they're possible than that they're inevitable) these things in the 1980s.
Again, it is inaccurate to call The Handmaid's Tale a purely or primarily political book. But nearly all of the disagreement in the plethora of reviews of the book appear to be due to political objections, so hopefully this review will help the unsure customer make a decision.