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Summary: Scary to think about.
Review: This book was very thought provoking. How could we live in a world like that with all we know now? A book well worth reading. One of the best books I've read in a while.
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Summary: The Handmaid's Tale: An exquisite book!
Review: Experiencing a world that people can only imagine was a feeling brought forth when experiencing this fine novel. Set in a new world called Gilead (once the US), Margaret Atwood portrays a society run by men, with women as subservient creatures. This novel is a fictional journal of a girl named Offred (pronounced Of-Fred). Offred is a handmaid in Gilead who becomes an unhuman figure of her Commander, Fred. This novel brings insight into what a world would be like if ran by men and left in the hands of men. Most people, including myself, would consider this novel a feminist novel, although, Margaret Atwood contributes numerous other style elements. Incorporated into this novel includes themes of self-knowledge and a presence of gothic imagery of the way the government controls womens lives. In this new society there are classes of women. No longer are women equal. They are divided into the Handmaid's, there purpose is only to create new humans; Martha's, the maid's of the houses; Aunt's, teachers and in charge of Handmaid's; and Wives, they are married to the Commander's and basically sit at home doing nothing. The men also have ranks, yet all of them over-power the women. In this novel, every page thats read wants you wanting more and I can turthfully say that whoever reads this will not want to put the book down. The reader will experience the day to day life of the main character Offred. It's as if you are really there experiencing it. The vivid descriptions of the house she lives in and the way she describes the city paints numerous pictures in the readers mind. In this novel, you will experience different characters, such as Nick, Ofglen, The Wife, and The Commander, which are emanate objects in Offred's life. The descriptions of these characters are wonderfully written. Motifs of flowers and nature make the reader feel comfortable and at home, while the motifs of dark colors and wilting flowers makes the book even more intense, if thats even possible. I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a good reading and likes such books as "Brave New World" or "1984" or even if they enjoy books that show courageous women struggling to live in a twisted world. It is said that Margaret Atwood wrote this book to convey a satirical message of a subservient world where women do not have the right to read, write, vote, hold jobs, or do anything thats commen in our world today. Some might say that this book is patterned after a Puritan world. Although the women have no place but in the home in this novel, they are protected from such evils and the secular world that once was, since anything secular was demolished. A perfect world is what the men in Gilead had hoped to create, did they succeed? Did Offred gain her freedom? Well, i guess you'll just have to read "The Handmaid's Tale" to find out. Happy reading!
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Summary: Thankfully it's only words
Review: Words are items that can effect us individually in many different ways. I say thankfully it's just words because one can learn a great deal from reading Atwood's text. Offred is in limbo and realistic to anyone who reads the story. What's scary is the fact that the scenes in the book are far too real and transport the reader to a place they can easily escape from, unlike Offred. Thankfully the book is composed of words that we can learn from. This is a book you'll want to put down in horror and pick up the very next second in intrigue. A must in any library or future generations.
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Summary: A Not Too Distant Future
Review: Many books have been written about dystopian futuristic societies, but none such as Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. This novel is told to the reader through the eyes of a handmaid who has been given the name Offred. During this time period, taking place in the not too distant future, few women are able to successfully reproduce due to pollution and radiation brought on by wars between religious sects. Atwood possesses a beautiful writing style in which she goes from discussing Offred's past in the "normal days", her early days as a handmaid living in a designated "Center", and her present circumstances. The America that Offred lives in has frightingly been transformed into a totalitarian oppresive society. Blacks have been taken to North Dakota while Jews have been given the choice between deportation or converting to Christianity. Men and women no longer share sexual intimacy, but mate solely for the purpose of procreation . Offred suffers in this novel not only because she's a survivor of the time when women were free to do as they chose, but also because she has no idea of what has happened to her husband and daughter. During her time as the Commander, Fred's, handmaid, she experiences disillusionment, jealousy, bitterness, and affection towards two different men in two different ways. Atwood is obvious in her attempts to convey Offred's since of isolation and disperation as she uses similes, motifs, and metaphors. Her strong feminist beliefs are extremely blatant as she depicts a world where women are looked upon as objects and how horrible the conditions are in the lives they are forced to lead. Offred bitterly reflects on the past and hopes for a future where she is allowed to love and possess some sense of freedom.
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Summary: A Brilliantly Original Dystopian Tale
Review: I literally finished this book minutes ago, and I must say that I enjoyed it. This is the second book of Atwood's that I have read (Cat's Eye being the first) and I believe that The Handmaid's Tale is the better of the two. On the cover of my edition, the book was compared to Orwell's brilliant 1984, and I suppose that it could be considered its counterpart. However, where Orwell was attempting to make a devastatingly profound point about government and its influence, Atwood's work takes on the nature of human instincts. Both books have immense resonance for the reader, and Atwood paints an excellent picture of a pseudo-religious, paramilitary junta government and its social restraints. The ending is very well done and leaves the book rather open-ended, something I usually decry, but it works well in this literary masterpiece. The ending itself will remain a mystery to even the most analytical reader. The appendix at the back of the book is quite, if casually, infomative, though there should have been more than one to fully explain the nature and conjuration of the Gilead government. A book definately worth the reader's time and a fine, fast, fantastic read. Check it out, and enjoy!
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Summary: A monumental feminist commentary
Review: In a time of reading one paperback fiction book after another, The Handmaid's Tale is an awakening. I was jolted from the familiar into a world where women have been forced into a class sytem consisting of, among others, a breeding class used only for child bearing. This is an incredibly moving tale told in a wonderfully easy-to-read narrative.
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Summary: Atwood paints pictures with color and imagery in her prose.
Review: The novel's main impetus, in a fundamental way, is similar to BRAVE NEW WORLD and 1984, which examine th possibilities of Western Civilization's future - social futuristic fiction, it could be called. The way Atwood balances the tone in this work is impressive; an atmosphere of subtle apprehension runs alongside a slight sense of tragic inevitability to this drama. The reader goes inside the mind of the protagonist, and for me, I liked the personality of the main character. She is introspective, sensuous, realistic and hopeful. A woman dealing with life the best she can in the world she's subject to. Will she persevere in her dilemma? Or will she meet her demise in this ominous tale - this Handmaid's Tale? I consider this book a modern classic.
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Summary: Well written
Review: This book was very well written and written in a way to keep you turning the pages. Some parts of the book people may have problems with, like the Biblical references used out of conetext to support the theme of the book. However, overall, it is a good read.
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Summary: Scary stuff
Review: A feminist story set as a futuristic science fantasy. The story is quite chilling, and, when you think about the 'developments' in fertility and gene technology, makes you question what is becoming more and more a pressing ethical issue.The story works for me as a story in its own right. I found it quite gripping. I like Atwood's writing style - literary without being 'difficult', and she has an original voice.
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Summary: Education and a Gun
Review: In The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood has presented a future world in which the developed world's men and women have become sterile due to the excessive pollution that our modern society produces. The ability to reproduce is a valuable commodity that is taken by the people in power from those women who are still able to bear children. In Atwood's world the men have placed all 'blame' for lack of offspring on to the shoulders of the women. A key part in The Handmaid's Tale is the field master mentality. During the period of slavery in America, slave owners frequently used slaves as the field task masters to make sure the workers weren't slacking off. In all oppressive societies those who rule use members from the oppressed population to control that population. In The Handmaid's Tale, many women are willing participants in the 'enslavement' of these fertile women. They teach the women what their roles are and about the tremendous burden that they carry for the propagation of the species. All this aside though, it is unlikely that anything like this could actually happen, even given the mass sterilization of human populations. The basis of all power relations is force and education. From the beginning of time men have certainly had an advantage in the force category. We are bigger and stronger. Because of this ability to use force against women, men were able to keep them from becoming educated. Men were able to convince women that their place was in a subservient role and they were best suited to rearing children. As modern civilization evolved women began to earn more equal footing with men in educational matters. It is to the point now where women consist of a greater percentage of university enrollment than their share of the university age population. One result of this increased education should be the realization that force is no longer solely the province of men. Women have at their disposal the use of an item that easily evens force disparity: the gun. The only way that this future world could happen is with the permission of the female population. Women are now educated enough to realize the situation as it develops and have the means at their disposal to stop any effort by the male population from pushing them into this subservient position. Women are no longer at the mercy of man's whims. To think any different would be an insult to the educated population that women have become.
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