The Handmaid's Tale

Rating:
Summary: A Great Read
Review: The Handmaid's Tale is the story of Offred, one of the few fertile women left in the Republic of Gilead, a dystopia at its worst. Toxic waste has left population levels dangerously low and religious leaders have taken control of the country, using desperate measures to repopulate the Earth. Offred is one of the many "handmaids" who are forced to live with a commander and trys to conceive a child with him once a month. The book chronicles Offred's life as she is living with Commander Fred (hence "Of Fred"). Atwood wrote this novel at a time when there was the possibility of religious leaders establishing a theocracy. She portrays the havoc that can come about when a democracy loses its control over the people. Atwood does this extremely effectively. Since the whole book is through Offred's eyes, the one-person limited view point makes you use your imagination to fill in the gaps left by her lack of knowledge. The book isn't so extreme that it's unbelievable and is so descriptively written that it almost feels as if it the events already happened in history. It was truly a great read.

Rating:
Summary: "EYES" on America
Review: The Handmaid's Tale

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.

Rating:
Summary: A life of sex while hanging on to hope
Review: The Republic of Gilead is a place where no woman would want to be summoned for it is a place where certain women, called Handmaids, are used as sex slaves. A woman given the name Offred explains her life as being a Handmaid and how she once had the life as a wife and mother. Now she can only think of her past and appreciate what she once had and hope one day that she will regain some of it back. Offred continues to explain through out the book how she was forced to live with a man, known as the Commander of the household, and his wife to be used solemnly for her ability to give birth. As interesting as the life Offred is now living, she surprisingly slowly shares information of her past and how everything came to be. As the book prospers, you can't help to want to know the future of Offred and her past. As things become unbearable in the Republic of Gilead, it is as if you also seem to slowly lose hope of ever gaining change. The best part is not quite really understanding what is happening in the novel, yet wanting to understand.

I believe The Handmaid's Tale was fantastic. I liked how the author only allowed Offred to tell certain parts of her past at random moments. Because I am a woman and the fact that Handmaids were being used for there abilities to give birth made me want to find out if Offred would escape from her, so called, destiny. Knowing that Offred wondered what had happened to her mother, Luke, daughter, and sometimes Moira, also made you curious on what had happened to them. There were moments through out the book that would make you think there was hope on yet escaping but then around the corner was just the opposite. As the reader, I just wanted to know what would come of Offred. For example, there was a time where you thought maybe the Commander, of the household Offred was sleeping in, would be Offred's ticket home. Then there are many women of Gilead who, like Offred, are against what has happened which could possibly lead to an escape. Of course there was the possibility of Offred becoming pregnant. The Republic of Gilead amazes me from the arranged marriages to the hangings in town. The Republic of Gilead is an awful place as described by a woman given the name Offred. However, just as Offred's new life in Gilead prospers so does her outlook on life and her heart and mind is swarmed with mixed feelings and soon yours are too.

If you have an interest in novels that are based on the feelings and emotions of one certain character, you will enjoy The Handmaids Tale. I definitely recommend that people read this novel because it keeps your interest and it makes you think differently about life. After I had read The Handmaids I appreciated my life more. The Handmaids Tale has excitement, mystery, unhappiness, paranoia and even romance. If you want to experience the life a woman who has lost her past and now must live a life of sex, pain, love, and hope you should read The Handmaids Tale.


Rating:
Summary: Not her best, but very good.
Review: This is the second Atwood novel I've read. While it's quite good, I think it falls short of the The Blind Assassin. Neither as ambitious, nor as fully realized, IMHO. Although most reviewer's focus on depictoin of the 1984-ish dystopian society in which Atwood sets the novel, the heart of the book doesn't lie in political or social commentary. Instead, it's in the human interactions among Offred and the various people, from all levels of society, she encounters, as well as in Offred's own struggle to reconcile her need to reach out to others with her opposing need to protect herself from the grievous harm others could cause her. (In this way, it reminds me of Joseph Heller's comment that Catch-22 was not a "war" novel, but in fact was fundamentally a peacetime novel.) One quibble: Atwood does a terrific job in constructing the fictional world in which Offred lives, and as readers we quickly come to accept it as her "reality". However, I found the scene in which she depicts how the "revolution" actually came about a bit forced. Better, in my opinion to have simply depicted it as a fait accompli. But still, a very good, engrossing book.

Rating:
Summary: truth is stranger then fiction
Review: This was an engrossing tale.
I read it about ten years ago....and it really left an impression on me.

I hadn't thought about it tho till today when I read this stroy from germany....and ladies...
I gave me the chills that this could be happening in a modern 'civilized country. This is from the telegragh:

'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits'
By Clare Chapman
(Filed: 30/01/2005)
A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services'' at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.
Prostitution was legalised in Germany just over two years ago and brothel owners - who must pay tax and employee health insurance - were granted access to official databases of jobseekers.
The waitress, an unemployed information technology professional, had said that she was willing to work in a bar at night and had worked in a cafe.
She received a letter from the job centre telling her that an employer was interested in her "profile'' and that she should ring them. Only on doing so did the woman, who has not been identified for legal reasons, realise that she was calling a brothel.
Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job - including in the sex industry - or lose her unemployment benefit. Last month German unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive month to 4.5 million, taking the number out of work to its highest since reunification in 1990.
The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.
When the waitress looked into suing the job centre, she found out that it had not broken the law. Job centres that refuse to penalise people who turn down a job by cutting their benefits face legal action from the potential employer.
"There is now nothing in the law to stop women from being sent into the sex industry," said Merchthild Garweg, a lawyer from Hamburg who specialises in such cases. "The new regulations say that working in the sex industry is not immoral any more, and so jobs cannot be turned down without a risk to benefits."
Miss Garweg said that women who had worked in call centres had been offered jobs on telephone sex lines. At one job centre in the city of Gotha, a 23-year-old woman was told that she had to attend an interview as a "nude model", and should report back on the meeting. Employers in the sex industry can also advertise in job centres, a move that came into force this month. A job centre that refuses to accept the advertisement can be sued.
Tatiana Ulyanova, who owns a brothel in central Berlin, has been searching the online database of her local job centre for recruits.
"Why shouldn't I look for employees through the job centre when I pay my taxes just like anybody else?" said Miss Ulyanova.
Ulrich Kueperkoch wanted to open a brothel in Goerlitz, in former East Germany, but his local job centre withdrew his advertisement for 12 prostitutes, saying it would be impossible to find them.
Mr Kueperkoch said that he was confident of demand for a brothel in the area and planned to take a claim for compensation to the highest court. Prostitution was legalised in Germany in 2002 because the government believed that this would help to combat trafficking in women and cut links to organised crime.
Miss Garweg believes that pressure on job centres to meet employment targets will soon result in them using their powers to cut the benefits of women who refuse jobs providing sexual services.
"They are already prepared to push women into jobs related to sexual services, but which don't count as prostitution,'' she said.
"Now that prostitution is no longer considered by the law to be immoral, there is really nothing but the goodwill of the job centres to stop them from pushing women into jobs they don't want to do."
[...]

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous read!!! Even better than "1984" in my opinion. A+
Review: This was my 1st experience w/Atwood, and I absolutely loved it! She is a fabulous writer and I highly recommend this book. This was one of those books you just sit down and devour. :-)

Rating:
Summary: Handmaids Tale Review
Review: Todd Leveillee
English 12, 2004
The Handmaids Tale
Book Review

After assassinating the President and the members of Congress the Gilead continued to crack down on laws. They took away most of the rights for women, like being able to have property or the ability to hold a job. Knowing this Offred and Luke fled with their daughter and attempted to cross the border into Canada. Stopped there, Offred never saw Luke or their daughter again. From there she would no longer be a person with feelings, just an object of pleasure, and the duty of a handmaid.
The main character Offred meets Luke by having an affair with him. Luke divorces his wife and produces a child with Offred. They are caught trying to flee the country and separated. After being captured she was sent to the Re-education Center or the Red Center. This is where the women would be taught about the routine and duties of becoming a handmaid. When Offred finishes her training she is sent to the Commander's house. Weekly checkups are endured to make sure there are no diseases and after each checkup the handmaids go to the Ceremony. At the Ceremony the Commander reads to everyone from the bible. After this Offred and the Commander's wife, Serena go to the Commander's room. Offred has sex with the Commander while Serena sits up behind her and holds her hands. Offred is told by Nick, the Commander's gardener and chauffeur that the Commander wants to meet with her. They meet and Offred finds out that the Commander just wants to play scrabble with her. Time goes by and Offred has still not become pregnant. Serena wants Offred to have sex with Nick and just say that the baby is the Commander's. Offred and Nick begin to have sex on a regular basis. Offred travels secretly to a club called Jezebel's with the Commander. Serena finds out about this and she says she is going to punish her. Offred is waiting in her room when she sees a black van approaching the house. Nick comes into Offred's room and tells her that it is really Mayday members coming to save her. Mayday is a group that is trying to overthrow the Gilead. Offred leaves with the men and will never see the Commander again. At the close of the novel Offred says, "And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light." Meaning, she does not know where her life will lead her from here.
At the beginning of this novel this book seemed like it was just going to be about a woman that gave herself up for sex and continued to have flashbacks. It turned out to be about a woman that was transformed from a woman to an object fighting for survival. When I say she was transformed from a woman to an object I mean that she cared about life and Luke until she was turned to a handmaid. Since becoming a handmaid her life changes drastically. She now has a set routine of where she stays, what she eats and the tasks she is asked to perform. When Offred begins to develop a relationship with the Commander she is taking a huge risk. If she is caught by anyone, including Serena she could possibly be killed. Knowing this she still continues to go back. She is really in a predicament where she has no choice. If she goes and gets caught she is done for. If she doesn't go and goes against the Commander's request she will be punished. Either way it's a lose, lose situation. As the novel continues it seems like Serena senses that Offred is close with the Commander and tries to get her to sleep with Nick. Offred who has been longing to sleep with Nick abides by Serena's request. I call Offred an object because she has no say in anything she does. She must do as she is told or face the penalty. Just like a real life object she goes wherever she is taken does whatever she is told. This novel really keeps the reader interested because you find yourself always wondering, "What will happen next?"

Rating:
Summary: Anti-Christian? Nope. Atwood's Best? Hardly
Review: Unlike what most of the postings suggest, the novel is NOT anti-Christian. Offred prays to God more than once, Ofglen tells Offred she believes in God, and various sects(Baptists, Jesuits, Catholics, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses and Quakers are those mentioned) of Christian religions are just as persecuted if not moreso than the women are. It's barely even what I'd call a feminist novel, the book doesn't seem nearly as propagandizing as I'd first assumed it would be.

In addition, it is not Atwood's best work. It's wonderful, a compelling read, and Atwood breaks many literary rules, with almost always a positive effect. In any other author's repertoire, this would certainly stand out. But compare her prose here to, say, the Blind Assassin or Robber Bride. It's blown out of the water. It's almost juvenile in comparison.

Atwood excels, however, in her treatment of the genre. The heroes and heroines of most post-1984 novels are revolutionaries, maverick thinkers, non-conformists. Also, their universes seem to be crafted by the author to fit exactly their strengths and weaknesses; don't we all wish such traumas were custom-made? Instead, Atwood focuses on Offred, who remembers the days when times were better but doesn't exactly care to attack the problem on her own. She vows to herself to accept her new life and try to move on, as long as she can stay alive. Not until she is approached by several underground workers does she decide to act on what every other handmaid is feeling. And she does nothing to really bring about the downfall of Gilead, she's just another handmaid who happens to get lucky and escape the system. She fails at her 'mission', she abandons hope, and never quite recovers it. She ready and willing to die when chance brings about her redemption. Offred is a true, real character, one of the best of the genre.

Also, Atwood's portrayal of the Republic of Gilead is small-scale, and never reveals the nature of the system or its creation, making it seem more realistic. The characters never break into long monologues about Gilead's history; they all know it, and only reveal information in small references. Even in the slightly redundant historical notes no explicit knowledge is given. They're university students, they've all learned this before.

A Handmaid's Tale is a very engaging and easy read, yet it can also be very profound, and it ends in about the right place. Just as it is about to get redundant and melodramatic, it is able to end realistically, and only barely seems to end too fast.

So pick up A Handmaid's Tale if you're looking for an above average spin on most Utopian novels, but don't expect this to be an example of Atwood's later work. You'll be much more entertained with the aforementioned Blind Assassin and Robber Bride, or Cat's Eye or Alias Grace.

Rating:
Summary: My Review
Review: When a woman is not given the choice to create a human. She will become a person not even herself can come to know. For sex is the art of governing. The Handmaids Tale is a malicious story told in a way only one can feel sympathetic for Offred, a handmaid living in the Republic of Gilead. She is to be obedient and is considered petty to all that are not handmaids. This is a place that has continued without interference of the past. For Gilead's future does not consist of love anymore but arranged child births and marriages. Offred is a woman that only exists in this community for her ability to produce children.

This cause for the existence of a child is so the future can reek of children molded into what this nation believes they should be. My opinion, which I hope is obvious, is that no child's future should be chosen by anyone but themselves. A person should not be able to just sit back and marvel at the sexual suggestions being spewed out. These are innocent babies being torn away from ever being able to say a phrase like "I love you, I really do." Offred's body is not the only one of its kind being tortured numerous times. This is only a story told by one handmaid. I just don't see how anyone can be self-assured when a woman is being provided by another like property. And let this happen to these woman when they have never been subjected to these "ways" before. These people should get paid for being generally annoying and irritating. How can you expect one to be sociable and efficient. When they are treated as if they are only this set of names and faces given away with instructions. I am not only furious with the ways of Gilead but disappointed. I know theoretically women are smarter. But I did not think they would go this far to control us. These things should stay in the privacy of your own home. I demand these people to stop humiliating themselves. You think you're the future of "birth" just because you manipulate women. One word for you "Wrong." Because no matter what happens there will always be that no passion, boredom, emptiness, need, laughter, and energy to communicate in this terrifying picture of the world. Some will not be able to tolerate, for example me. There is no real principal behind it because Gilead's expectations are unrealistically high.

But some unrealistic things can be capable of existing. That's why I recommend this book. Because it helps you appreciate the way our government is now. I am personally against a lot the government does today. But after read this tale I have come to appreciate it much more. I know most of you are saying something on line of "This would never happen, so what's your purpose." Well I do have a purpose because anything could happen. Its not like we would have agreed with a person ten years ago when they said "Two planes will crash into the twin towers." Our government is not perfect and neither are the people trying live by it. I guess the biggest problem in our mind's today is time. Because we have come to accept this life we live. But ,maybe some day you should try thinking out of the box.