The Handmaid's Tale

We had a lovely book talk over The Handmaid's Tale. This book was very interesting. Although at some points I had to take breaks because it got so intense. One thing that was amusing that someone pointed out was how reliant we're becoming on credit cards or "plastic cards" as the book says. Now at school we are being forced to rely more on our i.d. cards not only for the library, but for the bus and the lunch room too (even if paying in cash.) The Handmaid's Tale warns against such reliance and such a separation from the common person and the greater system of how things are done.


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A few themes that were prevalent were isolation v community and emotional needs. It is scary to think of how separated people were in the urban/suburban area that they could not come together to resist the overthrow of the government. Also it was eerie how the government tried to manufacture ways to meet the emotional needs of people. The ceremonies, state religion, and control of communication made it difficult for the people to know what was real and what was going on.

In many ways the book was similar to Animal Farm, 1984, and Anthem. It made it seem more realistic to happen through the flashbacks to how things were before and the detailed description of the transition from our current reality to the dystopia of the book. Atwood used a lot of symbolism especially with color. The red of the Handmaids for fertility, the blue for the Wives for purity, green for Marthas and their jealousy of the other women, black for the Commanders and their evil control over the women, and Econowives multicolored because they had a diverse background.