Summary: The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood, follows Offred a Handmaid (a woman whose only purpose is to bear children for the upper class after a drastic decline in the birthrate) in a near-future, dystopian society known as the Republic of Gilead which has overthrown the US government.
The Handmaid’s Tale is a book that’s fascinated me from the moment I picked it up. During the beginning of my sophomore year, I began talking with my cousin a lot about banned books and she said about five times, “How have you not read The Handmaid’s Tale!” A few months later she gave it to me for Christmas and it soon became one of my favorite books.
The novel explores the perils of religious extremism as a controlling political tactic, the dangers of totalitarianism, and of course the suppression of women’s rights.
The Republic of Gilead’s law is based on an extremist interpretation of the Old Testament of the Bible, and it is ruled by an elitist all-male government system that justifies their every decision using scripture. They build a society where citizens are constantly surveilled and there is a strict social separation, especially for women who are stripped of their identity.
Handmaids are forced to bear children for upper class families and the main character, Offred – whose name literally means ‘Of Fred’ (Fred being the name of the husband of the husband to whom she must bear children) – reflects on her past life throughout the novel.
Frequently in Texas, Idaho, Florida for “sexually explicit” content The Handmaid’s Tale is banned across multiple school districts and libraries. I’ve said this before, and I will say it again and again, I fully believe that reason to be completely ridiculous and – especially in the case of this book – extremely disrespectful.
It gives people a misleading interpretation of the true content of the book and dismisses the overall message.
I could honestly go on and on about how much that one bothers me, but there’s more I’d like to get to first.
I believe the main reason this book is banned is because of the warning against extreme religious ties to political control. It’s easy for things to get blown out of proportion easily when it comes to religion because the wrong interpretation of writing can create offense. That’s when it becomes important to research and again, be okay with literature creating discomfort if it could be properly met with critical thinking.
I’d like to hone in on a major part that stuck out to me while reading and that’s the mandatory greeting the citizens of Gilead speak: Under his eye. It’s a direct reference to the omnipresent government they are all taught to fear and to the constant surveillance of the Eyes, the secret police who watch over them all.
“Under his eye” is what they say to each other; the statement they’re forced to live by, that swallows whole everyone who speaks it. “Under his eye” is what the Handmaids say to each other as they walk to the market and as they walk past the hanging bodies in town, strung up like trophies to warn every citizen that one wrong move could end them up in the same predicament. “Under his eye” is the statement they are coerced to submit to; undesirably acknowledging the fact that they are being constantly watched, constantly hunted, constantly reminded of the oppressive demand for subservience in the world where they live. The world where they are forced to live.
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