Title: ‘The handmaid’s tale’
Author: Margaret Atwood
Publisher: Vintage Classics
(Penguin)
Pages: 479
Year: 1985
IBSN-13: 9781784871444
Price: 6.01 (Amazon)
Note: 10
SIPNOSIS
Offred
is a Handmaid. She has only one function: to breed. If she refuses to play her
part she will, like all dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die
slowly of radiation sickness. She may walk daily to the market and utter demure
words to other Handmaids, but her role is fixed, her freedom a forgotten
concept.
Offred
remembers her old life - love, family, a job, access to the news. It has all
been taken away. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire.
PERSONAL ASSESTMENT
Justification:
I think that The handmaid’s tale is
a must-read, both for the dystopic novel’s fans and for those who are not. It
was for long time in my Amazon wish-list and one day I saw that it was
discounted (5.77) so I decided to buy it. When I finnish the book I was reading
at that time, I, eventually, took the book and devour it, though it took more
time to read it than I expected! It hooked me as it had not did a book for a
very long time, maybe for the plot, maybe because I was truly motivated. It
does not matter, the point is that it hooked me and took me into his world,
making me suffer each injustice of that world.
Plot:
As any other dystopic novel, it develops
in a fictional world. In this world, women has no power at all (it does not
seem so fictional. Women are divided in ‘handmaids’, those who can get
pregnant, but just with their owner and they can rape her whenever they want
(this women are renamed with the name of their owner, ‘Offred’ in this case);
the ‘aunts’, who are the women in charge of ‘train’ (alienate) the handmaids;
the ‘wives’, who are the women married and the ones who raise the childs; the
‘marthas’, who are the cooks and charwomen; and the subversive women who are
send to the ‘colonies’, similar to concentration camps, where they end up dying
because of the exposition to radiation. Offred stars to work for the Commander.
In her room, which it formerly belonged to other handmaid, she found the
inscription ‘Nolite te bastardes carborundorum’, which is going to be a
leitmotiv and a very important phrase for her. The history alternate the
present where she works and the past, where we get to know Offred’s former live
before the change and how this happened and affected her.
I consider it a wholly innovative idea
and, as she expressed in all her works, feminist. So, a feminist dystopic, who
would have thought about that? Margaret Atwood, just to denounce the women’s
situation nowadays.
Characters:
The book focuses on the Offred’s live, on
her past and present, and on her relationships. Thus, I am going to talk about
her and two other characters who I consider quite important.
●
Offred. She is the main character, the
protagonist. She is the daughter of a feminist. She has a husband and a
daughter with whom she tried to escape (in the book, this fact appears about
the middle of it but in the series it appear in the very beginning). She did
not know what happened to none of them. She found it hard to surrender although
she did not gave up at all.
●
Commander. He is one of the few male characters
that we can find on the book. Although in the beginning he may seem a despot,
as the story progress, we see that he does not conform thoroughly with the new
world and rules. Due to his condition of privileged man (or just man), he can
have and do banned things. For example, he has a scrabble and he invite Offred
to play it every night. Although Offred, and I think everyone who read the
book, still hate him because of his position and how he treat women.
●
Moira. She was the best friend of Offred before
everything happened. When the government took women to ‘train’ them they
separated them. After some time, when they seized Offred, they meet again in
the ‘red center’. Moira escaped from there and we will never know about her (or
maybe we will… you will have to read to book to know it!) This character it is
probable the one that I love the most. Lesbian, irreverent, subversive, woman,
in short, everything that the government hates. When it seems that she is
alienate, she escapes. It may seem that she surrender to the state but,
launching a debate, conform or die?
Atmosphere:
Margaret, thanks to her writing style, her
depictions, her innovations, she makes you immerse in this world full of
injustice where, just because the sex or sexual orientation you are born with,
you will be condemn all your life. Different kinds of condemnation, and no one
better. You start to read and suddenly, you see yourself dressed in red as
another handmaid (or spectator).
Writing style:
The writing style is, in the end, the less
important in this book. It is a great idea, but if it would have been developed
by another person, with a different style, a different writing style, and for
sure it would have not been more than that, a great idea. But it is not just
that, it is a great idea developed by Margaret Atwood. It does not have neither
a rapid pace nor a slow one, the events follow one another in the precisely
moment they have to.
The book it is divided in nights and other
events. In the “other events” chapters, she tell us what she does during the
days. In the “night” chapters it is when she recalls her past life because it
is when she has time to think. The highlight of the book is that, although there
are plenty of flashbacks, you never lose the trace and know whether is a scene
of the past or of the future.
GENERAL COMMENT
Whether you are looking for a feminist
book or not, I recommend it to you.
Whether you are looking for a dystopian
novel or not, I recommend it to you.
Whether you are looking for an
entertaining or funny book or not, I recommend it to you.
In short, whatever you are looking for,
this book is tailor-made for you, a must-read.
Although the idea of Margaret may seem
ridiculous there still are some places where certain discriminations in
particular (which altogether are that marginalization) are the daily bread for
a lot of women, nowadays, in many parts of the world.
But, putting aside the feminist criticism,
the book is a masterpiece who transport and grieve you as few books can do.
-Saru.
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