Gripping dystopian novel of religious state against women.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
Any Positive Content?
Sex, Romance & Nudity
a lot
Nonreproductive sex is prohibited in Gilead, punishable by exile or even death. As a handmaid, Offred must participate in the Ceremony, in which she lies between the legs of the Commander's Wife and then has sex with the Commander. (This is the novel's most sexually explicit scene.) Later, Offred spends time at a brothel as a guest of the Commander and even develops a sexual relationship with another character.
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Profanity is prohibited in Gilead, but swear words cannot be completely eradicated. "S--t" is used relatively frequently, as both an explitative and as a reference to feces. "Bitch," "tits," "damn" and "goddamn" are employed once or twice each. "F--k" and variations of it are used in the Ceremony scene.
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The threat of corporal punishiment hangs over all the characters in The Handmaid's Tale. The corpses of dissidents are hung in public as grim reminders of the cost of rebellion. Offred does not witness much violence firsthand, but she learns of handmaids who have committed suicide by hanging. The most violent scene in the novel involves a Salvaging, a public ceremony where the women are whipped into a frenzy and then allowed to beat an accused prisoner to death.
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Drinking, recreational drugs, and smoking are all prohibited in Gilead. Offred eventually learns, however, that alcohol and tobacco are available to the most powerful men. Scenes late in the novel are set in a brothel where drinking and smoking occur.
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The Handmai'd Tale is a highly regarded example of dystopian fiction, a piece of satire specific to its date of origin and still relevant many years later and in many other cultures. Nominated for the Booker Prize and a winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, it is frequently required reading in school and is often the target of censorship campaigns. It can serve as a springboard for discussions about religion, law, feminism, and many other topics.
Positive Messages
a lot
Like most dystopian novels, The Handmaid's Tale instructs by negative example. Gilead is shown to be a hierarchical, monotheocratic patriarchy. Women have no autonomy, no control over finances, their bodies, or their intellectual pursuits. Author Margaret Atwood is most harsh in her depiction of fundamentalism of any kind, rather than any particular form of religion or government.
Positive Role Models
a lot
The narrator, known as "Offred," has the courage to question her captivity and hope for a day of freedom. Over the course of the novel, she begins to rebel in subtle ways.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that The Handmaid's Tale is a powerful, potentially disturbing dystopian satire set in a future America where women have been stripped of all their civil rights. It features strong language, emotional and physical violence, and a couple of graphic sex scenes. The corpses of dissidents are hung in public as grim reminders of the cost of rebellion. There is mention of handmaids who have committed suicide by hanging. The most violent scene in the novel involves a public ceremony where women are whipped into a frenzy and then allowed to beat an accused person to death. The novel was adapted for the award-wining television series of the same name that premiered in 2017.
As an English teacher who has taught this book for somewhere around 14 years, I can tell you that this book has a profound impact on students and succeeds in teaching students many literary skills and helps them to connect literary fiction with relevant, real-world current and historical events. It's a wonderful example of first-person point of view and can help to initiate a discussion about unreliable narrators. The prose is poetic yet matter-of-fact, and it demonstrates that people are complicated and capable of both good and evil acts depending on the particular situation. For those reviews that have mentioned being unsatisfied with the ending, I think they're missing the point. It is left purposely ambiguous because Offred herself doesn't know how it will end when she steps into the van. She doesn't really know whom she can trust, and since we are seeing everything through her eyes, the readers also don't know; however, if you read the Historical Notes at the end (and yes, these are part of the novel), what becomes evident is that Offred did, indeed, get away at some point as the academics in the far future refer to her audio tapes and the ultimate defeat of Gilead. The end of 1984 is similar in that we don't know what happens to Winston, but on closer inspection, we see that the Newspeak dictionary is written in past tense, indicating that the totalitarian regime eventually ended. Atwood was inspired to write the book partly based on her experience reading dystopian works like 1984 and Brave New World, novels which hardly feature women, and when they do, they are treated like "sexual automatons." She wanted to investigate the question of "What if." In this case, she wonders what if a dystopia were centered around women? What would that look like? She makes up nothing that hasn't happened before at one point in history. Handmaid is speculative fiction that teaches readers to think, to wonder, and definitely to ask what if.
I am 21 years old. I read this book when I was 13. I found it eye opening and it changed my perspective of current society. As a literary enthusiast, I strongly recommend that everyone over the age of 13 should read this book. Whist enthralling and gripping, it is also informative and a work of wonder. It depicts the life of Offred, a handmaid in a dystopian civilisation. Whilst it does discuss themes of sex and violence, these are important life messages for adolescents, and as having read many other book with these themes at that age, I was not surprised to encounter them. This book has fabulous feminist implications, and teaches the importance of consent, and the horrors of prostitution. There is minimal foul language, apart from the occasional use of f**k. There is some smoking, however, Offred is overall a great role model, and who doesn’t have a sneaky cigarette sometimes? As a student of high merit I enjoyed this book immensely and would advise anyone over 13 to read it.
What's the Story?
The narrator of THE HANDMAID'S TALE, known only as "Offred," tells of her life in the monotheocracy of Gilead, in what used to be the United States, sometime in the near future. She is a handmaid, kept to breed with "the Commander" and provide an heir at a time when the human birthrate is dangerously low. As she remembers the years before her captivity and begins to dream of an end to her captivity, Offred develops new relationships with the Commander, his Wife and their driver. But can she trust any of them?
Details matter to Margaret Atwood, and Offred's tale is related with precision and deep compassion. The Handmaid's Tale is one of the most acclaimed dystopian novels of the 20th century. An uncompromising portrait of a totalitarianism and institutional misogyny, it critiques fundamentalism in all its forms.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why dystopian novels -- like The Handmaid's Tale (1985) and The Hunger Games (2008) -- continue to be such a popular genre.
Why do you think author Margaret Atwood appends "Historical Notes" to the main narrative of the novel?
Do you think women's rights are in jeopardy today? Where and how?
In what ways can religion can shape government -- and vice versa?
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