THE HANDMAID’S TALE

The written word is all that stands between memory and oblivion. Without books as our
anchors, we are cast adrift, neither teaching nor learning. They are windows on the past,
mirrors on the present, and prisms reflecting all possible futures. Books are lighthouses
erected in the dark sea of time. – Jeffrey Robins

Nearly two years ago, the world was plunged into chaos. The spread of COVID – 19, a
relatively unknown virus struck fear in our hearts, and no one knew how to cope. We were
moving in uncharted territory. Preventive measures such as enforcing lockdowns and curfews
were taken, which resulted in people locking themselves in their homes without any social
interaction.
What does one do when they suddenly go from having no time to indulge in personal
pleasures, to having all the time in the world to do what they please? Some take up new
hobbies, some would learn to cook, bake or sew, and others like me, took this time to expand
our reading horizons. One book in particular that stood out, was The Handmaid’s Tale.
Margaret Atwood’s speculative fiction masterpiece, explores the consequences of how power
can be yielded unfairly. The Handmaid’s Tale is a story of a near- future Christian
fundamentalist regime called the Republic of Gilead. They have staged a military coup and
established a theocratic government.
Gilead is structured in a way that only a few men have absolute power, especially over
women. The regime divides women into distinct social classes based upon their function as
status symbols for men. They are segregated into commander’s wives, marthas (those who
cook food), handmaids (the women who are required by law to increase Gilead’s population)
aunts (those who run training centres for the handmaids). Even their clothing is colour coded-
the handmaids wear red, the marthas wear green, the aunts wear brown and the wives wear
blue clothing.
What stands out most, is how seamlessly Atwood has used only events and practices that
have already occurred in history to weave out her tale, simply by setting them in the near
future. Massachusetts, in Cambridge was a city previously ruled by theocrats in the American
colonial period. Gilead shares many strict rules with the now-extinct society. By rigid moral
codes, modest clothing and even control of people’s lives and relationships by the
government, every individual has lost their voice and is simply reduced to a tool required to
keep the gears of the machine that is Gilead running smoothly. A setting like this is not
unknown to us, as history also tells us the story of various dictators and rulers who were
tyrants.
Much like how Arachne wove flawless tapestries, Margaret Atwood has spun a chilling
vision of a dystopian regime and presented it to us as a book that both shocks us to our core,
and leaves the reader wanting for more.