THE HANDMAID'S TALE
by
Margaret Atwood
by
Margaret Atwood
Story:
The Handmaid's Tale takes place in the 1990's in the Republic of Gilead. But Gilead isn't a real place, it's a place that might be (according to a feminist in the 80's). Gilead used to be the United States before the Gileadeans take over. They are a Christian fundamentalist regime. Their society shows what "family values" might look like if they were enforced. Women stay at home (a woman's place…) gardening and having babies. If women cannot or refuse to do this they are labeled unwomen and executed or sent to concentration camps called The Colonies.
This book was written during the anti-feminist backlash of the 80's, and it paints a very bleak and nasty picture of the patriarchy. The main character, a handmaid, is a sex slave. Lots of women in Gilead are infertile because of pollution and radiation. If an important woman is infertile she is allowed to remain just a wife. A handmaid will be given to her. The handmaid occasionally sleeps with the wife's husband in a weird menage a toi ritual so that the wife can have a baby. This isn't really perverted. In the bible this is how Jacob and Rachel have kids, so in Christian Gilead it's the way things are done. If a woman is fertile she has to be a handmaid. She dresses like a nun, except all in red. She looks "sexy" and is hard to miss.
If a woman is sterile she can be a martha (think Martha Stewart). They are housekeepers and wear green. The wives wear blue. Econonwives wear stripes.
The book recounts the main character's training as a handmaid at the Red Center, her servitude at the Commander's house, and her eventual escape. The novel ends at an history conference in 2092 where a bunch of academics and scientists talk about Gilead. The handmaid recorded her story on a bunch of cassette tapes and they are discovered and translated. But, ironically, the scholars don't learn anything important from her stories. They just talk about the
facts. There are very few facts which they are certain of. The novel ends asking, "Are there any questions?"
Download:
Code:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/2q3vgn6ryjqn/n/HandmaidsTale.zip
