America after the Great Global Depression of the 21st Century

Here is what happened!

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I penned a summary and review of the book. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood Published by Houghton Mifflin, Boston, Mass., 1986

With the recession in full swing, after 15 odd years of the shenanigans of the GOP while in office. Sure they will re-invent themselves and the right wing will rises again. As they wander around searching for the next Newt Gingrich to come along and lead them to the promised land. The next wave’s target may well be women. Just like in this book. Timeline the book at about 2012 or just after as the current lot of Democrats in power have run their course in office, whichever comes first. It may be a bit futuristic but it is good thought provoking read.

Let’s have a look at… Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Type of work: Futuristic fiction

Setting: Mythical Republic of Gilead (USA) in the near future

Principal characters:

Offred, a “Rachel”; a woman kept for the purpose of reproducing

The Commander (Fred) her “sixtyish” government sponsored, Guardian

Serena Joy, the Commander’s wife

Nick, the Commander’s chauffeur-body-guard

Moira, Offred’s best friend

Ofglen, another “Rachel”

Story Overview:

The events that transformed the United States into the Republic of Gilead were quick and all-encompassing. Immediately after the catastrophe, “when they shot the president and machine gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency” the media blared, “Everything is under control. ” But shortly there after the Constitution was suspended, newspapers were censored or shut down and roadblocks began to appear. And, eventually, even more radical changes took place. Unsubmissive women were outlawed, they lost their jobs, their bank accounts were frozen, and were assigned to the care of legal male “guardians,” whose first names they generally assumed.

Fearing the worst if they stayed. “Offred” (named for “Fred” the man who later owned her) her husband and their young daughter had passports forged for themselves and made a run for the Canadian border. They planned and prepared carefully: “Then we get to the border we’ll pretend we’re just going over for a day trip.” But when the border-guard checking their passports picked up a phone, they knew that the “Eyes of God” (the secret police) would be alerted. Into the woods they raced on foot. Later all that Offred could remember was her capture. She never knew what happened to her family.

In some ways Offred was fortunate. Since she was still young and fertile, she was not declared an “Unwoman” and sent to the “Colonies” where thousands were forced to work in agricultural camps or cleaning up toxic waste dumps. Life-expectancy was low in the /colonies. Instead, Offred was declared a “Rachel” (after the favored Biblical wife of Jacob) and sent to a center where women were “re-educated” and prepared for the duty of producing a baby in a “Commanders” house. In the center, Offred was overseen by an “Aunty” and shown movies depicting former society to make her se how “corrected” this new society was.

To her joy, Offred’s old friend Moira arrived on day at the center. “This is a loony bin,” Moira declared. The two women often talked through a hole in the partition between the stalls in the washroom, vowing covert rebellion.

During one of their bathroom conversations, Moira confided that she had to escape; she was ‘going batty.’ And after recovering from the re-programming/torture inflicted as punishment for her first, futile attempt, Moira finally did escape – by jumping one of the Aunties, putting her clothes, and scurrying out of the building.

Soon after Offred was sent to her first “post.” As the handmaid in Commander Fred’s house. Serena Joy, the Commander’s hostile, blue-eyed wife, met here at the door. “So you’re the new one” she said. “I want to see little of you as possible. If I get trouble, I’ll give trouble. You understand?” Surprised by this warning, Offred quickly stammered that she understood. Serena Joy continued: Serena Joy continued: As for my husband, he’s just that. My husband. I want that perfectly clear. Till death do us part. It’s final.

Offred’s duties were simple: Number one, get pregnant; and number two, go to town daily and buy food. On her excursions into town was accompanied by another “Rachel.” Widespread pollution and societal shake-up had made food scare in Gilead. Thus no could trust any Rachel to shop alone; and informant were place everywhere to ensure that any budding conspiracies were squelched.

Offred’s shopping partner was Ofglen. Each day after shopping was done, Ofglen suggested that they pass by “The Wall” where the local criminals were executed and displayed. Criminals, abortionist, heretics, Catholics, Jews and other miscreants – they all hung suspended on hooks cemented into The Wall. Ofglen noted that the corpses looked “like scarecrows, which in a way is what they are. Since they are meant to scare.”

Television, computers, books, radio, pen and paper was all forbidden. Once alone in her room, Offred recalled a film she had been show at the “Center” meant to serve as an example of what not to be, the film had depicted women forced into a “rape march.” Horribly, Offred had recognized her own mother in the movie: where she was now was anybody’s guess.

Once each month, Offred, the Commander and Serena Joy would retire in to the bedroom for a ceremony of insemination. There, while the Commander read the Bible, his wife literally “offered” the handmaid to her husband, holding Offred by the arms throughout the proceeding, supposedly to signify that “we are one flesh, one being.” All three remained fully clothed. There “was no passion or love or romance” involved.

Even in here confinement, Offred still indulged in small rebellions. She stole butter and other cosmetics with which to keep her skin soft. On one such escapade, she slipped into the sitting room to look around. Suddenly, she heard footsteps. Nick the Commander’s bodyguard and chauffeur, had brought news that the Commander wanted to see her in his office.

As Offred entered the Commander’s office, he stuttered out his request; I’d like you to play a game of Scrabble with me. “Offred felt like laughing but agreed. They played two games that “that night.”….. I let him win the second. “Before she left to return to her room, the Commander had one more wish: I want you to kiss me.” Offred complied.

After this, Offred would creep to the Commander’s room two or three times a week and play Scrabble. Their “arrangement” required that they set up a signal involving Nick: if Nick’s hat was on askew when Offred returned from shopping, that night they would meet.

On their second night together the Commander brought a gift for Offred – an old Vogue magazine. Offred hesitated, “…..These were supposed to be burned.”

By the third rendezvous she was bold enough to ask for some hand lotion, which she received. Obviously, the black market in Gilead was alive and thriving.

About halfway thru the next “ceremony” the Commander, as though the act was done by reflex, reached up and almost touched Offred’s face. “You could get me transferred to the Colonies…. “She said afterward. He promised to be more discreet.

Meanwhile, one afternoon Offred and Ofglen went to the Soul Scrolls store, where people solicited prayers from machines. As they stood watching the machines spin out prayers, Ofglen asked, “Do you think God listens to these machines?” Offred summoned her courage and said no. After this, the two women began to open up to one another, eventually even devising a password for use in a crisis: “Mayday.”

Serna Joy asked Offred if she was pregnant yet. “No Nothing” Offred answered with relief. Then Serena suggested that maybe the Commander was sterile, and perhaps she should try another man: Nick. Offred realized how much Serena wanted a baby. As incentive, if Offred slept with Nick and produced a child, Serena promised to get information and a picture of Offred's own daughter she last saw at the border during their escape attempt.

During on of Offred’s visit’s to the Commander, he presented her with a pink, feather-adorned slip-on the kind of thing – supposedly long since burned – that women had once worn to look sexy for men. Then he let her outside, past roadblock, to a building once used as a hotel. Inside were numerous men along with women dressed like Offred. Each wore most laughable, dowdy lingerie or show-girl garb. “Well? What do you think of our little club?” he boastfully asked? “….Nature demands variety, for men.”

Then, Moira emerged from the crown. Her eyes me Offred’s, but neither woman flinched. Then Moira flashed the hidden signal they had used in the re-education center. Five minutes later the two were in the Ladies Room, exchanging news – and barbs about one another’s outfit – under the stall. Moira had almost escaped into Canada but was caught at the border. She thought they would kill her or send her back to the Center, but instead they gave her two choices: The Colonies, where, eventually, “your nose falls off and your skin pulls away like rubber glove”; or this – steady work as a prostitute for the government of Gilead.

While Offred spent that night with the Commander, Serena Joy was discreetly arranging with Nick to impregnate the “Rachel.” At first this liaison with Nick was a duty, but soon Offred found herself freely in love with Nick – and she suspected he felt the same about her.

One morning, when Offred went to meet Ofglen for the day’s shopping, a “new” Ofglen greeted her. For days Offred was gripped by fear. Had the “Ofglen “talked”? However Offred’s fears were finally allayed when she learned that Ofglen had committed suicide. Still, Offred remained unsure of who knew what.

Then one day Serena Joy confronted Offred, holding the lipstick-marked costume she had worn. “I trusted you. I tried to help you,” she sobbed. “You could have left me with something.” Offred silently slipped back to her room – to await the black van that would surely come for her.

Offred heard the van pull up, and braced for the entrance of the military henchman – “but it was Nick who pushed open the door.”

“It’s all right,” he whispered. “It’s Mayday. Go with them….. Trust me.

As the Guardians led the still wavering Offred away, the Commander and his wife protested. It was no use. As she was locked into the van, she wondered what would become of her. “And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light.”

Commentary:

The Handmaid’s Tale is meant as a warning shot. Atwood suggests that this type of rigid, joyless world is what we can expect when freedom is restricted by dogmatic fanatics – in this case the Religious Right of the United States.

Though men and patriarchal societies in particular are the villains of the book, the male sex is redeemed somewhat by Nick’s actions. This novel is Feminist at its core, and it may merit some criticism for the occasional preachy tone it takes. Atwood’s writing, however takes on an honest, hard-hitting tone, and is surprisingly humorous.

Commander Mike Huckabee with
Republic of Gilead flag in background