Shenice Gillespie
Book talk
The Handmaid’s Tale
1. Overview of the text
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret
Atwood, takes place in Central America, with a futuristic government controlled
by the Eyes. Eyes are incognito, have their own vans, and no one questions
them. Think of them as the CIA/FBI. The protagonist starts out as a Handmaid
being trained in a school gym. All the
Handmaid’s are watched by aunts and guards. Aunts carry electric cattle prods,
patrol the gym, and escort the girls to the bathroom. Guards are chosen by
Angels, guards are not allowed in the building, but instead they must stay
outside watching the premises. The premises consist of a football field that
Handmaid’s can walk on, fencing surrounds the area, and barbed wire is on top
of the fencing. On the outside of the fences are Angels—who are objects of
fear.
The Handmaid’s are placed in a
house, governed by a Commander, or the man of the house. The central character
is placed within the house Offred. That is her name now, however, she keeps her
real name tucked away in the back of her mind, so she will never forget it. The
room Offred stays in has the chandelier taken out because the government is
afraid that Handmaid’s will hang themselves on it. The windows are shatter
proof and only open partially, so Handmaid’s don’t escape or commit suicide.
The frames in the pictures have no glass in them. In this society, they wear
the specific color of their rank/job. For example, Handmaids wear red dresses,
Commander’s wives wear blue, Marthas wear green, and Commanders wear black.
Marthas are the help in the kitchen and around the house. They cook, clean,
serve trays, etc. Handmaid’s can go out and grocery shop by asking the head
Martha for tokens. These tokens have pictures of food on them, since the
Commanders are the only ones allowed to read.
The Commanders and Commander’s
wives are described in the book as being elderly and having arthritis. There is
a black market that Commanders, Commander’s wives, and guards can buy products
off, such as cigarettes. The black market exists because the government is
poor. Nick, the guard who works for the house Offred, throws forbidden behavior
towards the protagonist (winking/talking to her). This isn’t the first time the
narrator has encountered a pass from a guy. Her doctor offers to have sex with
her, so she can have a baby and not go to the Colonies. The Colonies is where
the Unwomen go, the ones who don’t provide the government with children. The
doctor knows that all the Commanders are shooting blanks, however, Offred
doesn’t want to risk taking the offer because being caught means being hung on
the wall.
The protagonist is constantly
looking at The Wall every time she goes into town. It’s inevitable because the
government places The Wall right in the center of the town. The citizens who
break the law are hung on The Wall by hooks and have bags put over their heads,
with a sign of their sin hung around their necks. The Wall has a security
system, barbed wire on the bottom, and broken glass on the top. All paperwork
on abortions is destroyed because if the government finds out which doctors
performed the abortions, they will be placed on the wall.
The narrator has an abundant amount
of flashbacks throughout the book, referring to the old days. As a reader, we
know that she was married to this mysterious man named Luke. They had a baby,
the baby was taken away (assuming by the government). She also went to college
and had a best friend named Moira. Moira ends up showing up to the gym one day,
and her and the protagonist have secret meetings in the bathroom. Moira ends up
escaping the training center, and never comes back.
Then there comes the ceremony,
which consists of the Commander reading everyone in the household stories from
the Bible. The Commander’s wife must sit behind the handmaid, holding her
hands, while she is having sex with her husband. The Commander is to ejaculate
once and that’s it. Strictly business, no pleasure.
The Commander and the protagonists’
relationship enhances when the Commander asks Nick, the guard of the house, to
tell the narrator to come by his office in the late hours. However, Nick kisses
the protagonist when he gives her the message from the Commander. Story twist,
what!
In chapter 19, readers find out
that pregnancy machines are banned. That means no finding out what your gender
is, or even if the baby is healthy. In addition, there is only natural births.
Chances of handmaid’s becoming pregnant is 1 in 4. They blame it on the
pollution and global warming. Never does it cross the government’s mind that
the reason these women aren’t getting pregnant is because they are having sex
with old men who only have dust in them. When a woman is pregnant, though, it
is made a big deal and every Handmaid and Aunt is involved. They consider like
a “girl’s night out”, bringing booze, wine, and food. They all sit down, chant,
moan, and sway back and forth. Again, the commander’s wife sits behind the
Handmaid when she is giving birth. The horrific part is that once the baby is
born, they prepare a bed for the Commander’s wife and give the baby to her. As
if she did all the work of pushing that thing out! After the ceremony, the
Handmaids’ energy is depleted greatly. Their breasts are swollen, fake milk
comes out, and everything in their body hurts.
While this nonsense is happening,
there is more of it happening in the Commander’s office. The protagonist is
still meeting up with him after hours. And guess what they do? Play scrabble.
The Commander hates the idea of being alone, so he invites the narrator to read
with him and play scrabble. The only condition is she needs to kiss him like
she means it, at the end of the night. The second time the Ceremony comes
around, the narrator is more conscious of her body since she knows the
Commander in an emotional intimate way now.
We encounter our first meeting with
the Eyes in chapter 27. All the cars move aside for the black van, two men in
gray suits hop out, grab a man, and throw him in the back. Nobody asks
questions, no one talks, and no one screams. They all go about doing their own
business as if it never happened.
The narrator explains how the
president was shot and the congress was machine gunned down, however, the
government blamed it on the Islamic fanatics. The Constitution was suspended,
there were no riots, and everyone stayed in their homes watching TV. The old
government was gone. In with the new. Citizens saw signs of it as the newspaper
companies began to close, newspapers were also censored, identipasses were
created, porn marts were banned, compunumbers were assigned (to access bank
accounts), and road blocks were put up. A new election was to be held, but in
time. The election never came, and the protagonists’ compunumber declined while
she was trying to buy cigarettes. She goes back to work, and her boss let all
the females go. Two guys (replaced army) with machine guns stood outside his
office, telling the boss that he had ten minutes to let everyone go. Bank
accounts of females were transferred to their husbands or next of kin. Women
aren’t allowed to own property, and marches were shut down because the army
would open fire on everyone. Citizens now watch what they say because they
don’t want to be reported for disloyalty.
The
commander’s wife knows that her husband is sterile, so she offers the narrator
a deal. She will give her a picture of her daughter, if she has sex with Nick;
the guard. Wanting to know any information about her daughter, the protagonist
accepts the deal. Later on, the protagonist goes to the Prayvaganza. Prayvaganzas are for group weddings, the men
ones are for military victories. This Prayvaganza is for young daughters who
are being married off to Angels. Their duty is to provide children for them, and
if they can’t then the husband is assigned a Handmaid. After the Prayvaganza,
Ofglen tells the protagonist that everyone knows she is seeing the Commander in
private, and to find out any information possible from him, so the other
Handmaid’s can know.
The
narrator continues her flashbacks with Luke, her daughter, and herself trying
to cross the border. She ends up crying after the flashback, convincing herself
that she’s a refugee and her life is worthless. The Commander’s wife brings in
a picture of her daughter, the protagonist looks over it seeing that her
daughter has grown quite a bit. In addition, she realizes that her daughter has
probably forgotten her and again her life is meaningless.
The
protagonists’ next meeting with the Commander involves him having her dress up
in lingerie, putting make up on, and going to a secret club that only officers,
senior officials, and trade delegations know of. The club is in an old hotel
that the protagonist recognizes instantly. There are no rules, they have booze,
cigarettes, and sex. The main purpose of the club for the men is to talk
business and over hear conversations. For the woman, it is an alternative life
that they prefer, however, they are not allowed to gain weight. If they gain
ten pounds, they are stuck in solitary to lose the weight again. At the club,
she sees Moira, her best friend, and Moira tells her everything in the girls’
bathroom. Moira describes her story after she stabbed the aunt and escaped the
training center. She says how she walked to a house that she knew, and they
provided her with new clothes and food. After that they took her to another
house, and told her that they were going to get her out of the country. She got
all the way to Main, so she could board a boat and go across the border;
however, the Eyes got to her first. Moira explains in details about the
Colonies, she states that the Eyes gave her a choice. She could either be a
part of the Jezebel’s or go off to the Colonies. The Colonies is where all the
elderly woman and some transgender men go. They are to clean up all the dead
bodies and burn them. Some Colonies are even worse, where they must clean up
toxic spills. The life span there is only three years. Some Colonies aren’t bad
because all they do is garden. Of course, Moira picked being with the Jezebel’s
because it’s only a night job, they have access to booze and drugs, and she can
still be lesbian there. The narrator sees that Moira isn’t the same anymore,
she’s not the firecracker she once knew. Moira is now just going through the
motions and trying to save her own skin. The protagonist never sees Moira after
that night.
At the
end of the night, the Commander brings the protagonist into a hotel room where
he seduces her and has sex with her. She doesn’t want to be there, and she
especially doesn’t want to have sex with the Commander. Not in an intimate way.
But, she fakes it and does it anyways.
At
midnight, the Commander’s wife comes into the protagonists’ room and tells her
to go knock on Nick’s door. The wife covers for her while the narrator goes and
does this. Nick and the protagonist have sex; however, she feels she is
betraying Luke since she doesn’t know if he’s dead or not. She continues to
have sex with Nick, without the Commander’s wife knowing. The protagonist
begins to fall in love with him, however, she doesn’t ever speak those words
because it is bad luck. She ends up telling him everything, except about Luke.
The narrator feels that Luke is fading away because of her unfaithfulness. Nick
does not reveal anything to her, instead he just watches her talk. Offred can
feel that she is pregnant, but she will find out in a couple weeks for sure.
Ofglen prods and nags her about the Commander on their walks, but Offred is
involved with Nick now and only cares about him. The narrator doesn’t tell
Ofglen about Nick, though. Instead she keeps it to herself because she wants to
stay at the house, being able to access Nick whenever she wants.
One day
the Protagonist goes to a district Salvaging, only for women. There are Angels
everywhere guarding with guns and plexiglass shields just in case things get
out of hand. The Handmaid’s are told to kneel on red cushions, and they are in
the front row to witness everything and be watched by the Angels. Two
Handmaid’s and one wife is to be salvaged that day. Wives are uncommon, so the
narrator wonders what transgression she has committed. All three of the women
are hung in front of everyone to see. After the Salvaging, the Handmaid’s are
asked to form a circle. The guards bring a guard who has committed rape, and
put him in the middle of the circle. Aunt Lydia declares that this guard had
accomplices as well, but one of them was shot. The woman they raped was
pregnant and they killed the baby. This sends anger through all the Handmaid’s
because they work hard to become pregnant. The guard whispers “I didn’t…”, but
he didn’t get to finish his sentence because all the Handmaid’s beat him to
death. Ofglen kicks him in the head three times to put knock him out, so he
doesn’t feel any pain. Ofglen tells the narrator that he didn’t rape anyone, he
was one of them, a political. But, the government wants to cover it up as a
rape.
After
the morning of the Salvaging, the narrator goes to the grocery store. She waits
at the corner for Ofglen, but finds that there is a new woman in the house
Ofglen. The old one has committed suicide because she saw the Eyes were coming
for her. She killed herself, so they wouldn’t torture information out of her,
so she wouldn’t give away the things she knew and the people she coincided
with; including the protagonist. The protagonist feels the true power of the
government at that moment, she realizes that she doesn’t want to be hung on the
wall or feel pain. She is willing to do anything the government asks since she
has been given a second chance. The Commander’s wife is waiting for the
narrator when she gets home, and holds out the cloak and lingerie she wore that
one night with the Commander when he took her to the club. The wife is furious
with the Offred and tells her that she trusted her and how could she do this.
She ends her fury by saying she is going to end up like the other Handmaid.
Dead. Nick has witnessed all of this.
At the
end of the book, the Eyes do come for the narrator. However, Nick is a part of
the Eyes. He tells Offred to go with them, to trust him. Nick disappears and
the Eyes take her away. The Commander and Commander’s wife are not the ones who
called the Eyes because they throw a fit about them taking their Handmaid. The
Eyes tell the Commander and wife that they don’t need a warrant, and the
protagonist has spilled secrets of the state. As this is said the Commander’s
wife calls the narrator a bitch and says “after all he’s done for you.” The
narrator is taken into the van and doesn’t know if she is going to her death or
a new beginning.
2.
Why I
chose this text
I chose this text because I think
it’s important for students to have an idea of what a dystopian world is like.
In my Sociology and English class combined, we had a dystopian unit where we
read the Hunger Games, and got to
choose another dystopian book to present to the class as a group presentation. So,
this book would be a good example to explore a dystopian world. In addition, my
students can compare the society in the book with a past societies. For
example, when Hitler was dictating Germany. Having a woman play a strong lead
in a book and go through trials is also vital because it include feminism. This
book focuses on a more mature and older group. I would say 11th-12th
graders. Possibly AP students of 10th grade. I say this because I
teach in a pre-AP class and they are mature to handle materials as this one.
This book’s Lexile number is 750L, which would be around 6th grade.
However, the content is not 6th grade appropriate. Deepening my
students understanding of this book will prepare them for college.
3.
Teaching
ideas
a.
Assigning groups at the beginning of class into
ranks of society that occurs within the book (Handmaids, Econowives, Jezebels,
Commanders, Commanders wife, Marthas, Eyes, Angels, Guards). This can be done
by drawing by random out of a hat, making sure to separate the females from the
males.
b.
An informational essay comparing Gilead’s
society with a real-world society that is repressed, could be past or present.
c.
Watch the movie and write a reflection on how
the book and the movie differ and complement each other.
4.
Obstacles
Some obstacles I may come across
are the sexual content and violence within the book (The ceremony, the club, sex
with Nick, the wall, salvaging). An administrator, parent, or student may say
that the book isn’t appropriate for their child, or that it delves too deep in
politics and feminism. I would respond with that students learning about
politics, repressed regimes, and feminism is vital to their education because
then they aren’t sheltered to the real world. Education is becoming a
helicopter parent, when it should be teaching students how to be members of
society and to stand up for the right thing. Having my class be aware of
current world issues, and issues that could very well become true in the future
will aid them to use their voice because their generation will be the one to
save the future generation, so why not keep them aware.
5.
Etc.
I think it is also important to
send a letter out to the parents to inform them on what we will be reading. I
don’t want to leave parents in the dark. Plus, religion is also an aspect of
this book. The whole country is one religion, which is Christianity. Nobody
wants to put a bad name on Christians, so I want my students to understand that
just because the book paints a stereotypical picture of Christians doesn’t mean
that they must do the same. Ultimately this is a book, that consists of what
if’s and what could be’s, doesn’t mean it will happen. However, it is always
useful to be prepared just in case a catastrophe does happen within the
country.
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