The Handmaid's Tale
Characters
- Offred, 5'7, brown hair and 33 years old --daughter and husband Luke
- Friends-- Ofglen, Moira, Cora
- Commanders favorite--Janine, and baby angie
- Commander-- Is the head man in the house, offred and the commander have little secret sessions where they play scramble. The commander will take Offred to a secret club that is forbidden.
- Nick-- Secret realationship with offred, thier relationship is much different than the commander and offred. Nick and offred seem to have more connections and more into one another. Where the commander she has no feeling for but feels like something bad might happen if she breaks the relationship off.
Settings
- The women live in a house hold (only the ones that can still give birth)--
- They go down town to go shopping. They have a tickets to buy what they need.
- Part of the town are blocked off and wall are set up so that people cant come in and people cant get out.
- The only way that you can stay in the house is if you can still give birth or you are already pregnet.
Important Events
Moira, runs away after tieing one of the aunts up. After she gets passed all the gards, they will not look for her anymore becuase they are scard that they will catch virus's.
Throughtout the book Offred is trying to get pregnate, at the end of the book she is heading off to a camp.
----Themes : The lack of feminism, the womens purpose is to get pregnet. They have rituals and pray for the women to have babies.
__Quotes__
- Handmaid--"Nolite te bastardes carborundorum"
Which means "Dont let the bastards grind you down"
"The Handmaid's Tale deserves the highest praise"
--San Francisco Chronicle
Background information
- All the handmaids rights were taken away. Encluding her family
- Different people were put into groups. ( Group 1 - The Marthas)
- The man were the care takers for the women before everyone was taken and put into different groups.
- All the babies that are born are given to different people to be rasied. Either the commamders wife or to someone else.
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
In a startling departure from her previous novels ( Lady Oracle , Surfacing ), respected Canadian poet and novelist Atwood presents here a fable of the near future. In the Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States, far-right Schlafly/Falwell-type ideals have been carried to extremes in the monotheocratic government. The resulting society is a feminist's nightmare: women are strictly controlled, unable to have jobs or money and assigned to various classes: the chaste, childless Wives; the housekeeping Marthas; and the reproductive Handmaids, who turn their offspring over to the "morally fit" Wives. The tale is told by Offred (read: "of Fred"), a Handmaid who recalls the past and tells how the chilling society came to be. This powerful, memorable novel is highly recommended for most libraries. BOMC featured alternate. Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., Va.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/c5/6f/f2b8b340dca0685154097010.L.jpg
Link to a picture of the book.
From the Publisher
"The most poetically satisfying and intense of all Atwood's novels."-Maclean's
"The Handmaid's Tale is in the honorable tradition of Brave New World and other warnings of dystopia. It's imaginative even audacious, and conveys a chilling sense of fear and menace."-The Globe and Mail
"The Handmaid's Tale brings out the very best in Atwood--moral vision, biting humor, and a poet's imagination."-Chatelaine
Symbolism
The red dress and the hats that the handmaids have to ware. To show that women are not as equal to men. Men dont have to ware them only men have to. The marthas have to ware a green dress.
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