The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

Ottawa native Margaret Atwood, born in 1939, is a famous author known for her works of feminism, where she often questions herself about being a “true feminist” as she shows feminism is a different manner. This is something that is clear to see in one of her more famous novels titled The Handmaid’s Tale which has raised a lot of question over whether this book is actually intended to be a feminist novel or not. According to the author herself, the answer is no, this book is not meant to highlight feminism, but rather to enhance the troubles that women might face through a hyperbolized dystopia known as Gilead. Rather, this novel covers multiple issues that have the ability to be discussed in depth in a school setting, allowing it to serve educational
purposes. This novel was developed for educational purposes, and that is exactly what it serves through societal issues that may be overseen but are exaggerated within the text to emphasize the dangers that they may cause. The novel attacks a high school audience as it highlights many societal downfalls that allow schools to discuss and reflect upon. Atwood does an incredible job within the novel as she takes issues that occur, or have occurred within the past, and exaggerates them to show the possible consequences that could result from the carelessness of society.
This develops the idea that present actions can create an unknown future that is unable to be changed. Atwood does this for educational purposes to enhance the downward spiral that our society could fall into. Issues such as polygamy, gender roles, abuse of power, anarchy, and social rankings are developed through the dystopia that the novel is based around. Everybody is forced to where a different colour based on social ranking, forced to follow a specific role, and cut off from their old lives. Polygamy is exaggerated through the commanders, the men who rule the house, are given several women who all serve different purposes, whether it be “wifely duties” such as cooking and cleaning, having babies, or raising these babies. Gender roles are also established throughout these roles that each member of the household is given, based off of the colour that they are assigned. These colours ultimately establish the social ranking as you are treated with a certain level of respect based off of the colour that you wear. The plot of the story is organized in an order that allows each of these issues to come in at the right time, allowing the exaggeration of the social quirks to flow without becoming too much for the reader to
handle. Anarchy is something that Atwood utilizes and extends on from the beginning of the novel, until the end. The lack of leadership within this dystopia has definitely led to a decline in the overall quality of life that these people are living. Offred, the protagonist, once lives happily with a family, but is puked from her life, and given completely new one in which she is forced to follow. Atwood uses the Lebonsborn program, a goal to raise the birth rate after the war, in the novel to allow the reader to develop an understanding of the lack of education that follows the leadership of the country. With the attempt to raise the population full of healthy babies, they have taken away everything that a healthy environment might need, such as the school, and “what once had been the gymnasium” was now rows of beds where women learned that they would be used for nothing except for the purpose of carrying a child. This is significant in showing the emptiness of things, such as education, that would be viewed as important, but instead has been transformed into a place to brainwash women of exactly what they shouldn’t believe. This leads into the idea of gender roles that is emphasized within the text. Atwood uses a subject such as ender equality that is so touchy and highly conversed within our society to enhance the importance of the “roles” the females play and the disrespect that they face on a day to day basis.
Gender inequality is stretched with the idea of women being trained to only carry a child and then move on to have a different baby with another man. In the novel, the protagonist states that “we are containers” which is turning these women into a concrete object to symbolize the disrespect and objectification that they are facing. This is an issue that many schools would cover in some way shape or form, which is a main reason that Atwood’s novel is so respected throughout the school systems. With such a sensitive topic being so stretched to form this dystopia, it allows teachers to highlight the importance of gender equality and the issues that many women face, although they might not be as bad as what Atwood portrays them as, they still exist in our society and degrading women in such a way can lead to further more advanced problems. When Offered is describing her previous life, she elaborates on issues that she faced as a women that would be more realistic within our society such as “don’t open your door to a stranger, don’t stop on the side of the road to help a motorist pretending to be in trouble, keep the locks on the door, if anyone whistles don’t turn and look, don’t go into a laundromat by yourself at night, and don’t jog at night or by yourself” to
ensure the safety of a female by using these unwritten rules as a form of protection because they were unable to feel safe within their society. These issues fall into social ranking as well as gender roles because these women are being discriminated and disrespected due to their gender. They have fallen to the bottom of the social food chain, which Atwood does to enhance the lack of respect that women face and to enlighten the educational purposes of the novel. The final issue that Atwood reflects upon that serves a high educational purpose would be polygamy. Something that is currently an ongoing debate in several states that continue to be reviewed and believe to be made possible in several years. With an article currently published in Chicago on the topic, comparing the right to plural marriage, to the same rights as same sex marriage, there is a long held debate over the issue. The social controversy of this issue allows for it to be discussed in depth within the classroom. The idea of polygamy is developed through the novel as the Commander is assigned several women at a time, including a handmaid, a commander’s wife, and Marthas. This is related to polygamy due to the man having so many women who are responsible for tending to his needs and strictly following the roles that are given. The novel reads “in the master bedroom, a good name for it; where this commander and his wife nightly bed down” is significant in this as it is showing the respect of the Commander and his high status. He is viewed as the “master” of the house which develops his authority above all of these women who are force to cater to him based on their roles. Atwood does an impeccable job of stretching and hyperbolizing social issues with the intention to highlight the possible consequences that we may face in the future. This serves a high educational purpose as it allows teachers to have the ability to extend on polygamy, anarchy, and the connection between gender roles and social rankings within the classroom and provides students with the ability to gain a new perspective on these social issues. This novel offers up a new view on writing as Atwood utilizes former issues that have occurred in society and elaborates on them with a certain distortion to emphasize the impact that these actions could have on the future. This then gives students the ability to conduct further research on such societal flaws and to search for a solution or a change that they, as an individual, can make in order to influence a change. Many people are blind to such occurrences and with the knowledge that can be absorbed from the dystopia, it provides the misunderstanding of how much of an impact that our present mistakes can have on our future. The novel develops the idea of how we are setting our future generations up for failure through discrimination of genders, social status, and poorly educated leadership.