Margaret Atwood
first published in 1985
★★★★★
Synopsis
The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire – neither Offred’s nor that of the two men on which her future hangs.
Brilliantly conceived and executed, this powerful vision of the future gives full rein to Margaret Atwood’s irony, wit and astute perception.
Better never means better for everyone, he says. It always means worse, for some.
p.212
I can’t believe it took me so many years to read this book. It’s brilliant and one of the best I’ve ever read. Atwood was so artful creating this dystopian society set in a near future, when a religious and conservative group took the power. It was a coup and when people took notice of what was happening, it was too late.
What stroke me the most was that this dystopian world holds so many similarities with our world that’s impossible not to relate it to present governments and political groups. I think the way the government tries to manipulate means of communication and to oppress the opposition is so real that I held my breath in some passages of the book. And of course, I need to add hypocrisy and corruption to this list – I’m not going to detail it tough, as I don’t want to spoil the story for those who haven’t read the book yet.
However, all these similarities are not coincidence: Atwood states that she based her dystopian society on real facts, and studied to understand how a fundamentalist group would behave if they ever take control of a country.
Oppression of the women is the first feature of the plot: they have fixed roles defined by the government. They can be Wives, the ones who stay home, housekeeping, knitting, being there for their husbands; or they can be Marthas, the ones who clean and cook; or they can be Handmaids, the ones who breed. They can’t talk anything other than what`s strictly necessary and they never know who can betray them, or even maliciously make up false accusations. Traitors are hanged on the wall as a reminder for others to obey.
All the steps to control a people are explored on the book: the first is the removal of identity – they have to wear standardised clothes, the Handmaids are renamed after the man they belong to (so Offred means “property of Fred“); then they are brainwashed – the only information they receive is distorted in order to create a new “truth”, fear and disgust are created; violence is employed – for teaching and for punishing the rebels; the opposition is made outlaw; knowledge is banished – reading is forbidden; everything is controlled by those in power, and there is no liberty anymore.
Everything was so artfully written, the plot is so rich and the writing technique so good that it was impossible for me to put the book aside. The open ending is a delight and a surprise. Of course I wanted to know everything – but this is one of the reasons why this book is not just “another one” in a list. The Historical Notes are so smart – they are a confirmation on how history and the truth are manipulated by those who can do it, and they show exactly how a minority expression/speech is disqualified, being deemed unreliable. It’s the old victim blaming.
That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn’t even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn’t even an enemy you could put your finger on.
p. 173
Thoughts of One's Own 