January 2021 Classic of the Month: 'The Handmaid's Tale'

How Margaret Atwood's famous dystopian novel is more relevant now than ever before.

'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood, 314 pages - Instagram @c_reads_books

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The classic of the month for January 2021 is The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Having now read this book twice, I can say with complete honesty and certainty that it is one of the most haunting and alarming dystopian books ever written.

In a society where it is every man for himself, Offred is a character who is significantly alienated from others in many ways; because she is a Handmaid with very little power, Offred is effectively alienated from those with more power than her, as well as the other Handmaids.

Offred’s, along with the other Handmaids’, alienation from society and each other reveals the value Gilead places on men and their fear of women, who they see as walking wombs, having power, along with the value they place on the fear and division of the people in order to keep them in line and prevent them from uprising. This reveals how totalitarian states use power to divide and create fear amongst people.

As a Handmaid, Offred is forced to wear a long red dress. The color red of the Handmaids' clothes is symbolic of both positive and negative aspects of their roles in society.

Red is a symbol of blood and childbirth, which Gilead values immensely, yet it is also a marking of sexual sin, alluding to the red A Hester Prynne is forced to wear in The Scarlet Letter, marking her for adultery. Handmaids are marked with the color red, making them easy to identify if they were to run away, further dividing the people.

As shown in her clothes, Offred’s job as a Handmaid is ambiguous in society; the Handmaids are told they are doing a noble job of having children, yet they are hated by the Wives whose husbands they have sex with and treated as lower class citizens.

As seen when Offred first meets Serena Joy and enters her household, she is allowed in the front door only the first time. Serena Joy tells Offred to carry her own bags and effectively shuts her out, telling her she doesn’t want to see or talk to her. By forcing Offred to use the back door to the house, she further alienates her from the rest of the people in the house.

As the story progresses, Offred begins to form connections to Ofglen and the Commander. After a few times walking to buy groceries with Ofglen, Ofglen cautiously says that it is a “beautiful May day,” testing to see if Offred is a part of the secret group Mayday. Offred doesn’t understand, but remembers the expression, coming from m’aidez, help me, in French.

Later on, Offred and Ofglen cautiously discover that they are both against the government’s policies. Both women say to each other “I thought you were a true believer,” revealing how Gilead not only divides the social classes/groups, but also the people within those groups.

In a society where the Eyes, a secret government group that spies on the people, are everywhere, no one can trust anyone. Gilead equates the group to the Eyes of God, yet twists the meaning from the Bible.

In the Bible, God looks down on earth joyously, yet Gilead twists the meaning to be negative and fear inducing, asserting that the eyes of God and those of the state are one and the same. The Eyes effectively alienate everyone from each other.

Anyone who is not in a position of power, namely the Handmaids, becomes paranoid and afraid of talking to anyone else, especially when they constantly see people in the streets being grabbed and tossed into black vans with no explanation.

As Offred starts to see the Commander at night, breaking the rules, she gains a human relationship, yet this relationship in some ways alienates her further. The Commander thinks he is doing a noble thing and helping Offred by talking to her and playing Scrabble with her, yet this is juxtaposed with the reality that he is putting her in great danger.

Being in such a high position of power and a man, the Commander has the luxury of breaking rules and being ignorant to the problems of those with less power than him. Despite being a founder of the Republic of Gilead, the Commander himself does not care about following the rules set in place.

Although the Commander sees the time he spends with Offred as a gift to her, letting her play Scrabble, and giving her some semblance of the power associated with language, the Commander is really showing Offred the division of power, and the luxury that comes with that power, between them.

Throughout the entirety of the novel, Offred is significantly alienated from others in many different ways. Even when she connects and forms relationships with others, Offred still has to be wary of others’ power, both possible and known, over her.

Revealing how totalitarian states use power to effectively divide and create fear amongst people, Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is not only a dystopian text, but also a cry for the betterment of society. Although the society of Gilead may seem outlandish and impossible, anything is possible, as long as we allow it to happen. To quote Aunt Lydia, “this may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary.”