The Handmaid's Tale

One of the themes in The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, is power. Wanting it, needing it, having it, trying to obtain it, dealing with it, ect. Power is one of the main factors that Gilead is built from. It is a society all about men being totally in control, calling all the shots, and holding ALL the power. Then there are the women. Human beings just like the men, but treated no where near equal. Because they on the other hand have no power. Not in the society, the households, or even their own individual lives. And when something has no power, no rights, no say, and no choice especially, it becomes an item. That is what the handmaids are, they are objects that are needed by the Commanders and their wives. They aren't people to them, they are just items that are useless unless needed. Like Offred, the only time she matters is once a month during the Ceremony and even then she 'isn't there'. She is nothing more then a vessel, a uterus to hold a baby for someone else.  

Having no power forces everyone to just go with the flow. They don't really have a choice.. at all, so just going with it is their only choice. An example of this, and also my favorite quote from the novel, would be, "Is that how we lived, then? But we lived as usual. Everyone does, most of the time. Whatever is going on is as usual. Even this is as usual, now. We lived as usual, by ignoring. Ignoring isn't the same as ignorance, you have to work at it," (Atwood 56). What this is saying is that there is no set definition of 'usual', because after a while any situation can become 'usual'. To them, what they had before, life before Gilead, used to be usual and now life in Gilead is usual for them. There is no such thing as just one usual. It just becomes a term that is anything, good or bad, like it or not, that you have to deal with for a period of time. Almost like a routine in a sense. So Offred didn't forget about her life pre-Gilead, she just chooses not to think about it. Of course she will always remember it, but this is her life now. She has to focus all of her energy on this. It is easier for her to go along with this life as her new usual then to be nostalgic of her past time.  

The Handmaid's Tale was an interesting novel to read. I can't decide if I enjoyed it or not, though. I mean Margaret Atwood did a good job writing it! It had lots of great symbols, like the FAITH pillow symbolizing the lost faith in the society, the diction was sophisticated yet simple enough to understand. And there was so much more that was good about it. The style that the book was written in gives it a more board audience. Although, it isn't a book that I would have picked up to read myself. But after reading it, I didn't dislike it. In general, it has all the components of a good novel in my opinion.