THE HANDMAID’S TALE: A BOOK REPORT

Taylor Swift’s “The Man” talks about patriarchal society, it screams how men are powerful in the society
and on one hand, how women are crying for rights, freedom and equal treatment yet we are unhear and
still seeking to find such. Thus, this novel of Margaret Atywood entitled “The Handmaid’s Tale”
somehow relates to it but in a deeper sense. The characters of the novel are Offred and other handmaids,
Commander or angels or those leader or high-profile men, Wives of the commander, Mayday, Aunt
Lydia, Nick. While handmaid is the sexual worker, mayday is household keeper. The character’s name
where actually or how they were called is based upon on the bible such Luke, Offred and the likes.

The novel revolves around June (Offred), a handmaid, story about her and her other characters’ stories. It
was tackled how being handmaid is was then forced by the government, her story about how escaping
from this includes punishment such as salvaging, the handmaid is usually wore a red dress and which they
were describe as more like a whore whom going to provide the children for the commander and their wife
yet the baby will only recognize as the baby of the commander and its wife not the handmaid, there is a
ritual or ceremony done whereas the June and commander have sex with Serena Joy or the wife of the
commander, it was narrate in the story how women are being taken away from their rights, right to choose
what they want to do, such if they want children or not, right to learn as they were not allowed to learn or
read and there are only times they can watch news or such yet, you can’t tell if it is fact. Before Gilead,
June is in love with Luke, which when he met him he had his wife yet, she became the mistress of luke.
Before being a handmaid or mayday, you are going to go to the center whereas you are going to be
assessed or evaluated by the people in there, usually mayday are those who can do household chore such
cleaning the house and handmaids are going to work as bearer of the child of the commander they are
assigned to, there is actually an age for having a baby and if from that certain age they can’t bear a child,
punishment will be given.

After reading the Trans realist fiction, novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atywood, a writer
focuses mainly in the aspects or subject matter which are:

 Handmaid
 Patriarchy
 Women

Let’s first talk about Handmaid. It is a term to women who work for the Commanders whom wives can’t
bear child. Women under this work is much more like a slut, a mistress or hostess which their purpose is
for the commander and its wife to have a baby, thus, the baby will only recognize as the baby of the
commander and the wife of it. They usually wore a red dress signifying their fertility and implying their
role which is to produce children. There is called ritual in the novel which is called ceremony, in the
chapter 15 of the novel, it was said that ceremony is the only time where the handmaid and commander
can do the sex for the production of the baby, thus, it also requires the presence of the wife for the process
as what the character Offred (handmaid), Serena Joy (wife of commander) and the Commander has done.
They are allowed to bath and afterwards, they are going to read bible and prayer which was led by men.
They were not allowed to be seen together with the Commander except of course, in the ceremony which
was only done a year Handmaid’s work is not chosen by them, they were chosen by the government, they
were forced to work for that and assigned to different commanders or angels. If a handmaid can’t bear a
child, she will be put to colonies which is one of the things that handmaids are afraid of, where it is a
punishment, spend their time cleaning, do agriculture or worst, a death particularly. They are forced to be
a handmaid by the totalitarian society, they have to abide the rules if not, would face consequences. They
can’t escape as they will be put into salvaging where women who commit crimes or other things such as
adultery, killing a handmaid and such where they are hanged and usually women are also forced to
participate in this.

Patriarchy in the novel was seems to exists, how novel describes men as powerful and uses of bible or
prayer as their weapon to deceive people to follow their orders. In the chapter 40 which Jezebel is shown
or described in the novel, which Jezebel is a club where whore or prostitutes are, whereas the club
revealed the hypocrisy of the powerful men who pontificate about sexual morality and then spend their
evenings dallying with prostitutes, which also seems to me that men are powerful and which men going in
the club for strategy in the production is something normal, yet, women whom can’t conceive children is
unvalued. Even in reading the bible and prayer, men are the ones who lead and it clearly signifies
patriarchal society they lived in. While both genders are infertile, only women are blamed by the
government. Hence, to have the male leader of the country to reproduce, they created handmaids. It was
men whom controlled by women in the society.

Women in the novel are being controlled or even forced to do things and they have no freedom at all,
whether they like or not to be handmaid, they should be. Further, women are subjected to being treated as
weaker sex that aren’t allowed to read or learn, in the novel, it was stated that the words in the street were
changed into symbols and they were blamed for almost everything, can’t conceived both genders? The
blame will be put into women, miscarriage happened? Then, women will still be blame and think that
they did something to make it happen or cause such, and forced to believed that it is women’s fault to be
the victims of rape for as women, they should be more careful, not walk alone especially in night time and
should not wear something seductive. From the novel, in one of the chapters, it was described there that
one of the woman in the center her experience of being gang rape and got pregnant by one of the men that
raped her which led her to abortion yet, the response of the women she’s talking in a group is chanting,
“her fault, her fault, her fault” and this perceived that anything that goes wrong are blamed to women, if
wives can’t give husband child then it’s a wife fault for it’s their lacking, if there’s something go wrong in
the kitchen as women are perceived to handling the household, it would be their fault as well, this is some
kind of brainwashing of women especially when clearly, it’s men’s fault.

It was a novel worth to read, if you’re a feminist, someone whom wanted something about the rights
specifically women’s right, it’s for you. On one hand, It was very mind blowing as to how Bible and
prayer were used to control women, it was clearly pointing fingers to women about how they dress and
just being a woman is their fault for being subjected to rape, harassment and the likes. It’s something that
talk about how men control women and perceiving women as not valued unless otherwise they can bear a
child. Moreover, it is also like normalizing the concept of having another woman such as handmaid to fill
the gap or lacking of the wife, it is like a big slap and an insecurity to those who are infertile. It was
something that is very unusual, from the taboo topics such faith, sex and gender inequality, all together it
made the story a little touch of something new and what’s interesting is that it’s something that you would
disagree with as they were like normalizing the thought of handmaid that merely a mistress just to
produce children. Let alone being a woman, conceiving children are your power, let that reason to
overcome obstacle as women in society shed light to inspire as to other women to be empowered, fearless
and nothing can prevent them from shining and reaching their full potential, they are more than that of
being a woman, a machine for producing children they say. They also excel in different fields and it is
something that the government of Gilead look and realize and hopefully, those women in the novel should
also uplift the marginalized women alongside with them, they should not be subjected to harassment,
mistreated, used as an object and who have not recognized their worth and independence. Let them shine
and embrace the FREEDOM as from this novel denied them of freedom and rights to any aspects.