Review: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale tells the story of an oppressive, patriarchal society in what's known as America. As one read it from a Western point-of-view in the 21st century, one would see that this tale and the Republic of Gilead are completely fantastical. How could this happen, you'd say, how could anyone let this happen?

But I could easily name several politicians that would espouse the same views expressed by the Gileadean elite even now, in the 21st century. What makes the Handmaid's Tale so chilling is that the danger is still present, that the subjugation of women still lurks in the dark corner. How can it not, when there are politicians that can say that there's a thing called 'legitimate rape'? How can it not, when a teenage girl is gang-raped society gives her less sympathy than her rapists? How can it not, when there are people who legitimately believes that marital rape does not exist? How can it not, when women march to oppose a bill that would give them equal pay with men? What makes Gilead so chilling and scary is because we can easily see it coming to fruition. Hell, if you can see in the world now, there are many places where women are subjugated to Gilead-like draconian laws, maybe not as extreme as it's depicted in the novels, but still pretty bleak.

Mrs Atwood has a way with prose. The peculiar nature of the novel's narrative - that it is mainly a woman recollecting her experiences as a Handmaid - makes it easy for the narrator to jump time from her time with the Commander's family to her time with her own family to her time in college to her escape attempt or to her childhood. Because of the "reconstructive" nature of the novel too there are a lot of ambiguities, and even we cannot be sure of the names of the narrator's friends or even the names of the narrator herself. The plot device of it being a collection of recording that is assembled by a team of future archaeologist trying hard to be chronologically faithful can also be a way to account for the disconnected, almost episodic nature of the novel.

There are a lot of allusions with the subjugated women of Gilead with the plight of the slaves during the Antebellum. The narrator tried to escape to Canada, like what most slaves did in the pre-Civil War era. There's a mention of the Underground Femaleroad, no doubt meant to allude to the Underground Railroad used by Black slaves to escape to the North or "friendly" states. Quaker families are often mentioned as being friendly to women and tried to help them escape, just like how several Quaker families helped slaves escape by becoming active in the Underground Railroad. There are mentions of organized protest in the UK to help "Save the Women" as they say, no doubt meant to evoke the abolitionist movement that emerged earlier in Britain. The recordings of Offred's tale are usually preceded by several minutes of music, no doubt meant to evoke how music came to be an important means of communication in helping slaves escape, although the catch in here is if the songs of the Underground Railroad are spiritual in nature, the songs of the Mayday Resistance and the Underground Femaleroad are secular in nature to contrast with the Gileadean theocracy. There's also a nice contrast between the repressive Gilead (located in what is ostensibly USA) and the passive but freer Canada.

There has been a debate whether or not The Handmaid's Tale belongs to the speculative fiction genre or to the science fiction genre, partly because of the fundamental question: can the world described in the novel exists? Even if I shelved it in the science-fiction shelf, I believe that Gilead can exist in our world; there're enough ingredients for it. But thankfully, due to divine intervention or some other way, Gilead hasn't yet come to fruition. The Handmaid's Tale then serves as both a horror story and a warning to us, to not let rampant intolerancy and religious fundamentalism run its course.