Remember the story of Abraham and Sarah? Remember how God promised Sarah a child but she didn't believe she could conceive in her old age and sent her maid in her place to conceive a child with Abraham? That is where the handmaids in Atwood's world come in. The premise of handmaids is based on Old Testament practices of a husband sleeping with his wife's maid to have children when the wife is infertile. And by everything, I mean I started appreciating driving, going to work, putting on makeup, taking a shower, having my own money, making my own choices, picking out my own clothes, my cat, everything about my life. It is a book that makes you think, and makes you appreciate everything that you have. The Handmaid's Tale is not an easy read and it is not escapist fiction, like I usually read. I saw that it was dystopia and thought, why not? Now I'm really glad I read it because this is not a book to miss out on. I bought it on a whim for my Nook because the e-book was on sale at Barnes and Noble. Much like Orwell's 1984, the only other classic dystopian literature I've read, I know I'll be thinking about The Handmaid's Tale for a long time. She explained that the Victorian period taught her that novels should not focus on one person but on society, something one could certainly say about The Handmaid’s Tale.This is a difficult book to forget. Atwood studied Victorian literature at Radcliffe College and has referenced that period in her life as an influence on how her novels are written. As any reader will notice, and Atwood has herself said, the novel is standing firmly in the present moment. But, the novel was not only based in the past. When asked to speak about the process of writing about Offred, Gilead, the Aunts, Marthas, and more, she cited her research on 17th-century Ameican Puritans who used to Bible to create a similar type of theocracy based around a selective reading of the Bible. It is one of many that she has written, and far from the only dystopian novel, in her lifetime. The Handmaid’s Tale is undeniably Atwood’s most famous novel. Climax: The final scene of the novel when Offred is either taken to her death or rescued.Setting: Massachusetts, the Republic of Gilead (in what used to be the United States).When/where written: Early 1980s in West Berlin, British Columbia, and Alabama.Offred tells the story of her life in The Handmaid’s Tale, speaking brutally of what the world has become, her desire to find her daughter again, and somehow achieve freedom. Offred is a Handmaid whose only purpose in Gilead is to have children for a wealthy, elite couple. The protagonist, Offred, is one of many still-fertile women who have been captured by the military and forced into sexual slavery. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is set in the Republic of Gilead after a military coup has destroyed the United States government and put in its place a totalitarian theocracy.
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