Book Review: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

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This story is a personal journey through fear, hope, and the fight for freedom.

I first heard about The Handmaid’s Tale in college. People spoke about it like it was a prophecy, one that you didn’t want to believe could ever come true. But I didn’t read it then. I thought it was just another heavy political book.

But earlier this year, something changed. News headlines became more intense, laws were being passed, rights questioned, voices silenced. As a woman, I started to feel this quiet fear crawling into my chest. It felt like freedom could be taken at any moment.

So I finally picked up Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. I wasn’t just reading it for knowledge, I was reading to understand how close we are to losing the things we take for granted.

And wow… I didn’t expect it to hit this hard.

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Right at the first page, I was not comfortable. Atwood is poetic, but sharp in her writing. The manner in which she describes even the tiniest of details- the colour of the red robes Handmaids wore, the silence between the women which was thick, the muffle of the lost freedom of the past was so strong that, I felt I was there, at the spot, witnessing it all.

The thing that impressed me the most was its realism. Nothing in Gilead was a product of pure imagination. Atwood has already said that she never invented something new in this book, all the acts of cruelty or control are already present somewhere in our world.

It is that which makes it frightening.

It was not with explosion or guns the first time Offred speaks about the way rights were taken. It came in form of bank accounts being frozen, losing jobs and silence. It was quite fast. And the women were said it was in their best interest.

I got goose bumps at that point.

The Handmaid s tale is a book that takes place in a near future in a country known as Gilead which is constructed of the ashes of the united states following a brutal and bloody political and religious coup. Women have become deprived of any rights in this new society. They are not allowed to own any property, work, read and even manage their bodies.

The few fertile women left, referred to as Handmaids, are made to carry children of the ruling class because of a fertility crisis. These women are deprived of their names, personalities and decisions. They are sent to strong men (Commanders) and their women who are regarded as walking wombs.

The novel is narrated by one of the Handmaids called Offred. That isn t her proper name, it only means Of-Fred, or of a man called Fred. We can see by her voice that there is life under control, fear, resistance, and silent rebellion.

I needed to stop reading the book at some point.

When Offred tells about the rape depicted in the so-called Ceremony, when she is raped by the Commander lying between the legs of the wife, this was one of the most difficult scenes I ever read. Not only due to the very act, but due to the dehumanization. The weather was chilly. Controlled. Legal.

And the most awful thing? Everybody pretended that it was natural.

It caused me to think about the systems we already live under, how in society we can condone horrible things, when they become a “tradition” or a “law.” I was helpless. Angry. Sad.

I was also hopeful.

Offred, in spite of it all, maintains flicker of rebellion within her. She does not forget her daughter. The lost love, Luke. Her past life. She narrates her stories to keep her sane. Her head stays sharp, though her body is owned.

It is that rebellion--silent, but fierce--which bore me through the agony.

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Reading The Handmaid Tale was a mirror, though not the one of what I am, but what I might be, should I be ignoring it.

It also led me to wonder how quickly freedom can be taken. How deadly silence is. The construction of systems by people, who do not look through, but monsters.

It also reminded me about the female nature. Approximately as to how we are still valued. The policing of our bodies. How even in the so called free world too many people continue to struggle to be recognized as human.

However, this book has made me thankful more than anything. In my voice. For choice. For freedom.

And it promised me: I will never again take them for granted.

This books is a wake up call. To look at the world around us. To speak up, even when it’s uncomfortable. To protect the freedoms we have, and fight for those who don’t.

“Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.”
Don’t let the bastards grind you down.

If you’ve never read The Handmaid’s Tale, I urge you, read it.

It’s not easy. It’s not comforting. But it’s powerful, unforgettable, and necessary.

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The last three image was gotten from web:

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