“The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, a dystopian narrative set in the totalitarian state of Gilead, was definitely one of the most fascinating yet appalling novels I have ever read. The drastically different system of living that was described within it shocked me greatly, compelling me as a reader to continue reading about this very startlingly divergent society Offred was forced to put up with. One of the key themes I found highly engaging in Atwood’s novel was that of control.
Almost every facet of Offred’s life had been controlled, event to the extent of what she wore and what she could and couldn’t say. Laws prevented women from possessing properties and jobs, and technology enabled officials to freeze the bank accounts of women. There was no education system and all the universities had been shut down. Women were “colour coded” according to their class as well as roles in order to set them apart from each other in their unspoken hierarchy. Strict regulation was implemented through the eyes, guards, and even silent perpetrators amongst her acquaintances. Abortion was made illegal and women were revoked of even their own bodies.
Atwood’s insight into an unpleasant but not unlikely future motivated me to want to avoid the possibility of living in such a society by changing my view on what I had previously always presumed I would always have. The main message I took away with me from the novel was that the things we take for granted; that we think littlest of; that we presume we will never lose, those are (ironically) the kinds of things that taken away from us most easily.
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