The South by Southwest Conference and Festivals (SXSW) is happening in Austin this week and a group of handmaids has been marching throughout downtown to promote Hulu’s adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale. I twice spotted them. I don’t use Hulu, so I won’t be watching, but I can certainly recommend the novel.
#handmaidstale procession at #SXSW powerful. @MargaretAtwood pic.twitter.com/YcBReO1D6w
— andrea davis (@detailmatters) March 10, 2017
Summary
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is striking and enthralling. The harrowing dystopia that is the Republic of Gilead (America, in the future) is a hyper-patriarchial theocracy where women are considered sub-human. Women cannot read, work or own property. In an age of declining births, the handmaids are a group of “walking wombs” whose only purpose is to give birth to the children of the Commanders, a group of important men. The main character, Offred, is a handmaid who grapples with sexual desire, independence, power, and trust.
The novel makes important points about religion being used as a political instrument to control people. Indeed, religion and the State are inextricably intertwined: the Eyes, a group of spies, are both the “eyes” of the government and the eyes of God. Women repeatedly pray for impregnation as part of the ritual. Those who defy the government must be publicly hanged for their sins. The female body as a political instrument is, of course, a major theme as well.
My Recommendation
The Handmaid’s Tale is haunting and powerful. I am a fan of dystopian novels (1984 is one of my all-time favorite books), and this one easily surpassed my expectations. While the book is excellent regardless of what happens in the world around us, this is a unique time to read it. Demagogues frequently invoke religion to justify bigotry; as a Christian, that is abhorrent. This bigotry comes in many forms: preventing trans people from using the restroom; an executive order banning certain people from entering the US while insisting that we fret over “radical Islamic terrorism”; attacking women’s rights by limiting access to contraception and abortion services. The list goes on.
The novel touches on how the Republic of Gilead came into being and it was thanks to demagoguery, scapegoating, and bigotry. We should not anticipate the cancellation of the Constitution or the rise of a totalitarian theocracy anytime soon, but we should always be cautious of demagogues and religion as a means of control and political power.
If you want to read more about the meaning behind the novel in the Trump era, I recommend this article in The New York Times by Margaret Atwood.
Get your copy of The Handmaid’s Tale
