"The Handmaid's Tale"

Paper Summary:

"The Handmaid's Tale" (Margaret Atwood) is told through the viewpoint of an anonymous woman living in some oppressive society of the near future as essentially a slave, whose sole function is to bear children for the underpopulated theocracy called the Republic of Gilead that was once the United States. The paper looks at the similarities between Atwood's tale and today's society, where woman are being oppressed throughout the world.

From the Paper:

"Atwood shows us what the world would look like if the religious right and fanatical anti-abortionists had just a little more power than they do and than they did in 1986, when the power of the religious right was even greater. And against this she sets the courage and grace of her protagonist who in the end may be saved and may be lost, may be a mother and may be alone, but is always standing with her face to the light, asking simply to be recognized as herself, not as a handmaid nor even as a woman, but as an individual whose purpose in life can be determined only by herself."

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