Introduction

Canadian author Margaret Atwood's short stories, essays, novels, and poetry have always been popular with readers. Over her long career, she has also become increasingly respected by academics. In 1988, critic Judith McCombs described Atwood as "Canada's most studied contemporary writer," and in the three decades since, the number of articles and books examining her work have multiplied exponentially.

One remarkable indicator of her skill as a writer is her ability to create speculative fiction that critics take seriously. Her MaddAddam Trilogy is widely regarded as a masterpiece, and her 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale has continually grown both in its popularity--the story has been adapted into a movie, an opera, and an acclaimed web series--and in its reputation in literary circles.

The Handmaid's Tale is set in a dystopian theocracy (the Republic of Gilead) in which the powerful live in luxury, while most people live in fear of the harsh punishments doled out for deviating from strictly defined social roles. Because of severely declining birth rates, the few women who remain fertile are assigned the role of handmaids, attached to the household of a wealthy, important man to bear him a child if his wife cannot. Because of the handmaids' role in society, the novel contains some frank, if not explicit, discussion of sexual matters. Therefore, the book may not be appropriate for some younger students.

Plot

I. Night

The narrator describes nighttime in the Rachel and Leah Center. The handmaids sleep on cots in an old school gymnasium and "whisper almost without sound" to share their names without attracting attention from the aunts who serve as both instructors and jailers.

II. Shopping

After the narrator, a handmaid called Offred, wakes up in her simply furnished room in the Commander's house, she goes downstairs, where the household Marthas (servants), Rita and Cora, are chatting as they work. Rita presents the tokens Offred will exchange for food and sends her out to run errands. In the garden behind the house, Offred sees the Commander's wife and recognizes her as Serena Joy, the star of an old religious television show. The tension between Offred and Serena Joy is obvious. Offred also sees Nick, a Guardian of the Faith, cleaning the Commander's car.

Offred meets her shopping partner, a handmaid named Ofglen. While they are in the shopping district, they see Ofwarren, whom Offred knew in the Rachel and Leah Center as Janine. She is heavily pregnant. As Offred and Ofglen walk home, they pass the Wall, where the bodies of executed criminals hang on display.

III. Night

In the quiet of her room, Offred reminisces about her mother and her college friend Moira. Then Offred thinks of her daughter, who was taken away from her when she became a handmaid.

IV. Waiting Room

Still on their way home, Ofglen and Offred pass a small funeral entourage: an econowife (a wife of low rank) mourning the loss of an unborn child. Offred reaches the house where she is stationed, sees Nick,...