“Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some.”
When we think of the past it's the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like that.”
“A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.”
I did watch the show - and loved it - but I am barely going to talk about the show. Afterall, the show isn’t banned, the book is. Only one section of this post will discuss the show, so scroll to the bottom if you’re interested. Also, there are no spoilers from the show in section 6, so there’s no concern there!
Here are the points I want to discuss, if you would like to break your read up section by section.
The style of the storytelling.
Mistrust leading to mass conformity.
Hypocrisies of Gilead.
Power dynamics.
Gilead and our world today: Atrocities committed in the name of the Bible and political issues regarding women’s bodily autonomy.
Show vs. Book: Which is better?
As usual, below are two summaries. One has spoilers and the other is just a basic overview. You can choose whichever you would like, though I do recommend reading the one with spoilers so you can better understand everything I’m discussing. For those of you who are watching the show and don’t want spoilers, don’t worry, neither summary has spoilers to the TV show, we’re only discussing the book. You’re good to keep watching and keep crying! Or throwing up – there are some moments for that, too.
Super Spoily Summary
The United States has been replaced by Gilead, an extremely religious and totalitarian government. The main character, Offred, is a Handmaid. Handmaids are women whose only job is to conceive a child for a high-ranking family in Gilead. The conception happens during a “ceremony”, in which the Handmaid lies between the Wife’s legs, the Wife holds the Handmaid’s arms tightly, and the Commander (the husband) rapes the Handmaid. The Handmaid lives with the family until a child is born, who is then given to the Wife and Commander. The Handmaid moves onto the next couple to repeat the process. The Ceremony happens once a month. The idea of the Handmaid’s job was created by Gilead to resemble the biblical story of Rachel and Leah from Genesis 29-31.
Offred switches between describing her current life and memories of the time before Gilead, when she had a daughter with her husband. During their capture, the three separated, and Offred doesn’t know if her husband is alive or dead. She does know that her daughter is somewhere else in Gilead. Offred also reminisces about her old friend, Moira, who she knew before Gilead. Moira became a Handmaid as well, but disappeared after an attempt to escape the Rachel and Leah Center, where Handmaids were trained. Offred doesn’t know if Moira’s escape was successful or not.
The couple Offred is working for is Serena Joy and the Commander. Serena Joy was once an advocate for traditional values, reaching notoriety in her preachings before becoming a Wife in Gilead. Also in the household are Marthas, who are infertile women working as cooks and cleaners, and a man named Nick, who holds the status of a Guardian. Offred’s other duty is to grocery shop in Gilead-owned stores. She shops with another Handmaid, Ofglen. Offred learns that Ofglen is part of a group called “Mayday”. Mayday is an underground rebel group seeking to overthrow Gilead. There is an opposite group to Mayday - the Eyes. The Eyes work for Gilead as a secret police force.
Nick tells Offred that the Commander would like to see her in his office. She can’t refuse, so she goes. It’s awkward at first, but it becomes a nightly ritual for the Commander and Offred to play Scrabble and end the night with a kiss. This is forbidden, Handmaids are not supposed to have close relationships with Commanders. Playing Scrabble is also against the rules, women aren’t allowed to read or write in Gilead. Offred enjoys this dynamic between the two because she feels she is gaining some power over the Commander.
The Commander takes Offred to Jezebel’s, a secret club where Commanders drink, smoke, and have sex with prostitutes. At Jezebel’s, Offred finds Moira working. Moira tells the story of how she escaped the Rachel and Leah Center, leaving Offred shocked with both the story and the existence of Jezebel’s. At the end of the night, the Commander takes Offred into a room to have sex. She doesn’t want to, but she must comply.
Serena is upset with Offred not being pregnant yet, and thinks the Commander may be the issue. She devises a plan to have Offred get pregnant by Nick and claim the baby belongs to the Commander. Offred and Nick have sex, forced by Serena, but begin to actually enjoy it. They sneak around each night, without Serena’s knowledge, and continue the affair. Offred gets distracted by this and forgets to give information to Ofglen/Mayday about the Commander.
The Handmaids are forced to participate in an execution, called a “salvaging”, ripping apart a man accused for rape. Soon after, Offred goes shopping, but there is a new Ofglen - not her friend from Mayday. Offred drops a hint about Mayday, and New Ofglen is uninterested, but does tell Offred that Original Ofglen killed herself when she saw a van of Eyes coming for her.
Serena confronts Offred about Jezebel’s. She found the outfit the Commander had Offred wear during their trip. Offred is sent to her room, after being called a slut, and a van approaches. Offred thinks about how she should’ve committed suicide, because she believes this van her ride towards execution for her Jezebel’s crime. However, Nick enters her room and says the van is actually with Mayday. She is escorted out by seemingly the Eyes, but according to Nick, Mayday. The book ends with Offred in the van, contemplating if this is the end of her life or a start to a new one.
Non-Spoily Summary
The United States has been replaced by Gilead, a religious and totalitarian government. The main character, Offred, is a Handmaid. Handmaids are raped by high-ranking men, called Commanders, to conceive a child. The only jobs Handmaids have are to give birth and grocery shop for the family. The Handmaid lives with the family until a child is born, who is then given to the Wife and Commander. The Handmaid moves onto the next couple to repeat the process. Women are treated poorly in Gilead, not allowed any luxuries, freedom, or even to read or write. Offred often remembers the time before Gilead took over the government, when she had a daughter and a husband. We’re taken through Offred’s journey in Gilead, learning how she copes, fights, and interacts with her new, terrible reality.
But first….
I need to make this clear before continuing: Coercion does not equal consent. “I have to allow this person to have sex with me or else I will be killed” is not consent. Sex without consent is rape. Rape is often envisioned as happening in a dark alley, with the victim screaming “no”, fighting, and pleading for help. This is NOT always the case. If it isn’t a “yes” without strings, pressures, or threats, then it is rape.
Now that that’s over, buckle up, buttercup! This is going to be a very long ride. As usual, I have a lot to say. You should, too!
1. The style of the storytelling.
If you like a lot of dialogue, action after action, and a book that is very straightforward with its storytelling, this is not the book for you; and I love it. The Handmaid’s Tale takes first-person writing to a whole different level. There are pages where it’s only Offred’s thoughts we’re reading – no dialogue, no action, not even a description of what’s around her. This was genius writing by Atwood. Offred is lonely and we feel lonely with her.
Offred doesn’t have a lot of freedom, so there isn’t much she can do besides think. The book is written so we hear her exact train of thought, like we’re in her mind. She stares at her shoes and describes them, then thinks about the shoes she wore as a child, then how the shoes lit up at night, but she wouldn’t run at night because it was unsafe. Then she thinks about the rules that women followed, such as not going into a laundromat at night, and then she thinks about the laundromat. She thinks like us – notices something, thinks about it, gets reminded of other things, and so on. This makes Offred very realistic, so seeing her struggle hits us readers even harder. We aren’t told how she feels directly, we feel it with her through her thoughts. However, no matter how far her thoughts wander, from shoes to laundromats, they all circle back to the same thing: her loss of bodily autonomy.
Sometimes, we even hear her trying to organize her thoughts. In Chapter 7, Offred is thinking about a memory with her mom and asks herself, “but then what happens?” She’s lost time between that memory and the memory of waking up after being kidnapped by Gilead and not knowing where her daughter is. If Atwood wanted us readers to just know the story, she wouldn’t have made Offred ask a question that we obviously don’t know the answer to. She didn’t want to storytell, she wanted us to be in the story. She wanted us to be Offred.
Offred’s memories are often hard to follow. Do your memories come up in your mind in chronological order? They don’t in Offred’s either. We're left with trying to build the timeline by ourselves with clues Atwood has given us. Many of the memories are also written in present tense, with no quotation marks used when someone else is speaking. We read them in Offred’s voice we’ve made up in our heads.
This style of writing the memories makes the story hit us with more impact. They’re not just memories, they’re daydreams of the past. Right now, you and I daydream about things that are so large and incredible and fantastical - we’re being interviewed by Jimmy Fallon, we’re giving our inauguration speeches after winning the presidential election, we made the final touchdown to win the Super Bowl, we’re flying alongside Daenerys Targaryen on her dragons to King’s Landing. Offred’s daydreaming, however, is just of the past, when things were boring. They’re of when her unconventional mother was her biggest problem, when everything was so mundane and lame that it was incredible compared to her life in Gilead.
Her memories are just memories, we know this, but we feel like we’re really living in the memory, experiencing it in real-time in the same way Offred is in her mind. Then it ends, and we’re back in Gilead, alone with lonely Offred. These memories are most prevalent when Offred is in a tough situation. She is distracting herself with her daydreams of the past.
If I didn’t explain the “we’re alone with Offred and experiencing it with her” well enough, take it from her, in Chapter 7. After remembering the day she was awakened after being taken by Gilead, wondering where her daughter is, she says, “I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling … If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending… It isn’t a story I’m telling. It’s also a story I’m telling, in my head, as I go along… You don’t tell a story only to yourself. There’s always someone else.” Loneliness is comforting, sickeningly sweet, and depressing, and we feel it with her. I love it.
2. Mistrust leading to mass conformity.
Gilead is supposed to be the home of God and all Christian teachings, but it’s actually the home of hypocrisy and mistrust. In Gilead, women are mainly separated into three positions, but I’d like to say “categories” rather than “positions”, because in Gilead, women are not people, they’re objects. Only the men are in positions. Women may be a Martha, the housekeepers and cooks to families; a Wife, the wives of high-ranking men in Gilead called “Commanders”; or a Handmaid.
It’s obviously terrible to be categorized as a Handmaid. Rather than being celebrated for their fertility in a world where it's so scarce, they are punished for it. They have no choice, freedom, or bodily autonomy. The Handmaids are pots and soil. They hold the fertilized seed and provide it nutrients until the plant is born, taken elsewhere, and a new seed is fertilized.
When you and I think of luxuries, we think of delicious cocktails, dinners at Michelin-star restaurants, massages at all-inclusive resorts, high-end purses and shoes, jewelry, mansions, and sports cars. The Handmaids have so little that they find butter a luxury. They don’t eat the butter, they sneak it in napkins and rub it on their face and legs to use as moisturizer. Offred is given a cigarette by Serena in Chapter 31, and it’s as if Serena gave her $5 million. The Handmaids can’t have coffee, choose what to eat for dinner, choose their schedules, or even use a knife at dinner for fear of killing themselves or others. The Handmaids are so deprived of the simplest items that normalcies are seen as luxuries.
Women have always had a tricky relationship with their bodies. There is always the pressure to have “the perfect body”. Women get shamed for being too fat or too skinny and when they do have the “ideal body”, they’re slut shamed when wearing just tight jeans and a form-fitting shirt. There is no winning. However, the Handmaids' relationship with their bodies is different. Rather than being frustrated with their bodily proportions, they’re upset with the existence of the body overall. “I avoid looking down at my body, not so much because it’s shameful or immodest but because I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to look at something that determines me so completely.”
Then, of course, there is the rape itself. The Handmaid lays between the Wife’s legs with the Wife holding her arms during the rape. Rather than calling it what it is - rape - Gilead calls it “the Ceremony”. The Handmaids know that if they fight back or even say they dislike this, they risk their lives. They have to be quiet and let it happen. I’ve already mentioned how Offred likes to distract herself with daydreams of the past. However, she is incapable of pushing the rapes out of her mind, no matter how hard she tries. She is always reminded of it. In Chapter 8, Offred is watching a chicken be prepared for cooking. She describes this preparation in a violating detail that resembles her own experiences. “She undoes the string on the chicken, and the glazed paper. She prods the chicken, flexes a wing, pokes a finger into the cavity, fishes out the giblets. The chicken lies there, headless and without feet, goose pimpled as though shivering.”
The Handmaids must also participate in executing criminals in Gilead. The executions, called “salvagings”, are brutal and violent. They aren’t quick, the Handmaids have to literally rip the criminal to death with their bare hands. They can’t say no. They know they risk being the one getting ripped apart if they disagree. It’s literally kill or be killed. “There are sounds, gasps, a low noise like growling, yells, and the red bodies tumble forward and I can no longer see, he’s obscured by arms, fists, feet. A high scream comes from somewhere, like a horse in terror.”
Now that I’ve given you an idea of how awful it is to be a Handmaid, you may argue that a Handmaid is the worst category to fall under in Gilead. I’m hesitant to agree, only because we don’t know much about what the other category of women who aren’t married to commanders go through - Marthas.
Marthas don’t seem to enjoy their jobs in Gilead, or Gilead itself. They are women who were deemed not gracious or pure enough for marriage and too infertile to be a Handmaid. Marthas lives are devoted to just cooking and cleaning. They have no freedom. They are slaves. It’s easy to say that being a Martha is better than being a Handmaid, but we really don’t know. We only know what Offred knows.
However, the brutalities Handmaids go through is observed by everyone. Marthas are firsthand witnesses. Despite this, Marthas don’t really like or trust Handmaids. The Marthas, who are imprisoned themselves, decide to stay away from the Handmaids. The Marthas and the Handmaids don’t band together to yell “fuck men! Fuck Gilead!” like they should. The sisterhood is only within each category of women, and even then it’s lacking due to mistrust.
This mistrust is intentional. Gilead thrives on mistrust. If everyone is too afraid to turn to the person next to them and say “hey, this actually really sucks” because if they so much as imply they dislike something Gilead is doing, then no one will band together. No one is willing to risk their lives to maybe have one ally.
It may seem obvious none of the Handmaids really support Gilead (why would they?), but Offred’s fear of speaking to her walking partner, Ofglen, proves this false. The Handmaids have to pretend to love what they’re doing; their literal lives are at stake. They must do a damn good job at faking it to make other Handmaids question where their opinions lie. While reading this, you may think to yourself, “with the bullshit these women deal with, it’s obvious they hate Gilead. If I were in their position I would tell someone.” It’s easy to think this – we all want to be the hero starting the revolution. But really, if you had the threat of being physically tortured or murdered because of your lack of compliance, and everyone else was doing an amazing job at pretending, would you risk it? Everyone follows the rules of Gilead. Not because they support them, but because mistrust leads to mass conformity.
Mistrust has led to mass conformity throughout history. The inability to trust your neighbor was prominent during the Holocaust, which led to a bystander effect. The Gestapo was a secret police force in Nazi Germany, to whom citizens spilled information. There actually weren’t very many Gestapo officers at all, but the number of informants made up for this. The Gestapo officers were secret, as were the informants. Gilead has its own Gestapo, the Eyes. The presence of the Eyes is similar to that of the Gestapo in that people don’t know who is an informant or who is an officer, so they decide to trust no one and do nothing, becoming bystanders.
A bystander is a person who is not active in the situation, just witnessing it. Since they aren’t active, they don’t help. Since they don’t help, the situation only gets worse. Bystanders are complicit. In Nazi Germany, many people were bystanders, not only allowing the Nazis to further their reign but making it easier. There were fewer obstacles for Nazis to overcome.
In the words of Edmund Burke, “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” The only way to ensure that “good men do nothing” is through mass fear and mistrust. Gilead did a disgustingly incredible job of forcing everyone to conform. Manipulation and increasing distrust in the community made it all too easy for Gilead to continue its atrocities.
3. Hypocrisies of Gilead.
“And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, ‘Give me children, or else I die.’ And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, ‘Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?’ And she said, ‘Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.’”
The justification for Gilead’s use of Handmaids comes from this section of the biblical story of Rachel and Leah, Genesis 29-31. Rachel and Leah are both married to Jacob, but Rachel is unable to have children. Rachel is afraid that Jacob’s love will turn from the two of them to only Leah, because Leah has no issues with fertility. Rachel decides to force her maid, Bilhah, to become her surrogate.
If you need it spelled out for you, the Handmaids are the Bilhahs, the Wives are the Rachels. The Handmaids are taught that this is an honor – it was in the Bible, so it’s an honor to be raped and provide one to a family wishing to have a child. It’s common for people to take one section of the Bible they like, run with it, and ignore the rest, while claiming they love and obey the Bible as a whole. Think of your neighbor who preaches about Christianity but hates black people for being black people, ignoring the “love thy neighbor” thing. The Handmaid’s Tale is no different.
While Gilead believes that forcing women to have children is the way to go, they are ignoring one part of the Bible that should trump (hated writing his name but it’s the only word I could think of) that notion entirely: Gabriel gave Mary a choice to carry Jesus! “And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’... And Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her.” (Luke 1:26-38) Gabriel approached Mary about birthing Jesus, rather than having her impregnated, and Mary responded with “let it be to me according to your word” – in other words, “sure dude!”
Additionally, Deuteronomy 22:13 discusses sexual ethics, including rape. “If in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death.” While this passage does have some weird details about how if a woman is within city limits she should call for help during the rape, or she is also at fault, but if it’s outside the city then it’s never her fault, the conclusion remains the same in both situations for the rapist: the man must be punished with death. And yes, I did think about this as well – the story of Rachel and Leah is from Genesis, which is in the Old Testament. Maybe Gilead only selects its rules from that rather than the New Testament. Well guess what?! Deuteronomy is in the Old Testament!
Now if that didn’t sell my point well enough to you, let’s take a look at Gilead’s favorite biblical family and how they deal with rape - good ol’ Rachel, Leah, and Jacob. In Genesis 34, Leah and Jacob’s child, Dinah, is raped by a man named Shechem. Jacob and his sons learn of this, and Shechem wants to marry Dinah. Jacob’s sons explain to Shechem that the marriage can only happen if Shechem and all the men in his town are circumcised. Shechem agrees, everyone gets circumcised, but surprise! It was a trick. Jacob’s son’s murder Shechem and all the men in the house as revenge for raping Dinah.
“Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, went to visit some of the Canaanite women … Shechem saw her, he took her and raped her … But he found the young woman so attractive that he fell in love with her and tried to win her affection … Because Shechem had disgraced their sister Dinah, Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor in a deceitful way. They said to him, ‘We cannot let our sister marry a man who is not circumcised; that would be a disgrace for us. We can agree only on the condition that you become like us by circumcising all your males’ … Three days later, when the men were still sore from their circumcision, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, took their swords, went into the city without arousing suspicion, and killed all the men, including Hamor and his son Shechem.”
Jacob didn’t like that his sons killed Semen Shechem, but only because a bunch of people would be pissed. “Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, ‘You have gotten me into trouble; now the Canaanites, the Perizzites, and everybody else in the land will hate me. I do not have many men; if they all band together against me and attack me, our whole family will be destroyed.’ But they answered, ‘We cannot let our sister be treated like a common whore.’” Gilead, if we’re following everything this family is doing, why are we not slaughtering rapists?
Additionally, Serena Joy is a hypocrite, and she knows it. Serena Joy is the Wife in the home Offred is in. We learn very little about Serena, but the few moments we get with her speak a lot. In Chapter 8, Offred recalls seeing Serena in notable magazines. Serena was an anti-feminism advocate. She gave speeches about preserving the sanctity of the home and how women should be homemakers. Serena undoubtedly loved the creation of Gilead, but now it’s clear she’s quiet, angry, depressed, and bored. Serena is reduced to a bored wife who does nothing but tend to her garden. Her attitude throughout the book makes her annoyance with the situation clear. “She doesn’t make speeches anymore. She has become speechless. She stays in her home, but it doesn’t seem to agree with her. How furious she must be, now that she’s been taken at her word.” Be careful what you wish for, I guess. Or maybe just don’t be fucking stupid.
In Gilead, women are babymakers. In the real world today, women are babymakers. However, as much as the supporters of Gilead and right-wing people love babies and new life, there are some quite a few contradictions. The Handmaid’s Tale was written in 1985, while IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) was already available. Surrogacy was still pretty new, but it was available as well. Gilead is desperate to have children, but only through sex. There doesn’t seem to be any medical research. Even in Chapter 11, the doctor says, “most of those old guys can’t make it anymore. Or they’re sterile.” This could be the cause for the declining birth rate, but it isn’t being researched. It was never about having children. It was always about control. If they care so much about having babies, why wouldn’t they consider IVF or surrogacy, or at the very least, research the issue more?
Lastly, though there are many, many, many, contradicting stances Gilead makes, for length’s sake, I want to discuss Jezebel’s for a brief moment. The Commanders of Gilead are supposed to be uber-Bible-loving, perfect, righteous men. They have one dark secret, though: Jezebel’s. Jezebel’s is a nightclub crawling with women in skimpy costumes, there to please the men. A true “Godly” man would never even think about creating such a place, but the men of Gilead love it. Do I even need to explain how they’re hypocrites? Preaching the Bible and the sanctity of sex and marriage, but having sex with the women of Jezebel’s while their wives sleep at home, unknowing. The existence of Jezebel’s proves that it was never about following the Bible, it was always about power. The Bible is just the vehicle.
4. Power dynamics.
Power in Gilead is more complex than you would expect. It seems simple, like the chain of command is the structure and everything follows it. Commanders are at the top, then Wives, Aunts, and finally, Handmaids and Marthas at the bottom. It doesn’t really turn out this way, though, because too many people are aware of the power differences. This leads people to gain power in sneaky or manipulative ways. The power dynamics are by far my favorite part of the book. I love reading the subtle ways people push others down. One sentence or look can change the dynamic. Everyone is tiptoeing around each other, playing manipulation and strategy like a board game.
Serena is obviously upset that she has no power in Gilead. Like I previously mentioned, she used to give speeches on anti-feminist rhetoric, and with people listening to her, she was in a position of power. Now, Serena tries to make up for this loss of power in other, minor ways that definitely boost that serotonin a bit. Before the Ceremonies, Serena and Offred are in Serena’s sitting room, her little domain. Offred explains that the Commander is to knock before entering the room and Serena lets him in, but usually Serena makes him wait. This is Serena’s small power play. He owns everything else, so she’s going to hold on to the one thing that she does have, the rights to the room. Unfortunately for her, the Commander does enter without knocking during the Ceremony in Chapter 15, likely as a way to rebel against Serena’s tiny authority. Everyone is always battling in wordless ways.
While the men of Gilead love their power and try to keep it in every way they can, there is one thing they love more than power: a hole. It’s their weakness. Apologies for saying “a hole”, but that’s all they see women as anyways, so it felt fitting to type. Gilead tries their best to make the Handmaids as unsexy as possible. Their clothes are incredibly modest, they can’t speak much to the Commanders, and the Ceremony itself is a dry, robotic, routine affair. The issue is, this doesn’t work. The men are still attracted to the Handmaids – not in a romantic way, but in an ownership way. The men know that they own these women and they love it. The Commanders may even have more interest in the Handmaids than they do their wives. Gilead failed to realize two things: 1. Men would fuck a Hot Pocket; and 2. When a woman is given to a man as property, he treats the woman like a dog does a blue rare steak. The men’s own lustfulness is their weakness, and the Commander succumbs to it.
The Commander starts to take an interest in Offred and invites her over to his office at night, which becomes a ritual. It starts out easy, with the Commander suggesting they play Scrabble, and Offred complying, with the night ending in a small kiss. Offred is quick to realize that she now has some power over the Commander. He is breaking a rule and she knows about it. The Commander is attracted to her, despite how little he knew of her before these late night Scrabble dates. He enjoys the power he has over her. It excites him. The Commander leans into this more, which excites Offred as well. She starts flirting with the Commander and receives a magazine and hand lotion from him, two items that Handmaids are not allowed to own. This is the moment she realizes that he is under her spell, a spell she didn’t even cast intentionally. Offred ponders on the power she now has over Serena, as well. “I now had power over her, of a kind, although she didn’t know it. And I enjoyed that. Why pretend? I enjoyed it a lot.” Power doesn’t always mean being above another in a physical, financial, or hierarchy sense. Power can come from the ability to significantly alter someone else’s emotions. Offred knows that at any moment, she could destroy Serena’s perception of her husband and comfort in their marriage.
Offred’s power grows over the Commander. He offers her a skimpy outfit, cheap makeup, and takes her to the nightclub Jezebel’s. Offred is beaming with interest of the club. It has all the forbidden things of Gilead, and she is able to drink. More importantly, she now knows a major secret of the Commander’s and all the men who frequent Jezebel’s. She is feeling more powerful than ever. The Commander feels more powerful, as well. He walks around with Offred under his arm and she realizes that he’s showing her off. “He’s breaking the rules, under their noses, thumbing his nose at them, getting away with it. Perhaps he’s reached that state of intoxication which power is said to inspire, the state in which you believe you are indispensable and can therefore do anything, absolutely anything you feel like, anything at all.” While Offred says this about the Commander, it’s clear that this is how Offred feels as well.
Offred doesn’t do anything with this new power she feels. She doesn’t tell the Aunts about the club, she doesn’t tell Serena, she holds onto it. Maybe that’s part of the excitement, she has the bullets loaded and simply takes pleasure in knowing that. After hanging on the bottom rung for so long, just knowing she has the strength to pull down those on the top of the ladder excites her. This power trip does end, however, after she finds her old friend, Moira, working at Jezebel’s. They have a conversation in the bathroom and it snaps Offred out of the excitement. After their conversation, Offred is still reeling on it, while the Commander takes her to a suite to have sex with her. Though it’s not the Ceremony, this is still a silent coercion, therefore rape. It’s up to debate on what the Commander would do if she had said no. There is a possibility that he wouldn’t punish Offred, as he too has a lot to lose. That risk is not one Offred is willing to take. The excitement of her newfound power is over and she’s been shot back into reality. “Fake it, I scream at myself inside my head. You must remember how. Let’s get this over with or you’ll be here all night. Bestir yourself. Move your flesh around, breath audibly. It’s the least you can do.”
5. Gilead and our world today: Atrocities committed in the name of the Bible and political issues regarding women’s bodily autonomy.
In the words of Steven Hyde from That 70’s Show, “While I respect the Judeo-Christian ethic, as well as the Eastern philosophies and of course the teachings of Mohammed, I find that organized religion has corrupted those beliefs to justify countless atrocities throughout history. Were I to attend church, I’d be a hypocrite.” Love him. How dare the writers break up Jackie and Hyde.
We’ve already established that Gilead sucks and uses the Bible as its excuse for the abuse of women. Committing atrocities in the name of the Bible isn’t fiction created by Margaret Atwood, it’s happened continuously throughout history and today. There have been countless, COUNTLESS, genocide and ethnic cleansing efforts in the name of religion, committed by all religions, not just Christianity. There are too many to dive into, so for now I’m only going to speak on Christian colonization.
Christianity was first recognized as a religion in the Roman Empire, later growing into the official state religion. Christianity spread throughout Europe but had a competitor - Islam. To combat this, the Doctrine of Discovery was created. The Doctrine stated that any land that wasn’t already claimed by Christians was unclaimed land, could be claimed (colonized), and “the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread, that the health of souls be cared for and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself.” As a result, Jerusalem was taken by Crusaders. Additionally, Pope Nicholas V expanded Christian colonization by allowing Portugal to capture and enslave non-Christians in an effort to spread the religion. After the Spanish reconquest, monarchs Isabella and Fernidand were given all lands west of Azores and south of the Cape Verde islands. This was their opportunity to spread Christianity beyond Europe. With the U.S. recently being “discovered” after an expedition to spread Christianity, and this push to spread the religion, the Native Americans were targets.
In the 16th century, Spanish and French colonizers were competing to convert Native Americans. This was when they weren’t raping, slaughtering, or giving them nasty sicknesses, of course. They were trying to “save” the population’s souls, ignoring the fact that the tribes all had their own religious and cultural practices. The Spanish spread Catholicism in Florida and New Mexico, while the French took Upstate New York, the land around the Great Lakes, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Pope Paul III was an advocate for this colonization. He argued against the slaughtering of the Native Americans and instead pushed for them to be “saved”. The issue was, why would the Native Americans want to follow the people that were torturing them? It didn’t end here, during the 17th century, Protestants, Quakers, more Catholics, and Presbyterians arrived to the “New” World. They were following Genesis 1:28: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.” It’s estimated that 56 million Native Americans were killed during colonization. These deaths would be nonexistent if it weren’t for Europeans’ desire to spread Christianity. Native Americans were never given the opportunity to recover these losses.
The atrocities don’t end. I’m overwhelmed even writing this because there’s so much I want to include. On your own time, I encourage you to look up ethnic cleansing and genocides in the name of religion, such as the Armenian, Jewish, Rwandan, and Bosnian genocides. Some religious wars are also worth noting, such as the Thirty Years' War, the French Wars of Religion, and the Eighty Years’ War. And of course, there are some more widely known and current atrocities involving religion, such as the Holocaust, the Taliban, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and the ongoing, century-long conflict between Israel and Palestine (Free Palestine, by the way). Racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, and xenophobia all have violent histories as well, which came into play because of religion.
Now that we’ve discussed atrocities committed in the name of the Bible, we can move on to political issues regarding women’s bodily autonomy.
The fertility rate in the U.S. has decreased significantly within recent years, at 1.6 children per woman. Unlike the situation in Gilead, this isn’t an issue with fertility in a biological way, it’s simply because women are choosing not to have children. While some women may not want children, other women do, but may not be able to have them. 13.4% of women of childbearing age in the U.S. have impaired fecundity, while 8.5% are infertile. The numbers may seem small, but just imagine you’re in a room with 100 women, all under the age of 49. Forty-seven women don’t want children and 21 women are struggling with fertility or are entirely infertile. This leaves only 32 women willing and able to have children. Now, to the issue: Right-leaning politicians and voters are typically pro-life. They want children to be born, they want to change the direction of the birth rate in the U.S. But you tell me if this sounds pro-life: Republicans in Idaho, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Texas are actively fighting against the use of IVF. All of these states are red and preach pro-life rhetoric. If they really care about having more children, why would they restrict or ban the use of IVF?
There are also the issues everyone knows about when it comes to women’s bodily autonomy - abortion and birth control. Rather than discussing this, I want to direct your attention to a few reasons women may need an abortion or birth control, besides simply not wanting children (which should be reason enough).
Pulmonary hypertension - Blood pressure in the vessels between the heart and the lung is too high, so the heart has to strain itself to keep blood flowing to the lungs. During pregnancy, the heart already works harder, so pregnancy for someone with this condition could result in heart failure.
Ectopic pregnancy - Rather than a fertilized egg developing in the uterus, it develops somewhere else, sometimes the fallopian tubes. The fetus isn’t able to develop anywhere outside the uterus, so there won’t be a baby anyways, and the tubes can rupture, causing internal bleeding.
Preeclampsia - Increase in blood pressure, which may result in strokes, seizures, or organ failure.
Kidney disease - The kidneys work harder during pregnancy, so this much strain may result in kidney failure.
Cancer - Chemotherapy is not safe during pregnancy for the baby or the mother.
Fetal anomalies - This is when the baby will be born with severe birth defects that significantly alter the process of the birth itself, from normal to dangerous, and the baby won’t live long anyway.
Endometriosis - Tissue similar to the lining inside the uterus grows where it’s not supposed to, often outside the fallopian tubes and ovaries. May lead to cysts called endometriomas, organs sticking together, adhesions, irritated surrounding tissue, and scar tissue.
Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) - Unpredictable periods, hirsutism (male-pattern hair growth – yes, beards), and cysts are common.
Acne - Hormones increase acne (fun fact: Acne can actually be dangerous, especially cystic acne!)
Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) - Symptoms women get before their period. Most women find them tolerable, but sometimes the symptoms can be disabling.
Heavy periods and painful period cramps - Some women faint during their periods due to blood loss, or from the pain of their cramps. Unfortunately, exactly how many women have this issue is under-researched, but turn to any woman and ask if they know someone who has fainted from blood loss or pain during their period. I promise you, every woman has either experienced this or knows someone who has.
Menstrual migraines - I get these, woohoo! These are exactly what they sound like.
Perimenopause - This is the period before menopause, the transition. Symptoms include painful sex, burning during urination, leaking urine, increased risk of infections, increased risk of osteoporosis, change in cholesterol levels, hot flashes, mood swings, irregular periods, and sleep issues.
Cancer risk reduction - Women who are at a higher risk of developing endometrial cancer or ovarian cancer have a 30-50% lower risk of developing, thanks to birth control. There is still a risk of increasing the chances of getting breast or cervical cancer, though it is extremely low and dependent on both method and usage.
I realize this section is long, so there is one last thing I want to talk about: Baby Chance. Remember him? In 2025, a woman named Adriana Smith was only nine weeks pregnant when she had multiple blood clots in her brain and was declared brain dead in February 2025. She became an experiment that ultimately failed. Rather than her body being taken into custody by her family and laid to rest, she was put on life support and used as a human incubator in an attempt to develop the fetus, still inside her. It didn’t work. Baby Chance was delivered via emergency C-section in June 2025, weighing just over one pound. He remained in a hospital for nearly a year due to physical complications, because dead bodies don’t make good incubators. Baby Chance was able to live due to medical intervention, the emergency C-section, not inside his mother, because again, dead bodies don’t make good incubators. This was only one year ago. Women are not viewed as people. We are incubators in life, and they even tried it in death. If you would like to donate or give love to Adriana Smith’s family, I’ve linked their Gofundme here.
6. Show vs. Book: Which is better?
Alright, friends, go ahead and start lighting torches and grabbing pitch forks. I know everyone says “the book is always better than the movie”, but this isn’t always the case. Catching Fire and Bridge to Terabithia are great examples of this, but so is The Handmaid’s Tale.
While the book is great, and obviously the show wouldn’t exist without it, the show is just more entertaining. The book actually only has the events in the first season of the show, so the show provides more story, more issues to discuss, and more characters to dissect. However, I don’t care about that. The only two reasons I enjoyed the show more than the book are because of the complexity of one of the characters and Serena Joy’s dynamic with Offred (in the show, June).
Serena Joy. Is she my favorite character? Yes. Do I like her? Nope, not even a little bit. I really push the idea that we can dislike or even hate our favorite characters. Favorite characters always don’t come from “who is the most moral”, they can simply be who we find the most interesting. If you stick with me, you’ll find out that I actually often root against my favorite characters in fiction (House of the Dragon, if you know you know. If you don’t know, I’m not telling you, but I’ll have fun hearing your guesses). Serena is my favorite character because of her complexity. As smart as she is, she sure is hypocritical. Serena doesn’t even want a baby, her life has been stripped away because of rules she advocated for and now she’s bored, lonely, and feels useless. This is only the surface of Serena. I want to explain more, but I don’t want to spoil the show for anyone who hasn’t watched. Serena moves two steps forward and one step backwards, and I love it.
The dynamic between June and Serena reminds me of Swan Lake. Let me tell y’all - I think Swan Lake is the best ballet to exist solely because it’s the only one I’m familiar with. Haha. Anyway, in Swan Lake, Prince Siegfried is pressured by his mother to pick a wife, and hunts a flock of swans. Before he can shoot one down, it transforms into a beautiful girl named Odette. Odette explains to the Prince that she and the others became swans due to a spell from a sorcerer. For now, they are swans unless they are by the lake at night. The only way to break the spell is for someone to fall in love with Odette. Odette and the Prince begin to fall in love, but daylight comes, and she becomes a swan again. A costume ball takes place, and the sorcerer brings his daughter, Odile, transformed to look exactly like Odette. Odette tries to warn the Prince but he doesn’t see her. He chooses Odile as his wife and finds out about the trick through the sorcerer. Odette is heartbroken, the Prince finds her and apologizes, but it’s too late. She chooses to kill herself rather than be a swan forever, and the Prince dies with her. Writing this, I get that it seems to not make sense to anyone else, but the story is just symbolism. The white swan (Odette) and the black swan (Odile) are meant to be representations of the same person. There is more than one side to a human. This duality in humanity is a theme of Swan Lake, and, in my mind, one of the most interesting themes of The Handmaid's Tale show. The swans illustrate that women aren’t one dimensional, we’re dynamic. We can be both good and evil. June and Serena are perfect examples of this. They are the swans.
The white swan represents purity, grace, innocence, and poise. The black swan represents temptation, seduction, manipulation, and deception. Serena and June are often either the black or white swan, but never the same swan at the same time. At the beginning of The Handmaid’s Tale, Serena is the white swan, while June is the black. This switches constantly; neither woman is 100% good or 100% bad. One moment Serena is being demonic and June angelic, the next Serena is benevolent and June malevolent. June makes plenty of mistakes, often acting selfish, impulsive, childish, rude, and putting others in danger, while remaining heroic. Serena holds onto her values that created Gilead, acts petty, distasteful, ignorant, and cocky, while gaining redemption, showing mercy, kindness, and trust. They both share internal battles of not knowing if they’re a good person or a bad person, so many internal battles that I want to jump through the screen, smack them both in the faces, and yell, “YOU’RE NEITHER! YOU’RE A PERSON!” They’re people, and man are they the same person. They’re both stubborn. They’re both passionate. They’re both loud. They’re both independent. They’re both intelligent, cunning, sneaky, bitchy, and strong. They are the same person, switching between the black and the white swan, never the same swan, always opposing each other, and always loving each other. If soulmates are real, June and Serena are soulmates. They are always connected. Honestly, they should kiss.
The cinematography shows this parallelism between Serena and June quite a bit. In one episode, they get dressed in two different mirrors. Serena puts on a black dress while June puts on a white. Later, June walks into a dark, ominous, secret building while Serena walks outside to a beautiful sunset. When one is smiling peacefully, the other is frowning fiercely. It’s beautiful to watch.
While I enjoyed the show more than the book, you may not if you have a sensitivity to watching a show that covers awful, disturbing topics that you may even relate to. I do caution you. The show isn’t graphic, but lots of people stop watching because it reminds them too much of real-world issues and possibilities. This is completely understandable.
Now to the real question: should this book be banned? Girl, no???????? It highlights issues that are current and clearly (we’re 16 pages in on Google Docs) surfaces important discussions. It was written to make you think about these topics, not just for plain entertainment. On top of that, it doesn’t even describe anything in detail. There are barely any vulgar words and no graphic descriptions of the Ceremony. It mainly just discusses Offred’s feelings. It’s not “inappropriate” at all. It’s even a hard read because of the language at times; children would struggle to understand the book. The only reason this book is on the banned books list is because it makes people think too much about how fucked the state of the world is, and how Gilead is a very real possibility. Margaret Atwood nailed it, and I’m sorry she has to watch as people remove her book with such important messages from shelves.
It was a long ride. Thank you for joining me. If you made it to the end, I’m very proud of you! Until next time, keep reading and keep being angry. ;)
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