The Handmaid’s Tale

Introductory Lecture

SPECULATIVE FICTION

In his 1947 essay “On the Writing of Speculative Fiction,” science fiction and fantasy
writer Robert A. Heinlein recognized a subgenre of science fiction that included works that
looked predominantly at the human condition and “[embodied] the notion…‘What would
happen if—?’.” He called this genre speculative fiction. According to Heinlein, stories
with plotlines that involve a man struggling to feed his family after biological warfare
destroys US farmlands or the societal and religious ramifications of developing human
embryos in artificial environments would fall into the speculative fiction genre.

Some speculative fiction authors view speculative fiction as completely unrelated to

science fiction. Margaret Atwood herself once said in an interview, “Science fiction
has monsters and spaceships; speculative fiction could really happen.” These authors
assert that, while speculative fiction examines possible futures, it is distinct from
traditional science fiction in that it remains rooted in established fact. Heinlein himself
argues that, in speculative fiction, “Lizards can’t cross-breed with humans. The term
‘space warp’ does not mean anything without elaborate explanation.” Instead,
speculative works extrapolate from contemporary science and technology to examine
how people will cope with problems that arise from new situations; these works are
concerned with sociology and psychology.

A number of famous novels can plausibly be included in the speculative fiction genre. The
societies depicted in classic dystopian novels such as 1984 by George Orwell, Fahrenheit
451 by Ray Bradbury, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley are all based on social,
cultural, and political trends that were prevalent at the time the novels were written. In each,
the author follows the progression of that trend to its plausible, if not inevitable,
consummation. Other popular works of speculative fiction include Cormac McCarthy’s
post-apocalyptic novel The Road, Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy, and Philip K.
Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, which explores an alternate history in which the Axis
Powers win World War II.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood takes what she saw as some of the most pressing issues of
the early 1980s—a rise of religious extremism, a backlash against the women’s rights
movement, increasing pollution—and follows them to their extreme conclusions, creating
an alternate near-future in which a totalitarian theocracy, the Republic of Gilead, has been
established in what had been the United States. Atwood states that, in the creation of her
future dystopia, she included only technology that was already available and events that had
already occurred. The plausibility of the future depicted in The Handmaid’s Tale is
debatable, but by basing the Republic of Gilead on scientific fact and actual
contemporaneous social and political issues, Atwood shows that such a society is possible.

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THE REPUBLIC OF GILEAD

The Handmaid’s Tale is set in the fictional Republic of Gilead a few years after it was
established in what had been the United States.

Prior to the events of the novel, the environment had been devastated by industrial toxins
and nuclear radiation. The widespread contamination caused a significant increase in birth
defects. In addition, rampant sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS and an
incurable strain of syphilis, caused a decrease in fertility rates. The birth rate in the US
declined drastically until it fell far below the 2.1 births per woman necessary to sustain
the population.

Empowered by a general apathy that had seized the discouraged population of the United
States, an extremist group called the Sons of Jacob led a coup against the government,
assassinating the President and members of Congress. After this shocking violence, the
Sons of Jacob established the Republic of Gilead in incremental steps:
• suspending the Constitution
• censoring news media
• monitoring people’s movements
• shutting down “Pornomarts” and other obscene businesses
• taking away women’s rights to property and to work outside of the home
• shooting protestors
• searching people’s computers and homes for materials deemed to be subversive
to the regime

The theocratic government then restructured society based on a corrupted interpretation of

the Bible, particularly passages from the Old Testament. Gilead politicized and
controlled fertile women, justifying its actions as a means of increasing the declining
population and adhering to their perverted, fundamentalist interpretation of Old
Testament law.

Society in Gilead is strictly divided by gender. Men serve in the military and the
government. Their social status is determined by their rank.
• The ruling class is called Commanders of the Faithful, and they are
allowed to maintain full households.
• The government maintains a force of secret police called “Eyes.” These men are
feared by many people in Gilead, and some of them live undercover, spying on
citizens.
• Angels–active soldiers who fight in wars to defend Gilead and expand its
territories; they are allowed to marry.
• Guardians of the Faith–low-ranking soldiers who perform routine policing and
menial functions; they are not allowed to marry, though young Guardians may be
promoted to Angels when they come of age.

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The women’s social hierarchy is more complex than the men’s, and their positions are
determined, in part, by their ability to procreate. The classes are:
• Wives are married to Commanders; some are too old to bear children.
• Daughters are the biological or adopted female children of the ruling class.
• Handmaids are fertile women who conceive and bear children for Wives who
are incapable of conceiving.
• Aunts are women who train and police the Handmaids. They are granted
authority and the privilege to read.
• Marthas are older, infertile women who work as domestic servants.
• Econowives are the women who are married to relatively low-ranking men. Unlike
the Wives, who have servants to wait on them, Econowives perform all of the
expected feminine domestic duties—including providing companionship, and child-
bearing— themselves.

Certain groups of people are persecuted or forced to live outside of the main society of
Gilead.
The regime calls homosexual men “Gender Traitors” and either executes them or sends
them to the Colonies—toxic areas outside of the main geographic area of Gilead. Political
dissidents, women who refuse to bear children, and sterile women who are not Wives or
Marthas are also sent to the Colonies. African Americans, whom the regime calls Children
of Ham, are also relocated there.

The regime also targets and faces opposition from other religious groups. Jews are
prohibited from practicing Judaism, though they are given the opportunity to emigrate
from Gilead to Israel. The Republic of Gilead executes devout Roman Catholics. The
regime continues to wage war with other religious sects, including Baptist rebels, and
Quakers who undermine the government by smuggling women, usually Handmaids,
outside of the borders of Gilead.

The Handmaid’s Tale is told through the limited perspective of a Handmaid, so details of
the Colonies, the persecution of certain people, and the continuing war outside of “the
heart of Gilead” are sparse. The narrator gleans information about the ongoing war and
Gilead’s political machinations only through observations, rumors, and propaganda.

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THE ROAD TO GILEAD

PURITANISM

In her “Introduction” to The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood states, “The

Republic of Gilead is built on the foundation of the seventeenth-century Puritan roots
that have
always lain beneath the modern-day America.” Atwood establishes Gilead in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, one of the towns founded by the 700 original Puritan settlers of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. Cambridge is also the site of Harvard University, which
Atwood calls a “Puritan theological seminary” because the university had strong Puritan
associations since its founding in 1636, and, while Harvard was not affiliated with any
specific religious denomination, many graduates went on to become clergymen in
Congregational and Unitarian churches.

Puritanism is an offshoot of Calvinism, a Reformed Christian sect founded by John Calvin.

The Five Points of Calvinism are summarized by the acronym TULIP:
• Total depravity: All people are corrupted by original sin.
• Unconditional election: God determined who will receive eternal life or damnation.
• Limited atonement: Christ did not die for all of humanity, only for those who
are predestined to be saved—the “elect.”
• Irresistible grace: The elect cannot resist God’s saving grace.
• Perseverance of the saints: Once an individual is saved, he/she is always saved.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the narrator makes several references to the red tulips in Serena
Joy’s garden. In addition to the clear sexual associations among Offred, the Commander’s
Wife, and the central issue of the novel—procreation—the presence of these specific
flowers in the garden of a high-ranking Gileadean officer hints at the Calvinist roots of the
regime’s religion.

In the sixteenth century, a group of Protestants, who came to be known as Puritans, protested
that the Church of England, established by King Henry VIII after splitting from the Catholic
Church, retained too much of the Catholic liturgy and ritual. Puritans intended to further
reform—or purify—the Church of England. During the reign of King Charles I, the
monarchy and state church persecuted Puritans, driving some of them to emigrate to
America.

Thousands of Puritans migrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony, which was founded in 1628.
In 1630, John Winthrop, the governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, gave a sermon known
as “A Model of Christian Charity.” Winthrop opened his sermon by asserting that God had
ordained a society in which individuals filled different stations and functions, in part to
foster inter- dependence among people. In this sermon, Winthrop argued that members of
the community must put the interests of the colony above their own. He declared that the
Massachusetts Bay Colony would be “a city upon a hill,” implying that many people
would be watching them; they would be seen as either a model of godliness or a

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community of notoriety.

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The Republic of Gilead is founded on similar principles. Society is organized into a

rigid hierarchy in which people’s duties and positions are determined by gender, age,
rank, and fertility. Gileadean authorities claim that this social structure will engender a
harmonious community in which everyone has his or her designated tasks and
contributes to a well- functioning society. While the people are no longer able to have
interpersonal relationships, their own ambitions, or even their given names, the regime
portrays these losses as necessary sacrifices for the good of Gilead and the future of
humankind. The founders of Gilead reorganized society and created a radical, pseudo-
religious breeding program in an effort to restore the declining population. Depending
on its success, the Republic of Gilead will one day be viewed as a society to emulate or
as a failed dystopian regime.

Both Gilead and Puritan America maintained strict gender divisions. Puritan society
regarded men and women as spiritual equals, but husbands were the spiritual heads of the
household, while wives were expected to display piety and obedience. Puritans also
adopted the law of coverture. Under this legal doctrine, married men and women were
considered one entity— the husband. Married women, however, lost the right to buy or
sell property and execute wills without their husband’s consent. Women raised their
children and made domestic decisions but were not permitted to attend town meetings or
speak in church. While they were encouraged to read the Bible, they could be punished if
they challenged the ministry’s official theological teachings. In one incident, Anne
Hutchinson held theological discussions with other women and questioned their
ministers’ teachings on salvation. In 1637, the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay
Colony tried Hutchinson and sentenced her to banishment.
In Gilead, women are similarly regarded as lesser than men, and the authorities
prohibit them from working outside of the home and owning property. Women who rebel
against the regime’s policies are exiled to the Colonies.

The Republic of Gilead and Puritan society also share intolerance for religious sects
whose beliefs and doctrines differ from their own. In New England, a number of sects broke
off from Puritanism and were subsequently persecuted for their different beliefs. Baptists
asserted that infant baptism was not justified by the Bible, and that adults should choose
to be baptized
as a seal of conversion. Baptists also advocated complete separation of Church and State.
Presbyterians advocated that anyone who lived according to God’s commandments—not
just people who had been preordained to go to Heaven—should be allowed church
membership. In 1656, members of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, arrived in
Boston, where they were subsequently beaten and imprisoned for trying to spread their
message, much of which contradicted Puritan teachings. For example, Quakers believe
that everyone has an “inner light” and is able to communicate with God on an individual
level; they also advocate greater religious freedom and gender equality. In Gilead, the
military fights Baptist rebels, bans Presbyterian messages, and persecutes Quakers who
peacefully resist the regime by helping women, Handmaids in particular, escape.

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The Republic of Gilead adopts the restrictive aspects of Puritan society while disregarding
the practices that do not fit with the type government and society the regime wants to
create. For example, New England Puritans legalized divorce at a time when marriage was
rarely dissolved in England. Puritans also emphasized the importance of education, which
they viewed as necessary in order to understand the Bible and laws. In the Massachusetts
Bay Colony, both boys and girls were taught to read. In contrast, the Republic of Gilead
forbids women from reading. The Bible is locked away; only high-ranking men read the
Scripture aloud before rituals. Rather than using the Bible to produce a moral populous, the
authorities of Gilead
use it as a means of controlling and subjugating people. Atwood, therefore, illustrates that
the Republic of Gilead manipulates history as well as religion in order to gain power.

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT OF THE NOVEL

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

When religious extremists overthrow the US government in a coup and establish the
Republic of Gilead, they exert control over the people and deny women civil rights. First,
Gilead prohibits women from holding jobs, then the regime takes away women’s right to
property, and ultimately, it reduces them to their reproductive capabilities. Gilead’s
policies are an extreme reactionary response to the gains women had advocated for and
achieved during the late twentieth century. In order to fully understand and appreciate the
novel’s exploration of the loss of women’s rights, it is important to know the history of
the women’s movement in the United States.

The women’s movement, also known as the feminist movement, is divided into
different “waves.” The first wave of feminism took place in the mid-nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries. The goal of first-wave feminism was women’s suffrage.
Historically, women had been denied the right to vote because society regarded their
place as the domestic sphere. Some men claimed to be protecting women’s sensitivity
and modesty by prohibiting them from entering the political sphere. Others argued that the
Bible inveighed against women’s suffrage by portraying man as the head of the family
and woman as his helper.

For decades, women’s rights activists advocated women’s suffrage and other legal rights,
including the right to property. Key events are listed below.

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Major Milestones of First-Wave Feminism included:

• 1848: The first women’s rights convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton proposes women’s suffrage.
• 1850: The first National Women’s Rights Convention is held in Worchester,
Massachusetts.
• 1866: The American Equal Rights Association forms to “secure Equal Rights to
all American citizens, especially the right of suffrage, irrespective of race, color or
sex.”
• 1869: Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the National Woman
Suffrage Association. The organization’s motto is: “Men, their rights and nothing
more; women, their rights and nothing less!” The NWSA advocates for women’s
suffrage and is involved in other women’s issues, including discrimination, pay
inequality, and the reform of marriage and divorce laws.
• 1895: Elizabeth Cady Stanton publishes The Woman’s Bible, which challenges the
traditional religious orthodoxy that women should be subservient to men. Many
women’s rights activists worry that The Woman’s Bible will harm the movement, so
they distance themselves from Stanton.
• 1900: Every state has passed legislation that grants married women some control
over their property and earnings.
• 1916: Margaret Sanger opens the first birth control clinic in the United States. The
New York City clinic offers women counseling and information on birth
control. It is shut down after only nine days. Sanger and her employees are
arrested for “maintaining a public nuisance.”
• 1920: The Nineteenth Amendment of the US Constitution grants women the right
to vote.

After women received the right to vote, the women’s movement became less active
until second-wave feminism began in the 1960s. Second-wave feminists were largely
inspired by the civil rights movement of the 1950s and early 1960s, during which
African Americans gained rights. The civil rights movement led to the recognition that
the policy of “separate- but-equal” was actually discriminatory against African
Americans. Feminists extended
that logic to apply to gender-based discrimination. During second-wave feminism, which
lasted until the early 1980s, feminists advocated for gender equality in the workplace,
fewer limitations on women’s roles in society, recognition of domestic violence and
marital rape, and access to contraceptives and abortion.

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Timeline of Second-Wave Feminism

• 1960: The Food and Drug Administration approves the first oral contraceptive for
sale as birth control in the US.
• 1961: President John F. Kennedy establishes the President’s Commission on the Status
of Women to investigate women’s equality in education, in the workforce, and
under the law. He appoints Eleanor Roosevelt as the chair.
• 1963: Congress passes the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which is intended to eliminate
wage
disparity based on gender.
• 1964: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes racial and gender
discrimination in the workplace illegal.
• 1968: The Miss America Protest occurs, led by feminist group New York Radical
Women, in which symbols of women’s oppression, including bras and high heels, are
disposed of in a “freedom trash can.”
• 1972: The Equal Rights Amendment is passed by Congress and sent to the states for
ratification.
• 1973: Abortion is legalized through the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade case.
• 1982 The first “Take Back the Night” protests on college campuses raise awareness
of date rape.

Women made many gains during second-wave feminism; however, in the 1980s, there
was a backlash against feminism. Conservative groups stressed the importance of
maintaining traditional gender roles. Perhaps most notably, Phyllis Schlafly, a
conservative Republican, actively opposed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
Schlafly argued that the ERA would remove gender-specific privileges that women
enjoy and lead to women potentially being
drafted into the military. This opposition caused five states to rescind their ratifications of the
Equal Rights Amendment, and the ERA was narrowly defeated.

Mainstream media also participated in the backlash against feminism. A 1978 article in
the Washington Post first introduced the concept of women’s “biological clock,” that most
women want to have children and are always aware that they must conceive before
their fertility declines in their thirties. Concepts like this suggested that women had to
choose between a career and a family.

Margaret Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale in 1984 against the backdrop of this anti-
feminist backlash. She created a society that not only prevented women from securing rights
that had not yet been won, but also denied women most of the civil rights that they had
spent decades fighting to gain.

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THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT

Following the cultural changes brought about by the civil rights movement, the
women’s rights movement, and the sexual revolution, reactionary conservatives became
more vocal in US politics. These conservative groups were predominantly Christian
and blamed the
social and political changes of the 1960s for what they claimed to be a “moral decline” in the
United States. Beginning in the mid-1960s, theologically conservative Southern Protestants
passionately supported Republican candidates who claimed to share their values. Grassroots
organizations formed a coalition that became known as the “religious right.”

The religious right advocated for “family values”; they opposed abortion, homosexuality,
and the Equal Rights Amendment, claiming that such practices and proposals degraded
traditional gender roles and the traditional family. Leaders of the religious right became
increasingly involved in local and national politics, forming media groups and supporting
like-minded political candidates. Due to their activism, abortion, and other issues that had
previously been regarded as only religious concerns, became politicized.

The religious right also contained elements of racism. In 1971, leaders of the
movement Jerry Falwell and Paul Weyrich protested an Internal Revenue (IRS) policy
that denied tax exemptions to racially segregated schools. Falwell and Weyrich rallied
evangelical Christians by asserting that the IRS was interfering with religious freedom
by attempting to influence the racial policies of private religious schools. The religious
right did not sway the federal
government’s policy on segregated schools, but the coalition began to have a vocal
presence in American politics. Weyrich wrote, “When political power is achieved, the
moral majority will have the opportunity to re-create this great nation.” By the mid- to late-
1970s, the religious right was able to influence the outcomes of local and state elections.

With the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion, the religious right focused more on anti-
abortion efforts. During the 1978 elections, the victories of pro-life Republicans were
largely attributable to these activists.

Then, in 1980, many conservative Christians actively supported Ronald Reagan for
president.
As a divorced former movie star who had signed a California abortion rights bill,
Reagan did not fully align with the traditional Christian principles of the religious
right. Yet, Reagan identified as a born-again Christian and announced that he was pro-
life. The religious right supported Reagan, and he, in turn, supported them, saying at a
conservative Christian conference, “I know you can’t endorse me, but… I endorse you
and what you are doing.” Some of Reagan’s policies as president—including a proposed
constitutional amendment on school prayer—reflected his political alliance with the
religious right.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood takes the increasing political influence of the religious

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right to its most extreme conclusion—the overthrow of the United States government by
hardline Christian zealots who impose a theocratic totalitarian government. The new
regime outlaws abortion and homosexuality, censors sexual expression, and
segregates society.

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OPPOSITION TO PORNOGRAPHY

In flashbacks, the narrator recalls her mother and other protestors burning pornographic
books and magazines. Moira also mentions “Pornomarts” and a black market sex club. The
attitudes of the protagonist’s mother and close friend illustrate feminists’ divided attitudes
toward pornography and the ongoing debate over whether society could protect women by
censoring pornographic materials.

Some feminists opposed pornography because it depicted the degradation and abuse of
women; they also considered sexually explicit speech that subjugated women
“pornography.” They argued that pornographic material and language inspired men to
commit violence against women. This feminist anti-pornography movement formed an
unlikely alliance with conservatives and the religious right, who lobbied for the censorship
of pornography on grounds of obscenity.

The aligning of the religious right and feminists who opposed pornography concerned
others in the feminist movement, who were worried that, in an effort to protect women, the
anti- pornography movement risked endangering civil liberties by introducing
censorship that could be broadly applied to all sexually oriented speech. They feared that
censorship of pornographic materials would not only inhibit the expression of female
sexuality, but also lead to the suppression of gay rights. Feminists who opposed such
censorship advocated the importance of freedom of speech as a tool for advancing
women’s equality.

The Handmaid’s Tale can be interpreted as social commentary on the anti-pornography

movement. In the early days of the Republic of Gilead, the regime shut down the
“Pornomarts” and the “Feels on Wheels” with little opposition from the public. Gilead
continued to expand censorship and restrict sexual expression, ultimately creating a
society divided by gender. The regime justifies the gender-based segregation and
subjugation of women as a means of protecting them from harassment and sexual assault
—the same justification feminists gave for censoring pornography. Atwood, therefore,
implies that censorship, even when based on seemingly reasonable grounds, harms society
because it gives authorities a means by which to oppress less powerful people.

ROMANIAN DEMOGRAPHIC POLICY

In order to increase the declining population despite high infertility rates, the
authorities of Gilead have enforced a breeding program. All fertile women are expected
to bear children and are sent to the toxic Colonies if they refuse. The Handmaids undergo
monthly gynecology exams and take part in the mating ceremony at the time during
their monthly cycle when they are most likely to conceive. When Atwood created
Gilead’s breeding program, she drew inspiration from Romania’s government-mandated
fertility practices.
She makes this influence clear in “Historical Notes on The Handmaid’s Tale,” in which the

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character Professor Pieixoto references “Rumania” and its banning of birth control and
“imposing compulsory pregnancy tests.”

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In the 1960s, Romania was approaching zero population growth. President Nicolae
Ceauşescu issued Decree 770 in 1966 in order to reverse the low fertility and birth rates.
This decree prohibited abortion except in instances of rape or incest, if the fetus had a
congenital disease or deformity, when the pregnancy endangered the life of the woman,
or if the woman was over forty-five years old or had already given birth to at least four
children. Abortions performed for any other reason were criminal offenses, and both
those seeking abortions
and those performing them were penalized. The government also stopped importing
contraceptives. Since none were manufactured domestically, people had no access to birth
control except on the black market.

The Romanian government also enacted a higher tax on men and women over twenty-
five years old who remained childless. Families, in contrast, received slightly higher
allowances with each child they had and reduced tax rates if they had three or more
children. Another government decree made it very difficult for couples to divorce.

When these harsh measures failed to result in an increasing population—in part due to
rising maternal and infant mortality rates and police not actively investigating abortions
—Romania adopted even stricter policies. In the 1980s, the Romanian government
lowered the legal age for marriage to fifteen years for women. All pubescent girls and
women of childbearing age were subjected to monthly gynecological exams in order to
identify and monitor pregnancies. Miscarriages were investigated, abortions were further
restricted, and illegal abortions were more likely to be prosecuted, with women being
sentenced to one year in prison and doctors and medical personnel sentenced to five.
Financial incentives to have children were also increased, and women were encouraged
to have at least five children.

These anti-abortion, anti-contraception policies resulted in a baby boom, but at great cost.
Thousands of women died during illegal abortions. Women and families who could not
afford to care for their children gave them up to communist orphanages. In these
orphanages, children were subjected to unsanitary conditions, neglect, and abuse. In
addition to violating women’s autonomy, Romania’s pro-natalist policies placed a severe
toll on Romanian society.

Similarly, the breeding program in the Republic of Gilead has a devastating effect on
society by subjugating fertile women, treating them as nothing more than wombs. The
arrangement among Commanders, Wives, and Handmaids does not allow for physical
intimacy and prevents Handmaids from bonding with or raising their biological children.

AIDS

In “Historical Notes,” the fictional Professor Pieixoto states that the Republic of Gilead
enacted a breeding program in part because the AIDS epidemic killed “many young
sexually active people.” During the early 1980s, when Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale,

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the AIDS crisis was reaching its peak in the United States.

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In 1981, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) documented cases in which
previously healthy gay men became afflicted with severe illnesses, which indicated
that their immune systems were not functioning. Doctors initially called the illness Gay-
related Immune Deficiency (GRID) because it spread primarily among gay men; however,
as people became ill from transfusions of contaminated blood, the CDC reclassified the
illness as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

In 1983, the CDC reported cases of AIDS in female sexual partners of males, thereby
confirming that AIDS was not a disease that affected homosexual men exclusively. By
1984, scientists had identified the retrovirus that caused AIDS and developed blood
screening tests. It was not until after 1985, however—the year The Handmaid’s Tale was
published—that scientists developed drugs to treat AIDS and allow people with HIV, the
virus that causes AIDS, to lead relatively normal lives. Clearly, in The Handmaid’s Tale,
Atwood is speculating about a world devastated by AIDS in which only a remnant of healthy
adults survive and are capable of having children.

FORCED REMOVAL OF PEOPLE

A news broadcast that the protagonist listens to mentions the “Resettlement of the
Children of Ham…in National Homeland One,” which is located in North Dakota.
This “resettlement” is, first of all, sadly similar to the various “removals” of Native
American
populations following the 1830 Indian Removal Act. It is also similar to policies and actions
contemporaneously carried out in South Africa.

Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale in 1984, at a time when the United States and other
countries around the world were actively opposing the system of apartheid in South
Africa. The system comprised ten Bantustans, or homelands, and forcibly relocated
black South Africans from the cities to their ethnic homelands. Residents of the
Bantustans were deprived of South African citizenship and all of their civil and political
rights. The Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa, a Protestant sect shaped by
Calvinism, used a passage from Genesis to defend this institutionalized racial
segregation.

Chapter 9 of the Old Testament book of Genesis tells the story of Noah after the episode of
the flood. A grape grower and winemaker, Noah becomes drunk and falls asleep naked in
his tent. His son Ham sees him and tells his two brothers. They cover Noah while keeping
their eyes averted from his nakedness. When Noah wakes up and learns that Ham saw him
in his nakedness, he curses Ham’s son, Canaan:

Cursed is Canaan! He will be the lowest of slaves to his brothers.

Praised be the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend
Japheth’s territory; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem. May Canaan be the slave of
Japheth.

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This malediction is often called the “Curse of Ham.” According to folk etymology,
the name Ham means “dark” or “brown,” so Ham’s descendants are believed to have
populated Africa. The “Curse of Ham” has been used throughout history to justify the
enslavement, segregation, and discrimination of black Africans.

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The religious extremists in Gilead similarly use the “Curse of Ham” to justify the
removal of African Americans, the “Children of Ham.” The creation of National
Homeland One goes
beyond the “separate but equal” segregation of the Jim Crow laws in the US South;
instead, it is a more radical racial segregation like that of Apartheid South Africa.

NUNAVUT, CANADA

Margaret Atwood closes her speculative novel with a section titled “Historical Notes.”
These comprise the opening announcements and keynote speech of the fictional
International Historical Association Convention, held in the year 2195 at the fictional
University of Denay in Nunavit.

Clearly, Atwood is playing with words here since this novel of imperfect memory,
unwilling testimony, uncertain origin, and equally uncertain ending is at the heart of a
symposium at the University of “Deny None of It” (Denay, Nunavit).

There is, however, an additional significance to the site of the convention at which the
origin and authenticity of The Handmaid’s Tale are discussed.

Nunavut is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. Although it is the largest in
terms of square mileage, it has the second-lowest population of all of Canada’s provinces
and territories. Most of its population are Inuit, the indigenous peoples of the Arctic
regions of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska.

During the Cold War, especially in the 1950s, the Canadian government became
aware of the geopolitical importance of their northernmost territories. In order to allow
for the construction of air bases and a network of radar stations in the northern Arctic,
several
Inuk families were forcibly relocated from their ancestral homes in northern Quebec to
two islands in Nunavut. Their new land was barren and enjoyed only a couple of months
when the temperature rose above freezing. The polar night lasted for several months.
Although the families were told they would be allowed to return to their ancestral homes,
more and more families were forced to move from Quebec to Nunavut.

In 1976, representatives of the Inuit and the Canadian government began discussing the
division of the territory then known as the Northwest Territory to allow the Inuit to have a
separate zone to be known as the Nunavut Territory. In April, 1982, a referendum was
held in which a majority voted for the division. The Canadian government issued a
conditional agreement that November. Finally, in 1993, the Nunavut Land Claims
Agreement Act and the Nunavut Act were passed. The division of the Northwest Territory
and the establishment of a separate Nunavut were finally accomplished on April 1, 1999.

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By setting her fictional university in a province whose name so closely resembles Nunavut,
Atwood is quite probably bringing into focus yet another example of forced relocation
of a minority by the dominant culture. She is also illustrating, however, that under
the right
circumstances, the minority culture can survive, even thrive. Although the final
establishment of Nunavut did not occur until years after The Handmaid’s Tale was
published, the move toward that establishment had begun years before. In the future
portrayed in her novel, Atwood envisions a Nunavut/Nunavit flourishing to the extent that
it is home to a major university with the resources to host an international convention.

ECOLOGICAL DISASTERS

In addition to the forced removal of “Children of Ham,” the Republic of Gilead sends elderly
women, Handmaids who do not successfully conceive after three placements, women
who refuse to comply with the new society, and gay men to the Colonies. Here, they
clean up “toxic dumps” and “radiation spills.” Professor Pieixoto links high rates of
stillbirths, miscarriages, and genetic deformities to nuclear accidents, chemical and
biological weapons, toxic waste, and unrestricted use of pesticides and herbicides.
Through these details, Atwood explores a number of environmental concerns.

During the late 1970s, two significant environmental disasters brought the issues of
toxicity and industrial waste into the public spotlight:

• 1978—The Love Canal neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York had been built
on a toxic waste dump. Harmful chemicals had been leaking out of metal drums
buried beneath the neighborhood, oozing to the surface.

Pregnant women in Love Canal had a high rate of miscarriages, and over half of
the children born between 1974 and 1978 had at least one birth defect.
Residents were also more likely than the average population to develop cancer,
asthma, and other illnesses.

Homeowners raised their concerns, but the city government of Niagara Falls
denied the health hazard, and Hooker Chemical—the company that had dumped the
waste— refused to admit responsibility. The New York State Health Department,
however, recognized the dump site as a danger to public health and encouraged
pregnant women and families with children to leave.

In August 1978, the Environmental Protection Agency helped relocate 800 affected
families and began the expensive cleanup process that would take decades.

• 1979—The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
suffered a partial meltdown, raising concerns of the safety of nuclear power and of
the lack of planning for radioactive waste disposal.

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The federal government had created the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 to regulate
and enforce policies on pollution, environmental radiation, pesticides, and solid waste.

However, after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president in 1981, he scaled back the
EPA’s staff and funding and attempted to weaken air and water pollution standards.
Environmental activists feared that the Reagan administration would not sufficiently
address the issues of over-fishing, pollution, toxic waste disposal, acid rain, and other long-
term environmental concerns.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood envisions a future in which pollution has not been controlled
and has affected not only the environment, but human fertility as well.

BIBLICAL REFERENCES

Jacob, Rachel, and Bilhah

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the extremists who overthrow the United States government establish a
polygamous breeding program in the new Republic of Gilead. At the Rachel and Leah
Center, young fertile women are trained as Handmaids to bear children for ranking
officials whose wives cannot conceive. The Wives name the children and raise them as
their own. The regime uses the story of sisters Rachel and Leah in Genesis 29-30 at the
justification for this practice.

Atwood makes this reference to a fairly common biblical practice by both naming the training
center after the two sisters and by prefacing her novel with the epigram:

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 he; and she shall bear upon my knees,
that I may also have children by her.

—Genesis 30: 1-3

Ultimately, Jacob fathers a total of thirteen children—twelve sons and a daughter—with

Leah, Rachel (who does eventually have two sons of her own), Bilhah, and Rachel’s maid
Zilpah.
His twelve sons found the twelve tribes of Israel.

In Genesis 28:13-15, Jacob receives a blessing that his descendants will spread across the
world. By naming themselves the Sons of Jacob, the founders of the Republic of Gilead
suggest their relationship with this biblical patriarch, the founder of the entire People of
God.
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GILEAD

In Genesis 30-31, Jacob requests that his father-in-law, whom he has served for
years, give him his wives and children and allow him to return to his own county. They
enter an agreement whereby Jacob will breed a flock of goats and sheep for himself.
Jacob’s wealth grows to such an extreme that his father-in-law seeks to prevent his
taking such vast
resources away. Jacob and his entire household flee to the mount of Gilead in a fertile
region east of the Jordan River.

As biblical Gilead was a place of refuge for Jacob, it is understandable that the modern-
day “Sons of Jacob” would choose this name for their theocratic republic.

JEZEBEL

The biblical figure of Jezebel—who lends her name to Gilead’s infamous “secret” brothel—
has long been associated in the Western mind with idolatry, prostitution, and all other
forms of immorality.

In the Old Testament books of Kings, Jezebel is a Phoenician princess married to King
Ahab, the seventh king of Israel. She worships the pagan god Baal and persuades Ahab to
build an altar to her god. She is blamed for turning the Israelites away from God and for
killing the prophets sent to denounce her and her sinful ways.

Ultimately, it is prophesized that she will experience a horrible death. In defiance of the
prophecy, she adorns her face with make-up and puts on her best finery. (It is this
aspect of the story that associates Jezebel with prostitution.) While sitting at her
window to face her attacker, she is pushed to the ground by one of her own courtiers.
She dies in the fall, and she is denied burial. Wild dogs eat her body.

Although prostitution is officially illegal in the Republic of Gilead, women who refuse to
assimilate and become Handmaids find refuge at the secret club, Jezebel’s.

Some modern feminists, however, have embraced Jezebel as a powerful outspoken woman
who rules as queen. These feminists perceive the demonization of Jezebel as an attempt to
negate her power. In the same way, many of the women who work at Jezebel’s were well-
educated women, a sociologist, a lawyer, and a corporate executive. In the revolution,
these women were stripped of their social status and objectified.

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Martha

As is just about everything else in the Republic of Gilead, the term used to designate
female domestic servants—Martha—originates in an misguided interpretation of an
episode from the New Testament taken to an extreme in its application to Gileadean
society. In the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 10, Jesus visits the home of sisters Mary and
Martha. While Martha busies herself preparing food and drink to entertain the guests,
Mary stays with the group of followers and listens to Jesus talk. Martha complains to
Jesus that Mary should be helping with the work. Jesus, however, rebukes Martha and
says that Mary is doing the better thing.

LUKE

The protagonist’s husband from the former time is named Luke.

Luke is the name ascribed to the author of both the New Testament Gospel of Luke and the
Acts of the Apostles. Luke’s books are unique in the Bible in that they include accounts of
the contributions of women to the movement begun by Jesus:

• The Gospel of Luke shares the pre-Nativity accounts of both Mary, the mother
of Jesus, and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist.
• The Gospel also refers to several female followers of Jesus by name.
• The Acts of the Apostles refers to the “men and women” who participated in the
work of the early Church.
• Acts of the Apostles also refers to several female members and key female workers
in the early Church by name.
• Key among the women named is Lydia, the Apostle Paul’s first convert in Europe.

Atwood’s use of this name is, to some extent, a reminder that many interpretations of the
New Testament do not demand the imposition of a patriarchy and the subjugation of women.

On the other hand, Luke provides some of the Gilead theocracy’s justification for and
treatment of women, especially the Handmaids.

Luke’s account of Mary—the mother of Jesus—and her relative, Elizabeth, is the source
of the greeting shared by the Handmaids-in-training and the Aunts in the red center. In
the first chapter of the gospel, an angel informs Mary that she is going to bear the baby
Jesus. She
visits Elizabeth, who greets her, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of
your
womb.” The “fruit” referred to is, of course, Jesus.

Luke’s account of the angel’s announcement to Mary emphasizes—and provides a Christian

justification for—the role of “Handmaids” in Gilead. After the angel tells Mary that she will

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conceive and bear Jesus, Mary responds, “Behold the Handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me
as you have said.” Later, after the greeting from Elizabeth, Mary replies, “My soul magnifies
the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior because he has regarded the humility of his
Handmaid.”

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PAUL’S LETTERS TO TIMOTHY

More than half of the Christian New Testament (14 of the 27 books) are letters
attributed to the Apostle Paul to various people and churches he helped to found
throughout Europe.
The teaching in these “epistles” has been arguably even more influential in the formation
of modern Christian doctrine and practice than the teachings of Jesus himself in the
gospels have.

Just as nearly every aspect of Gilead society is based on an extremist misinterpretation of

passages from the Old and New Testaments, the words spoken by the Commander during
the Women’s Prayvaganza in Chapter 34 are taken almost verbatim from a letter attributed to
Paul to his young protégé, Timothy:

…I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or
disputing. I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety,
adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive
clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to
teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed
first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was
deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if
they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety. (1 Timothy 2: 8-15)

Ironically, most modern biblical scholars are of the opinion that neither of the two
letters to Timothy was written by Paul. Textual evidence suggests instead that they
were composed by an unknown student of Paul’s teachings at some time close to or
soon after Paul’s death.

MODERNISM AND POSTMODERNISM

The Handmaid’s Tale is an example of postmodern literature, an approach that evolved

from modern literature.

Modernism emerged after World War I. The war’s magnitude, coupled with the
dehumanizing effect of industrialization and the use of new technologies to create weapons
and war machines, caused many people to become disillusioned with their society and
culture. They lost their trust in authority figures and recognized the chaotic nature of a
rapidly changing civilization. The then-traditional forms and themes of literature were
seen as the creations and reflections of that flawed culture. Struggling to find meaning after
global trauma, modernists turned inward, trying to present the workings of consciousness.
They also presented truth as relative, based on individuals’ experiences and
understanding.

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Modernists sought to stop merely presenting reality as the writer perceived it, but wanted to
find ways to represent a deeper, truer reality. Modernist writers deviated from conventional
forms
by using stream-of-consciousness and unreliable first-person narrators instead of
traditional third-person narration, and avoiding linear, chronological plotlines in favor of
flashbacks and flashforwards. They used these experimental techniques in order to
encourage readers to work to make meaning out of what they read and to question their
own perspectives.

Common modernist techniques include:

• unreliable narrators and the possibility that the story as told may not be
factually accurate
• narratives in which the offered account does not match the readers’ own conclusion
• introspection and self-reflection
• a focus on internal experience and conflict
• explorations of dreams and delusions
• nonlinear plotlines
• ambiguous endings
• experimenting with language: word choice, sentence structure,
conventions of grammar and mechanics.

The first-person narrator of The Handmaid’s Tale is not wholly reliable, in part because
her perspective as a Handmaid is limited. Her knowledge of the Republic of Gilead’s
actions is based on rumors and propaganda. Much of the dialogue in The Handmaid’s
Tale is re-created without quotation marks, so it is unclear to the reader if the narrator
accurately recounts what was said, or if she paraphrases or misremembers.

Rather than having a clear plotline, The Handmaid’s Tale is primarily about a Handmaid’s
daily life. The novel focuses on the narrator’s internal conflict as she struggles to retain her
identity and survive. Offred often has flashbacks as events remind her of her past. She also
muses over language, making puns and engaging in word play.

Modernism can be credited with setting the stage for postmodernism, which emerged after
World War II and grew especially popular during the social and political unrest of the
1960s. While modernists searched for meaning in a chaotic world and delved into
existential thought, postmodernists more playfully explored the apparent insanity of
civilization.

Common postmodern elements include:

• metafiction, drawing attention to the act of storytelling and the fictionality of the
story
• intertextuality
• paranoia brought on by the inability to understand the forces that control society
• questioning modern rationality by showing how rational calculations
devalue emotions and ethics

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• the fragmented and decentered self, examining changing identity and the
unconscious mind

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Postmodern thinkers also concede that there may be an objective reality, but they
insist there are no objective means of knowing it. Language is not objective because the
forms and meaning of language developed and continue to evolve as human constructs.
Throughout The Handmaid’s Tale, the narrator plays with language in order to
demonstrate words’ dual meanings and question why certain words or phrases are used.

Angela Michelle Gulick remarks on Atwood’s postmodern influence, which “can be

seen in the areas of narrative structure, self-reflexivity, and ambiguity that pervade the
novel.” With these postmodern elements, Atwood draws attention to the novel as fiction,
the confusing reconstruction of memory, and the limitations of language.

NOLITE TE BASTARDES CARBORUNDORUM.

Early in the novel, the narrator finds the words “Nolite te bastardes carborundorum”
scratched into the floor of the cupboard in her room. While she does not know what it
means, she assumes it was written by her family’s previous Handmaid and is evidence of
fortitude and resistance. The narrator takes strength from this “communication.”

Margaret Atwood revealed in an April 12, 2017 interview with Time that the phrase
was a joke among her friends in Latin class over fifty years ago. It is, quite possibly, a
translation of the World-War-II-era mock-Latin aphorism Illegitimi non carborundum,
“Don’t let the bastards grind you down.”

Offred eventually learns that it is a phrase the Commander made up when he was a
schoolboy and that he shared it with the previous Handmaid.

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