The Republic of Gilead is a dystopian society built on traditional Christian and patriarchal views of female sacrifice. While women are treated explicitly as"two-legged wombs" or "ambulatory chalices" as a result of this new structure, I still think it would be too simplistic to blame this treatment entirely on the totalitarian spreading of a thousands year old faith. Rather, I think this is the result of an attitude held by the powerful few, a shallow and flimsy belief in the morality of sacrifice in the name of the "greater good." In the face of a man-made ecological meltdown, the few powerful cling will to any ideology that supports their selfish wish to remain unscathed upon the sacrificed back of others.
In The Handmaid's Tale, the over arching conflict is the ubiquitous pollution that has taken over much of the United States. While the pollution is straight up killing people, the greatest risk to the United States is that it is rendering most of the population, men and women, sterile and very unfit to carry life should they conceive. While this is a disastrous setting, it is really not mentioned very much, it is mainly just the vehicle to prove a point about how readily corruption takes advantage of people's fear and weaknesses. Because of a multitude of different factors, a return to ultra-christian conservatism, xenophobia, and fear-mongering propaganda, a new order rises to full power under a violent regime nearly overnight. Under the justification of the biblical story of Bilah and Jacob, all fertile women of childbearing age are herded together and forced to bear children for the powerful Commanders who run the new order and their wives.
This book is decidedly feminist and unflinchingly shows the unceasing injustices the women face under the fully patriarchal society, such as revoking of property and money, sexual assault, domestic abuse, loss of control over their bodies, and objectification. This book still remains largely, in my eyes, a warning to all how willingly absolute power will oppress the "others" if they do not remain vigilant. In the pre-Gilead government, women are still "otherized." Very similar to our own Democratic American government, it is run almost entirely by white men, yet most women are so complacent in their liberties to really notice as they begin to be silently infringed upon. Offred, the main character and handmaid in this book, was one of these women. She was often irritated by her mother and her best friend who were strongly outspoken feminists, who participated in protests and the like. I guess she found their crusade to be a little ridiculous given their current standard of living as "modern" women. But that is Margaret Atwood's warning to women, even just people who the government or powerful men may want to use for their own selfish benefit;"Nolite te bastardes carborundorum" is the anthem of this novel. It means "don't let the bastards grind you down", it's a message to remain vigilant of those who would prefer that you don't have freedom or humanity for their benefit. When anyone's philosophy is that the greater good is not always better for everyone, you've found the wolf in sheep's clothing.
This is a wake up call for the modern western women to recognize their legacy of forced silence in the face of their oppression, and how easily the time can be turned back. Margaret Atwood makes the point of how easy it was for the new government to enforce themselves upon women. The credit card companies simply shut off their accounts, the property Act is quickly reversed, and women are outlawed from being able to work all in a matter of weeks. The visage that women have any support from the government or the mob is quickly destroyed. Young women are now the "sacrificial lamb" to solve the problem of low birth rate all. But is it really sacrifice? No, it is "auto-cannibalism" of a society. These women are given the complete responsibility to carry on a generation, while at the same time being punished if they do not conceive (Do you think Rachael ever asked Jacob if he was sterile?) These women do not have the liberty to speak their mind under the threat of death from "the eye," how can a sacrifice be a sacrifice if it is not willing; even god-willed sacrifice in the bible has the component of human choice. Auto-cannibalism is when a society eats itself whole by suppressing those who could be used as a commodity for their own greed. In the Handmaid's tale, the commanders use the bodies of their citizens in what ever way they want, they are the stone bricks of the power structures. They are used as disposable wombs, pollution clean up, soldiers, and sexual provocations. This is why the only true sacrifice in this story is by the Offred that lived in the house before the Offred that tells us the The Handmaid's Tale. She is the one who carved the word "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum" into the closet wall for our Offred to see them. Yes, she killed herself, but under the inevitable pretense that the government would kill her when it was decided she could no longer conceive. Not only does this act of resistance act as a symbol to Offred, but it also rocks the commander to his core and gives him that weakness of guilt that our Offred does the best to exploit in the name of the "Mayday" resistance.
This is a wake up call for the modern western women to recognize their legacy of forced silence in the face of their oppression, and how easily the time can be turned back. Margaret Atwood makes the point of how easy it was for the new government to enforce themselves upon women. The credit card companies simply shut off their accounts, the property Act is quickly reversed, and women are outlawed from being able to work all in a matter of weeks. The visage that women have any support from the government or the mob is quickly destroyed. Young women are now the "sacrificial lamb" to solve the problem of low birth rate all. But is it really sacrifice? No, it is "auto-cannibalism" of a society. These women are given the complete responsibility to carry on a generation, while at the same time being punished if they do not conceive (Do you think Rachael ever asked Jacob if he was sterile?) These women do not have the liberty to speak their mind under the threat of death from "the eye," how can a sacrifice be a sacrifice if it is not willing; even god-willed sacrifice in the bible has the component of human choice. Auto-cannibalism is when a society eats itself whole by suppressing those who could be used as a commodity for their own greed. In the Handmaid's tale, the commanders use the bodies of their citizens in what ever way they want, they are the stone bricks of the power structures. They are used as disposable wombs, pollution clean up, soldiers, and sexual provocations. This is why the only true sacrifice in this story is by the Offred that lived in the house before the Offred that tells us the The Handmaid's Tale. She is the one who carved the word "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum" into the closet wall for our Offred to see them. Yes, she killed herself, but under the inevitable pretense that the government would kill her when it was decided she could no longer conceive. Not only does this act of resistance act as a symbol to Offred, but it also rocks the commander to his core and gives him that weakness of guilt that our Offred does the best to exploit in the name of the "Mayday" resistance.
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