There is more than one kind of freedom," said Aunt Lydia. "Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it.”
This was the longest time I have taken to start a review, simply because I didn’t know where to begin. Also, took the longest time to start the book. Every time I got my hands on a copy, it didn’t stay on my shelf long enough for me to open it. A lot has been written about this classic daunting dystopian tale; the religious and political aspects, here is just another simple version of it.
Imagine living in a society where women are objectified and stripped of all their basic rights. They have nothing left for them; everything they have worked for is seized overnight. Everything you own is being rightly given to the men, and now women are dependent on men. This is Gilead; where they are forbidden to read and write or seek any form of amusement. In an age where the birth rate is thinning, the fertile women are allotted to well-to-do men, to breed children for them because their wives cannot. Where men have the power and are free and women are recognized by the role they have been categorized into - the Wives the Aunts the Marthas and the Handmaids.
The Aunts educate them with the new beliefs of the Gilead. They train women to be handmaids. The handmaids have been taught to take this as a blessing, fertility is God’s gift and they should embrace it. This is what they are now and they have no choice but to accept their fate.
Offred had a job, a husband, a daughter, an entire life before Gilead, now she is a member of Commander Waterford’s household. She is here to fulfill her one job, to get pregnant and give this family a baby. Offred has her escapes to the life before, they are crisp in her memories. Also with Ofglen, her resilient and not so pious shopping partner. To avoid any radical actions, the handmaids move in twos. They silently talk about the life before on their walks. And Moira, her friend she reunites with in Gilead. Stealing away low whispers and glances when the condition and time permits. Offred is sure her daughter is out there, which gives her the strength she needs to keep going. She has one foot in Gilead and the other in the caged freedom of her thoughts, to the life that was. These reflections of the past gave me that slight hope that also is not lost yet.
When the TV adaptation first aired, all I read was how, even after three decades, this book is so relevant in today’s time. I may not comprehend that entirely, however I do see the petty instances the story taps into. The show has taken some liberties and made a few minor alterations in terms of the timeline and the character development. The adaptation gives you a more terrifying visual perspective to the community of Gilead and the storyline, which only make it feel more existent. Leaving me a lot more anxious.
The Handmaid’s Tale left me slightly distressed and unexpectedly drained. Maybe because, being a dystopian story, yet it felt plausible. Atwood has not held back. The appalling picture she paints of Gilead is brazenly raw with the nuanced splatter of a misogynistic society. Though this tale was an uneasy one and I despised this fictitious society created, I just couldn’t put it down.
“Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. Don't let the bastards grind you down.”