The Handmaid's Tale




Let me just say this book is wrong on so many levels..

Offred is a Handmaid in what is known as the Republic of Gilead, and it is a totalitarian and theocratic state that has now replaced the United States. Due to extremely low reproduction rates, Handmaids are made to reproduce children for elite couples. They must do this because most of the women of the elite "Commanders" are unable to have children. So they must partake in a wordless intercourse with the commander while his wife copies what might be called sexual intercourse. This place restricts women's freedom, so they are only allowed to leave the house to go shopping, and basically have no privacy at all in their life.

Offred wasn't always a Handmaid though. There was a time that she had a family before all of this hell broke loose. They had planned to escape this type of ruling and try to live a better life. However, they were caught and Offred was separated from her husband and her daughter. She barely recalls the memories of that time due to what the Eyes did to her. The Eyes are the spies of this type of government. Throughout the book the Eyes are secretly keeping an eye on her. It is absolutely horrible!!

 This book actually made me incredibly angry at how these women were treated. They are basically walking sperm banks that are made for old men's convenience. Not only that but the church is a big player in this. They condemn women and men for the slightest crime as they see fit. They display hanging corpses out in the open for everyone to see, which sends all of them a message. Its actually kind of scary because this book was written and published a long time ago. To actually see what was going around in this authors head must have been wild. It makes me think that this could ultimately happen one day. Well I will be damned that I would let this happen to me!

Despite how angry some chapters made me, this was an excellent book! I didn't really like the way that it ended though. It was a definite cliffhanger. When I got to the end I was like, "What! thats it?" I wish that this book would be made into a series!It makes you think that we actually have it pretty good compared to most places. We don't know how cruel our world can be. I hope we never have to experience them either.