The Handmaid's Tale (as told around a box of Franzia) Part 1

Discussion of the first half of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale continually orbited its central figure, the handmaid known currently as Offred--her status, her plight, and her ways of coping.

Noted by many, the novel is rich with subtle, but telling detail, and nuanced observation, shared entirely from Offred's perspective and expression of how this intelligent woman copes with her grey, tedious hell, while the novel itself is oddly free of event. It was also observed how specific and close that hell was--the world of The Handmaid's Tale offers no distant villain, no Big Brother, onto which the characters and the readers can project their hatreds, resulting in a strange circumstance where, though her entire society from the top down is designed against Offred, the greater threat seems to be the catty behavior of the house staff, and the terrifying wrath of the Wife, Sarena joy.

The vapid, empty hypocrisy and absurdity of the society was also discussed, and how the men seemed as miserable and trapped as the women by its misogynist structures (seen in the sad, pathetic figure of the Commander, who seems to command little), as well as the way nearly everything extends logically from the central issue of the commoditization of fertility, and how strangely irreligious this religious society actually was. The movements that inspired the novel also came up--from the Christian fundamentalists of the 80's to the Teabaggers of today, and the odd role women play in these movements, and how this is reflected in the character of Sarena Joy--leader, or foot soldier, she seems to share complicity in the creation of this culture.

Next week comes part 2. Will it include an even worse threesome? We shall see.