It depicts a totalitarian world known as Gilead, portraying the subjection of women in a patriarchal society. Anna and Elena Balbusso’s stunning illustrations skilfully highlight the regimented and hierarchical nature of society in Gilead.The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel written by Margaret Atwood in 1985. Clarke Award for science fiction, as well as being shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, one of Canada’s most prestigious literary prizes, and the inaugural Arthur C. It was a critical and popular success, launching its Canadian author on the international stage.
What else can I say?’Īsked whether her book could be classed as science fiction, Atwood replied: ‘Science fiction has monsters and spaceships speculative fiction could really happen.’ First published in 1986, The Handmaid’s Tale was inspired by contemporary Western fears about falling birth-rates, as well as by religious fundamentalism both in the West and East.
Both fascinated and repelled by the Japanese women’s ‘Westernized’ clothing, Offred replies that they are very happy. Forbidden to take pictures, the tourists ask, through an interpreter, if the women are happy. Atwood skilfully dramatises the contrast between the grotesque strangeness of Gilead and ‘ordinary’ life going on elsewhere, as when Offred and a companion encounter a group of tourists from Japan. Offred makes frequent references to the world she once knew and the freedom she took for granted – having her own bank account, wearing her hair uncovered, even something as simple as using nail varnish.
The Handmaid’s Tale portrays a chilling dystopia, with its military hierarchy of Angels, Guardians and Eyes, and its Birthmobiles, Econowives, Prayvaganzas and Salvagings (executions).
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