Rating: 8.5/10
Overall Thoughts
This dystopia is set in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian state that has replaced the United States of America. Due to the dangerously low production rates, Handmaids are assigned to bear children for elite couples who have trouble conceiving. Oppression is evident, as these Handmaids are assigned names that are not their own. The protagonist is called "Offred"; she is of-Fred, essentially implying that she belongs to her Commander. Once a month, on 'ceremonial nights', Offred must lie on her back, her head resting on the Commander's wife's lap, and have ritual sexual intercourse with the Commander.
In the Republic of Gilead, women's freedom are restricted - women are enslaved, forbidden to read, stripped of their names and identities, and casually raped. Further, the women are physically segregated according to the colour of their clothing - the Commander's wives are dressed in blue, Marthas (ie cooks and maids) in green, Handmaid's in red, and children in white.
Overall, the plot is outstanding, though characterization in 'The Handmaid's Tale' is considerably weak. I highly recommend watching the series adaptation of the book, as the expanded characters and additional sub-plots provides a better visual.
In the Republic of Gilead, women's freedom are restricted - women are enslaved, forbidden to read, stripped of their names and identities, and casually raped. Further, the women are physically segregated according to the colour of their clothing - the Commander's wives are dressed in blue, Marthas (ie cooks and maids) in green, Handmaid's in red, and children in white.
Overall, the plot is outstanding, though characterization in 'The Handmaid's Tale' is considerably weak. I highly recommend watching the series adaptation of the book, as the expanded characters and additional sub-plots provides a better visual.
Favourites from 'The Handmaid's Tale'
"I remember that yearning, for something that was always about to happen and was never the same as the hands that were on us there and then, in the small of the back, or out back, in the parking lot, or in the television room with the sound turned down and only the pictures flickering over lifting flesh."
"The night is mine, my own time, to do with as I will, as long as I am quiet. As long as I don't move. As long as I lie still."
"There's always someone else. Even when there is no one."
"We lived in the gaps between the stories."
"My hands are shaking. Why am I frightened? I've crossed no boundaries, I've given no trust, taken no risk, all is safe. It's the choice that terrifies me. A way out, a salvation."
"There's time to spare. This is one of the things I wasn't prepared for - the amount of unfilled time, the long parentheses of nothing. Time as white sound."
"I have failed once again to fulfil the expectations of others, which have become my own."
"He too is illegal, here, with me, he can't give me away. Nor I him; for the moment we're mirrors. He puts his hand on my arm, pulls me against him, his mouth on mine, what else comes from such denial?"
"...nobody dies from lack of sex. It's lack of love we die from. There's nobody here I can love, all the people I could love are dead or elsewhere. Who knows where they are or what their names are now? They might as well be nowhere, as I am for them. I too am a missing person."
"Sanity is a valuable possession; I hoard it the way people once hoarded money. I save it, so I will have enough, when the time comes."
"But who can remember pain, once it's over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind."
"But remember that forgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest."
"To want is to have a weakness. It's this weakness, whatever it is, that entices me. It's like a small crack in a wall, before now impenetrable. If I press my eye to it, this weakness of his, I may be able to see my way clear."
"The more difficult it was to love the particular man beside us, the more we believed in Love, abstract and total."
"Time has not stood still. It has washed over me, washed me away, as if I'm nothing more than a woman of sand, left by a careless child too near the water. I have been obliterated for her. I am only a shadow now, far back behind the glib shiny surface of this photograph. A shadow of a shadow, as dead mothers become. You can see it in her eyes: I am not there."
"I would like to be without shame. I would like to be shameless. I would like to be ignorant. Then I would not know how ignorant I was."
"I wish this story were different. I wish it were more civilized. I wish it showed me in a better light, if not happier, then at least more active, less hesitant, less distracted by trivia. I wish it had more shape. I wish it were about love, or even about sunsets, birds, rainstorms, or snow."
"We make love each time as if we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there will never be any more, for either of us, with anyone, ever. And then when there is, that too is always a surprise, extra, a gift."
"He too is illegal, here, with me, he can't give me away. Nor I him; for the moment we're mirrors. He puts his hand on my arm, pulls me against him, his mouth on mine, what else comes from such denial?"
"...nobody dies from lack of sex. It's lack of love we die from. There's nobody here I can love, all the people I could love are dead or elsewhere. Who knows where they are or what their names are now? They might as well be nowhere, as I am for them. I too am a missing person."
"Sanity is a valuable possession; I hoard it the way people once hoarded money. I save it, so I will have enough, when the time comes."
"But who can remember pain, once it's over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind."
"But remember that forgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest."
"To want is to have a weakness. It's this weakness, whatever it is, that entices me. It's like a small crack in a wall, before now impenetrable. If I press my eye to it, this weakness of his, I may be able to see my way clear."
"The more difficult it was to love the particular man beside us, the more we believed in Love, abstract and total."
"Time has not stood still. It has washed over me, washed me away, as if I'm nothing more than a woman of sand, left by a careless child too near the water. I have been obliterated for her. I am only a shadow now, far back behind the glib shiny surface of this photograph. A shadow of a shadow, as dead mothers become. You can see it in her eyes: I am not there."
"I would like to be without shame. I would like to be shameless. I would like to be ignorant. Then I would not know how ignorant I was."
"I wish this story were different. I wish it were more civilized. I wish it showed me in a better light, if not happier, then at least more active, less hesitant, less distracted by trivia. I wish it had more shape. I wish it were about love, or even about sunsets, birds, rainstorms, or snow."
"We make love each time as if we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there will never be any more, for either of us, with anyone, ever. And then when there is, that too is always a surprise, extra, a gift."
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