Text review: The Handmaids Tale

The text I am choosing to review, The Handmaids Tale, is both a novel and a TV series. It is set in modern day Gilead, which was once the United States, where a a regime has taken over in purpose to repopulate after birth rates decreased significantly. To repopulate, women are basically taken as property, live in the home of the rich family that stands behind the regime, and ultimately is used for sex and a womb. Shortly after giving birth, the handmaids are forced to give their babies to the commanders and their wives and are then sent to another commanders home to repeat the process. I think this text is particularly interesting to analyze and review because of the power dynamics between social class as well as gender inequality and touches on many topics we learned such as migration and “othering”. Keep in mind  the regime is only happening in what was once known as the United States, so most of the rest of the world views them as the “other” but with good cause which I feel like we did not see throughout this course. There is also very clearly a power dynamic similar to the master slave dialectic we learned from Hegel between the commanders and the handmaids. In both the novel and TV series, Canada is kind of used as a safe harbor and asylum for people who fled and continue to flee Gilead for their safety. They were forced to migrate or become slaves under Gilead law which is something else we touched on in class. There is not only the power dynamic between handmaids and commanders but everyone in between. In all cases women are at the bottom of the food chain whether a handmaid, a Martha (caretaker of commanders house), an Aunt (the women who keep the handmaids in line) and even the commanders wives.

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