History Literature / TheHandmaidsTale

It has been about seven years since then, long enough for seven-year-olds not to remember how it was before. AIDS and R-Strain syphilis have made many people sterile; pregnancies are rare, healthy births even rarer. Women are forbidden to read or write; Handmaids must wear red dresses with a white bonnet that blocks their peripheral vision. It's a simple job; get pregnant, have a live and unmutated birth, try to get along with the family, repeat as necessary. Three failures without a success, and the Handmaid is killed or worse. Offred is with a tough family; the husband is a military man, and the wife (who must wear blue) is a former televangelist who used to crusade about women staying at home and being good wives. [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor She is not enjoying her retirement]]. There are also two "Marthas" who do all the housekeeping.

Offred befriends another handmaid, Ofglen, and eventually learns that she belongs to [[LaResistance a resistance movement]] to fight or flee Gilead. She eventually falls head-over-heels with another of its members. Offred enters a second underground through Fred, who is willing to share extra things with her, things normally forbidden to Handmaids, to get extra time with her; its motives are less noble however.

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The story is set in an unnamed American city, but certain clues point to it as Cambridge, Massachussetts. Specifically Harvard Square. MargaretAtwood [[WordOfGod stated in the foreword]] for the [[Series/TheHandmaidsTale TV show's]] tie-in edition that this is a CallBack to colonial-era Puritanism.

She gives a portrait of the society. She can remember before, when women still had rights; her mother was a feminist. She was married, but her husband was married before, which became important. It was a cashless society, so when the US government was overthrown and Republic of Gilead set up, they simply wiped out jobs for women and money for women at the same time. When things started getting more oppressive, she and her fella tried to flee, but she got caught; since she had been "living in sin," as her husband divorced his first wife, hence invalidating his marriage with her according to Christian fundamentalists that took over, she was made a handmaid, and her daughter was taken away from her and sent to a different family.

It has been about seven years since then, long enough for seven-year-olds not to remember how it was before. AIDS and R-Strain syphilis have made many people sterile; pregnancies are rare, healthy births even rarer. Women are forbidden to read or write; handmaids must wear red and are forbidden to have peripheral vision. It's a simple job; get pregnant, have a live and unmutated birth, try to get along with the family, repeat as necessary. Three failures without a success, and the handmaid is killed or worse. Offred is with a tough family; the husband is a military man, and the wife (who must wear blue) was a televangelist who used to crusade about women staying at home and being good wives. [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor She is not enjoying her retirement]]. There are also two "Marthas" who do all the housekeeping.

Offred befriends another handmaid, Ofglen, and eventually learns that she belongs to [[LaResistance a resistance movement]] to fight or flee Gilead. She eventually falls head-over-heels with another of its members. Offred enters a second underground through Fred, who is willing to share extra things with her, things normally forbidden to handmaids, to get extra time with her; its motives are less noble however.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: No form of pollution fits what's described in the book, and you cannot screw up the oceans that badly without massive repercussions. Though the book does acknowledge that Offred is an UnreliableNarrator as she can only speculate on what she is told, which as a handmaid is not much, and even then is filtered through state-issued propaganda. The Republic of Gilead could be feeding people false information about environmental disasters for all the reader knows.

* BabyFactory: How the Handmaids are viewed. A Handmaid is considered little more than a womb with two legs. A woman who indicates that she is fertile (eg. by having born a child) becomes a Handmaid. Such women are rare in this society.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Serena Joy spent most of her pre-Gilead career as a televangelist promoting "traditional family values" (i.e. women should StayInTheKitchen and aspire to be [[BabyFactory Baby-Factories]], etc). But now that everything she preached for has been instituted by the Republic of Gilead, [[VictoryIsBoring she is not so pleased with the new situation,]] or with having to share her husband and engage in the humiliating ceremony where he has sex with his Handmaids. Offred alludes to this while musing about Serena during a monologue:

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Invoked and played with. "There must have been needles, pills, something like that. I can't have lost that much time without help". The author thereby skips much of the backstory, allowing more room for lengthy atmospheric descriptions.

** Subverted in the 1990 film adaptation, where Offred's name is [[spoiler:Kate]] and the 2017 TV show adapation, where it's [[spoiler: June]].

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Offred and most other handmaids.
** A few subtle hints in the book lead some to believe it's [[spoiler:June]].

* PoliceBrutality: The eyes of god simply take people who defect, and nobody can do anything.

* PublicExecution: The regime carries these out routinely, mostly by hanging, with the bodies left on display to warn others. One special form is where the woman (usually with no power in their society) tear apart male convicts. This appears to be when they were convicted of crimes against women. Of course, Ofglen claims that the man we see killed by them didn't actually rape and murder a woman-he was part of the resistance. She knocks him out so he won't suffer, though this reveals her to the Eyes of God.

* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: They possibly drug the handmaids during their training.

* TheLittleDetecto: How the eyes must manage to find every secret.

* VirginInAWhiteDress: The virgin daughters of Gilead wear these until marriage, when they switch to blue (Wives) or multicolored (Econowives)

* IKEAErotica: [[JustifiedTrope Intentionally invoked]] [[TheyPlottedAPerfectlyGoodWaste to show how passionless, loveless, and chore-like sex has become in Gilead.]]

* FingerInTheMail: According to the epilogue, Gilead had a habit of sending body parts to escapees of the regime. This is thought to be one reason Offred never went public with her story, as she wasn't sure whether her husband was still alive or not.

* CrapsackWorld: Pretty much so.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Serena Joy, who preached of how a woman should stay at home.

* HowWeGotHere: the novel tells how it ended up like this through flash backs.

* SmokyGentlemensClub: the secret club the commander brings offred to. Nicknamed Jezebels and she soon finds Moira there

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: African-Americans are called "Children of Ham" and sent to new "homelands" in areas like North Dakota. These could really be extermination camps.

* The Little Detecto: How the eyes must manage to find every secret.

* IllegalReligion: Everything except the regime's particular fundamentalism is banned. Being a Catholic priest is a capital crime crime, and it's mentioned the Church ordered clergy to stop wearing the cassock because of this. Quakers are also mentioned as being persecuted, along with Baptists (who have rebelled). Jews are allowed to convert or leave for Israel. Those who stay but practice Judaism in secret are executed.

* NonIndicativeTitle: In-universe, the Rachel and Leah Center -- it's designed to train women to do what Bilhah and Zilpah did ''for'' Rachel and Leah, not to be like Rachel and Leah.

** [[WordOfGod Atwood]] [[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/books/review/margaret-atwood-handmaids-tale-age-of-trump.html has said]] that it was not her intention [[spoiler:to imply that Offred's real name is June]] "but it fits so readers are welcome to it if they wish."

* NonIndicativeTitle: In-universe, the Rachel and Leah Centre -- it's designed to train women to do what Bilhah and Zilpah did ''for'' Rachel and Leah, not to be like Rachel and Leah.

* Non-IndicativeTitle: In-universe, the Rachel and Leah Centre -- it's designed to train women to do what Bilhah and Zilpah did ''for'' Rachel and Leah, not to be like Rachel and Leah.

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The story is set in an unnamed American city, but certain clues point to it being Cambridge, Massachussetts. Specifically Harvard Square. MargaretAtwood [[WordOfGod stated in the foreword]] for the [[Series/TheHandmaidsTale TV show's]] tie-in edition that this is a CallBack to colonial-era Puritanism.

** Subverted in the 1990 film adaptation, where Offred's name is [[spoiler:Kate]] and the 2017 TV show adapation, where it's [[spoiler:presumed to be June]].

** Subverted in the 1990 film adaptation, where Offred's name is [[spoiler:Kate]].

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The story is set in an unnamed American city, but certain clues point to it being Cambridge, Massachussetts. Specifically Harvard Square.

* LadyInRed: Played with. Most people assume that Handmaids are massive sluts.