Whenever an updated banned book list comes out, Margret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is almost always at the top of the list. Despite its controversy, The Handmaid’s Tale remains a cultural phenomenon and a staple in dystopian literature.
Atwood takes inspiration from Evangelical movements in the 18th and 19th centuries. The book has been challenged or banned starting in the right after its release in 1985 due to its mature content.
The story follows “Offred,” the female protagonist (whose real name is never revealed), as she traverses her new life in a conservative, Christian, patriarchal society. The book is at the forefront of the dystopian genre, and therefore deals with more mature themes, challenging many socialist and conservative values.
Another recurring motif throughout the story is the idea that “to make society better for others, it has to be worse for some.” The Handmaid’s Tale explores the perspective of an individual whose situation is “worse” than others, showing another side to the conventional narrative.
Atwood at times signifies that Offred is an unreliable narrator while leaving many details up to speculation. While narrating, Offred will often say “but that’s not what happened” after a significant event, usually an interaction with another character, showing her blissful ignorance of reality.
While some may be deterred from the book’s crude subject matter, I personally don’t think the mature content takes away from the themes of the book unlike some other challenged books that are gratuitous and crude for the sake of entertainment. The Handmaid’s Tale is a commentary on what it means to be religious and makes the reader question their own values. Atwood does a great job of exploring how a wide variety of people adapt to their circumstances and what each person is willing to risk to survive their situation. While it’s not as eventful or fast paced as some other popular dystopian literature, if you are willing to analyze the nuance of Atwood’s writing I would say it’s worth looking into.
Read a review on 2017 TV show adaption of The Handmaid’s Tale versus the original book here.
