The Handmaid's Tale, By Margaret Atwood
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Margaret Atwood's feminist dystopia has now reached the status of a classic, and may well prove to be the book she is remembered for. It's hard to believe it is 25 years since it was first published, but its freshness, its anger and its disciplined, taut prose have only grown more admirable in the intervening years.
Atwood's heroine's role in life is contained in her new name: Offred, literally "Of Fred". She belongs to the Commander, an officer in a theocratic new regime, the Republic of Gilead, in which women are required to breed. The wives of officers who cannot have children must find surrogates to fulfil that role. Offred is one of these surrogates, and is regularly held down and raped by the Commander and his wife, until she conceives.
But humanity always intervenes: the Commander begins falling in love with Offred once she is carrying his child. Offred, knowing that the baby will be taken from her once it is born, plans escape with the help of a rebel, Nick.
Atwood's novel was an ingenious enterprise that showed, without hysteria, the real dangers to women of closing their eyes to patriarchal oppression.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments