Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Handmaid's Tale


Have you ever wondered what happens if a zealous group overthrows the US government and enforces women subjugation and reverses all the progress made by women so far? Maybe it's not too far fetching, given the fact that the Taliban has tried to do something similar in Afghanistan. 

Margaret Atwood's Handmaid Tale is a dystopian novel that offers a strongly feminist perspective. In this novel, a group of religious extremists take over power and creates a society with foundation on - return to traditional values and gender roles. Women are forbidden to vote, read/write. Class system is also enforced. Handmaids are women who are nothing but breeding machines, who are assigned to commanders whose wives cannot produce offspring. 

Handmaid's Tale is a masterfully written novel that provides a horrifying peek at the possibility of such a future.