The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Throughout The Handmaid's Tale there were so many allusions to the bible, they pop up everywhere like the weeds in the garden I used to grow. Gilead, the town that Offred lives in, is a land of peace and relaxation in the bible. But Gilead in the novel is not like the biblical Gilead, in fact, it is just the opposite. The society is on the knife's edge of civil war, outside of Gilead there are rebel groups trying to overthrow the society; while inside of Gilead the Handmaids have their own secret society called Mayday which allows them to pass on news of what is happening in the society. Tthe term Handmaid is also biblical, Handmaids were female servants and in the bible when the wives could not bear children they gave their handmaid to their husband to bear children for them.  In the novel the Handmaids do just that, have babies. Similarly the store names are also an allusion to the bible, for example Milk and Honey in the novel this store is a produce store but in the bible it was a place where the land was fertile, both in crops and children. This image contrasts with the the Gilead in the novel which is fertile in neither food nor children. Where it is such a big deal when there are oranges in the store and where the City is so desolate in children that they need to assign handmaids to the Commanders. Atwood uses these contrasting images in the allusions to show how society twisted the bible in order to fit what the society needs. They need a higher birth rate, so they say since handmaids are in the bible it is right and not sinful to have one. There needed to be a reason for people to agree to this new society, or at least to keep everyone calm enough so that most people will not fight against it, so they named the city Gilead; a name that has a relaxing and pleasant feeling attached to it.

"I would like to believe this is a story I'm telling. I need to believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it's a story I'm telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it" (Atwood 39). 

This quote is my favorite in this novel. In Gilead Handmaids are not allowed to speak, or read , or talk to other people because Gilead silences all women, even the wives, but Offred is rebelling against the society by telling her story of Gilead, even if it is not to someone directly. And creating this story gives Offred some power in her rebellion, she gets to create the "ending" of the story. What I also like about this quote is that it shows her hope that there will be and ending to this story, that real life will start up again and she will find Luke, her daughter, her mother, and Moira. That she will be able to tell this story to them. Also if she tells this story it will give her the strength to get through her life in Gilead until the end of her story. This quote shows her hope that she will pull through this and escape and shows it also her rebellion against Gilead by not giving control of her mind and thoughts over to the society, that is why it is my favorite quote.  

I liked The Handmaid's Tale a lot because it was a very thought provoking novel, it made me think about the bible and it made me think about our government and compare events in history with events in the book. I also liked the ending before the Historical notes, it let your imagination decide if Offred escaped or if she was captured by the Eyes. I didn't like how Moira gave up fighting against the society while she was in Jezebels, I have to say I was hoping for Moira to lead a rebellion against Gilead and when she gave up I was very disappointed and a little scared about what would happen then. I do like how Offred did not really give up though, she did at one point but then she started to fight back again, I was happy when Offred started to fight back again. I did not like the Commander at all, well I shouldn't say that, in the beginning while we were first getting to know him I thought he was just as chained down by society as Offred was, just as lonely, but then after a few almost sexist comments from him and after he took Offred to Jezebels I realized the he may have been lonely but he was not chained down by society like Offred. To me at the end the Commander struck me as a shallow man who only cares about what he wants and not how it might affect others. I didn't like how he used Offred just to get what he wanted.