1. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood published in 1986

2. Margaret Atwood 1939-

3. Bio Atwood is Canada’s most famous novelist, and this novel is her most popular despite its bleak futuristic scenario. Atwood was born in Ottawa, Ontario, and after graduating from university in 1961, she had her first book published which was a collection of poems. Her first experience with the U.S. was when she went to Harvard for graduate school where she studied American literature, learned about 17 th century Puritan New England, and realized how little Americans knew about Canada. Her works focus on contemporary political and social issues.

4. Why are we studying this novel? In an interview with The New York Times Atwood said of her novel, “It’s a study of power, its abuses, and how it operates and how it deforms or shapes the people who are living within that kind of regime.” She says the novel falls into the “dystopian speculative fiction” genre and is not science fiction. In the same article, Atwood says she delayed writing the novel after she got the idea because “[she] felt it was too crazy.” Then she realized that “a lot of the things I thought I was more or less making up were now happening, and indeed more of them have happened since the publication of the book.”

5. Atwood is challenging us to think not only about the narrator’s situation, but how this society could happen and the ways in which that society is both similar to and different from our own society today. The novel is a social critique of the 1980s in the U.S. The novel “projects a nightmare future as prophecy and warning.” The novel is “a slight twist on the society we have now.”

6. Historical and Political Connections What was going on in the 1980s? The book was published in the middle of Ronald Reagan’s presidency (1981- 1989). In the early 1980s the religious right fundamentalist groups became a political force in America, with their strong backing for President Reagan and the Republican Party. The terms "left" and "right" appeared during the French Revolution of 1789 when members of the National Assembly divided into supporters of the king to the president's right and supporters of the revolution to his left. There is general agreement that the Left includes: progressives, communists, social-liberals, feminists, and anti-capitalists. In other words, New and novel ideas. Think Arthur Miller. There is general agreement that the Right includes: conservatives, traditionalists, capitalists, social authoritarians, (those who want government control) and nationalists. In other words, Conservative ideas.

7. These conservative, right-wing groups warned about “birth dearth”—women weren’t having babies—and they were anti- feminism, anti-homosexuality, anti- abortion, anti-pornography, and racist. A woman’s place was in the kitchen with their babies. They had many eager followers. This was a time when television evangelists were popular, and Atwood was “increasingly alarmed by statements made frequently by religious leaders in the U.S.””

8. Jerry Falwell--Evangelist, Minister, Pastor, Television Personality, Radio Talk Show Host

9. Moral Majority One popular television evangelist was Rev. Jerry Falwell (1933-2011). Falwell was a founder of the Moral Majority, a political group that sought to enact Falwell's version of Bible- based values as American law. The group, like Falwell, was opposed to women's rights, legalized abortion, homosexuals, and pornography, and was pro traditional family values. A quote from Falwell: "AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals."

10. Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. (The model for Serena Joy in the novel?)

11. The Praise the Lord Ministry(PTL ) Jim and Tammy Faye (she died in 2007 at age 65) Bakker were America's reigning king and queen of televised religion. Their ministry, PTL, was the most successful on television. By preaching the promise of God's everlasting kingdom, the Bakkers raised enough money to build a kingdom of their own called Heritage U.S.A. — part Christian retreat, part amusement park — that eventually drew 6 million visitors a year. In 1987, a scandal erupted. It became public that seven years earlier, while at a Florida fund-raiser, Jim Bakker left his daughter on the beach while he went to a motel room and had sex with church secretary 21-year-old Jessica Hahn..

12. This revelation of their affair cost Jim his ministry and turned him and his wife into national laughingstocks. Tammy Faye, in particular, was ridiculed for her extremely heavy eye makeup. Soon after the affair became public, Jim became embroiled in legal troubles, and served five years in prison and was released in 1994. Tammy Faye divorced him and remarried. He remarried in 1998 and continues as a pastor in Branson, Missouri.

13. Phyllis Schaffly (The model for Serena Joy?) Thirty years ago, Phyllis Schlaffly (now 89) was a household name. She is a full-time professional, ultra-conservative, anti-feminist political activist. “What I am defending is the real rights of women. A woman should have the right to be in the home as a wife and mother.”

14. Plot The story is told like a diary in first person by Offred, who is one of the “handmaids” in the new nightmarish American fundamentalist republic of Gilead. The President and Congress have been assassinated by right-wing religious fanatics who have overthrown the government and set up a totalitarian theocracy. They used Bible-based religion as an excuse for the suppression of the majority of the population. Women may no longer possess jobs, or property or money and are forbidden to read and write. Pollution has sharply reduced fertility, and the handmaids, selected for their ability to “breed,” have become slaves who are forced to try to conceive to repopulate the society.

15. The handmaids live with their Commanders and their barren wives. (Offred’s commander’s name is Fred so that’s how she got her name—OF FRED, and his wife’s name is Serena Joy). Handmaids are denied all rights and are beaten or killed if they are uncooperative. Offred mingles memories of her life with her husband and daughter before the revolution with her rebellious activities under the new regime. As you read the novel, Gilead becomes more frightening because it really presents a mirror image of what is happening in the world around us—NOW.

16. Intentional Connections Harvard University: I read that Atwood deliberately set her novel in Massachusetts, home of the Salem Witch Trials, and the site of Harvard. In Gilead, if you rebelled, you were hanged on the wall around Harvard Yard for everyone to see. In Salem, if you were accused of being a witch, you were hanged for everyone to see. The Berlin Wall was still in place when Atwood was writing the novel, and if you were caught trying to escape from East Berlin, you were shot and left for all to see. Puritans: At Harvard, Atwood studied the Puritans in New England. She says, “The roots of my book go back to my study of the American Puritans. The society they founded was not a democracy as we know it, but a theocracy.” Biblical references: There are many biblical references in the novel which you will research. Historical notes: The historical notes at the end of the novel are very important.

17. The novel is about… We’ll revisit these later… Loss—of freedom, family and self Exploitation of women Male power Totalitarian theocracy Religious fundamentalism Control of language Alienation/isolation Environmental issues Declining birth rates Atwood writes, “[The novel] is about what happens at the intersection of several trends, all of which are with us today.” Let’s look at these trends.