Much has been made of the current political situation and what this author has written decades earlier. More significant to me than the story itself iMuch has been made of the current political situation and what this author has written decades earlier. More significant to me than the story itself is the ending section entitled "Historical Notes," in which is presented an analysis of the story and speculation about who recorded it on old tapes and then hid her account of the handmaids, one of whom is her. Then there is the author's own introduction to the story, in which she notes when she wrote it and the political situation in which she found herself at that time. Her words, "It could happen here," in recalling what happened in Germany prior to and during World War II, was prescient.
This story presents a kind of dream-like state, in which women are divided into groups, and used by the men. Hinted at is the possibility of a nuclear or similarly-destructive past that has rendered some people (men and women) sterile. Thus, women deemed to be fertile must be used to repopulate the world in a setting where the Constitution has been set aside, the previous political situation has been destroyed and control is maintained by the almost routine killing of persons who have, for a variety of reasons, broken the new rules.
Being told to "go along" reveals how easily a previous system of civil authority can be set aside in favor of a different sort of authority, one in which women no longer are allowed to read, must not meet each other's eyes, and the joyousness of simple pleasures are no longer possible, except, perhaps in the silence of one's own mind.
The handmaid is cautionary and her tale needs to be read by all women today--if only to be metaphorically shaken by the shoulders and reminded how easily what we have today can be taken away....more