document_title: The Handmaid's Tale

question_text: where is handmaid's tale supposed to be set

question_tokens: where is handmaid 's tale supposed to be set

text: The Handmaid's Tale

text: Plot summary[edit]

text: The Handmaid's Tale is set in the Republic of Gilead, a theonomic military dictatorship formed within the borders of what was formerly the United States of America.[5]

text: Beginning with a staged attack that kills the President and most of Congress, a radical  political group calling itself the "Sons of Jacob" and exploiting religious ideology that closely resemble some traits of Christian fundamentalism (and especially of  Christian Reconstructionism)  launches a revolution and suspends the United States Constitution under the pretext of restoring order.[7] They quickly abolish women's rights, largely attributed to financial records being stored electronically and labelled by sex. The new regime, the Republic of Gilead, moves quickly to consolidate its power, including overtaking all pre-existing religious groups, including traditional Christian denominations, and reorganize society along a new militarized, hierarchical model of Old Testament-inspired social and religious fanaticism among its newly created social classes. In this society, human rights are severely limited and women's rights are strictly curtailed. For example, women are forbidden to read, and anyone caught in homosexual acts would be hanged for "gender treachery".

text: The story is told in the first person by a woman called Offred. The character is one of a class of women with healthy reproductive systems, in an era of declining birth rates owing to increasing infertility. These women are forcibly assigned to produce children for the ruling class and are known as "handmaids", based on the biblical story of Rachel and her handmaid Bilhah. Offred describes her life during her third assignment as a handmaid, in this case to Fred Waterford (referred to as "The Commander"). Interspersed with her narratives of her present-day experiences are flashback discussions of her life from before and during the beginning of the revolution, when she finds she has lost all autonomy to her husband, their failed attempt to escape to Canada, and finally her indoctrination into life as a handmaid by government-trained women called "Aunts".

text: Offred describes the structure of Gilead's society, including the different classes of women and their lives within the new theonomy. The women are physically segregated by colour of clothing—blue, red, green, striped and white—to signify social class and assigned position, ranked highest to lowest. The Commanders' wives are dressed in blue, handmaids in red, Marthas (cooks and maids) in green. Striped clothing is for all other women (called "Econowives") who essentially do everything in the domestic sphere. Young, unmarried girls are dressed in white.

text: The Commander is a high-ranking official in Gilead. Although his contact with Offred is supposed to be limited to "the ceremony", a ritual of rape intended to result in conception and at which his wife is present, he begins an illegal relationship with Offred. Secret meetings occur in his study, which the Commander's wife is not permitted to enter. The room is filled with books and is considered a private place for the man of the house. During these meetings, he tries to earn her trust by talking and playing board games such as Scrabble with her. He also lets and watches her read, another offense, as women are not permitted to read and write. The Commander offers her contraband products, such as old (1970s) fashion magazines and cosmetics. Finally, he gives her lingerie and takes her to a government-run brothel called Jezebel's. This brothel is meant to add variety to men's sex lives which, as claimed by the Commander, is necessary. At Jezebel's, Offred encounters her friend, Moira, who had escaped from the handmaid training center, and learns how she came to be there. Moira explains that defiant women who could not adjust to the new society might be offered work at Jezebel's rather than be forced to work in the Colonies, cleaning up radioactive waste. The women in the brothels are allowed alcohol and drugs, a freedom Offred notes. Though they are allowed to choose their patrons, they are discouraged from refusing a man's advances.

text: The Commander's wife, Serena Joy, is a minor antagonist. Offred remembers her as a Christian media personality who supported women's domesticity and subordinate role well before Gilead was established. Serena is clearly bored and unhappy—that she was taken at her word, Offred assumes—and hates sharing her husband with a handmaid. Ironically, though, Serena also has secret interactions with Offred, arranging for her to sleep with Nick, the Commander's driver, in an effort to get Offred pregnant. In return, Serena Joy gives her news of her daughter and a recent photo. Offred has not seen her child since she and her family were captured trying to escape Gilead.

text: After Offred's initial meeting with Nick, they begin to meet more frequently. Offred discovers she enjoys sex with him, despite her indoctrination and her memories of her husband. She shares potentially dangerous information about her past with him. Through her shopping partner, a woman called Ofglen, Offred learns of the Mayday resistance, an underground network working to overthrow the Republic of Gilead. Shortly after Ofglen's disappearance (later revealed as a suicide), the Commander's wife finds evidence of the relationship between Offred and the Commander. Offred contemplates suicide.

text: As the novel concludes, Offred tells Nick that she thinks she is pregnant. Shortly afterwards, she is taken away by men wearing the uniform of the secret police, the Eyes of God, known informally as "the Eyes". As she is led to a waiting van, Nick tells her to trust him and go with the men. It is unclear whether the men are actually Eyes, or members of the Mayday resistance. Offred is unsure if Nick is a member of Mayday or an Eye posing as one, and is unsure if leaving will result in her escape or her capture. She enters the van with her future uncertain.

text: The novel concludes with a metafictional epilogue that explains that the events of the novel occurred shortly after the beginning of what is called "the Gilead Period". The epilogue is "a partial transcript of the proceedings of the Twelfth Symposium on Gileadean Studies" written in 2195 and hosted by Professor Maryann Crescent Moon. According to the symposium's "keynote speaker" Professor James Darcy Pieixoto, he and his colleague Professor Knotly Wade discovered Offred's story recorded onto cassette tapes. They transcribed the tapes, calling them collectively "the handmaid's tale". Through the tone and actions of the professionals in this final section of the book, the world of academia is highlighted and critiqued, and Pieixoto discusses his team's search for the characters named in the Tale, and the impossibility of proving the tapes' authenticity.[8]

text: However, the existence of tapes does imply that Offred escaped and survived for at least a time and thus that the Eyes that collected her were, in fact, part of Mayday. The epilogue also suggests that, following the collapse of the theonomic Republic of Gilead, a more equal society re-emerged — though not the United States that had previously existed — with a restoration of full rights for women and freedom of religion.

text: Characters[edit]

text: Offred[edit]

text: Offred is the protagonist and narrator. She was labeled a "wanton woman" when Gilead was established because she had married a man who was divorced. All divorces were nullified by the new government, meaning her husband was now considered still married to his first wife, making Offred an adulteress. In trying to escape Gilead, she was separated from her husband and daughter. She is part of the first generation of Gilead's women, those who remember pre-Gilead times. Proved fertile, she is considered an important commodity and has been placed as a handmaid in the home of the Commander Fred Waterford and his wife Serena Joy, to bear a child for them (Serena Joy is believed to be infertile).[9]

text: Offred is a slave name that describes her function: she is "of Fred" (i.e., she belongs to Fred, her commander, and is considered a concubine). In the novel, Offred says that she is not a concubine, but a tool; a "two legged womb". The Handmaids' names say nothing about who the women really are; their only identity is as the Commander's property. "Offred" is also a pun on the word "offered", as in "offered as a sacrifice".

text: The women in training to be handmaids whisper names across their beds at night. The names are "Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June," and all are later accounted for except June. In addition, one of the Aunts tells the handmaids-in-training to stop "mooning and June-ing".[10] From this and other references, some readers have inferred that her birth name could be "June".[11] Miner suggests that "June" is a pseudonym. As "Mayday" is the name of the Gilead resistance, June could be an invention by the protagonist. The Nunavut conference covered in the epilogue takes place in June.[12] When the Hulu TV series chose to state outright that Offred's real name is June, Atwood wrote that it was not her original intention to imply that Offred's real name is June "but it fits, so readers are welcome to it if they wish".[6]

text: The Commander[edit]

text: The Commander says that he is a sort of scientist and was previously involved in something similar to market research, pre-Gilead. Later, it is hypothesized, but not confirmed, that he might have been one of the architects of the Republic and its laws. Presumably, his first name is "Fred", though that, too, may be a pseudonym.

text: He engages in forbidden intellectual pursuits with Offred, such as playing Scrabble, and introduces her to a secret club that serves as a brothel for high-ranking officers. Offred learns that the Commander carried on a similar relationship with his previous handmaid and that she killed herself when his wife found out. In the epilogue the academics speculate that one of two figures, both instrumental in the establishment of Gilead, may have been Fred, based on his first name. It is strongly suggested that the Commander was a man named Frederick R. Waterford who was killed in a purge shortly after Offred was taken away, charged with harboring an enemy agent.

text: Serena Joy[edit]

text: Serena Joy is a former televangelist and the Commander's wife in the fundamentalist theonomy. The state took away her power and public recognition, and tries to hide her past as a television figure. Offred identifies her master's wife by recalling seeing her on TV when she was a little girl early on Saturday mornings while waiting for the cartoons to air. Believed to be sterile (although the suggestion is made that the Commander is sterile, Gileadean laws attribute sterility only to women), she is forced to accept that he has use of a handmaid. She resents having to take part in the monthly fertility ritual. She strikes a deal with Offred to arrange for her to have sex with Nick in order to become pregnant. According to Professor Pieixoto in the epilogue, "Serena Joy" or "Pam" are pseudonyms; the character's real name is implied to be Thelma.

text: Ofglen[edit]

text: Ofglen is a neighbour of Offred's and a fellow Handmaid. She is partnered with Offred to do the daily shopping. Handmaids are never alone and are expected to police each other's behaviour. Ofglen is a member of the Mayday resistance. In contrast to Offred, she is daring. She knocks out a Mayday spy who is to be tortured and killed in order to save him the pain of a violent death. Offred is told that when Ofglen vanishes, it is because she has committed suicide before the government can take her into custody due to her membership in the resistance, possibly to avoid giving away any information.

text: A new handmaid, also called Ofglen, takes Ofglen's place, and is assigned as Offred's shopping partner. She threatens Offred against any thought of resistance. She breaks protocol by telling her what happened to the first Ofglen.

text: Nick[edit]

text: Nick is the Commander's chauffeur, who lives above the garage. By Serena Joy's arrangement, he and Offred start a sexual relationship to increase her chance of getting pregnant. If she were unable to bear the Commander a child, she would be declared sterile and shipped to the ecological wastelands of the Colonies. Offred begins to develop feelings for him. Nick is an ambiguous character, and Offred does not know if he is a party loyalist or part of the resistance, though he identifies himself as the latter. The epilogue suggests that he really was part of the resistance, and aided Offred in escaping the Commander's house.

text: Moira[edit]

text: Moira has been a close friend of Offred's since college. A lesbian, she has resisted the homophobia of Gilead society. Moira is taken to be a Handmaid soon after Offred. She escapes by stealing an Aunt's pass and clothes, but Offred later finds her working as a prostitute in a party-run brothel. She was caught and chose the brothel rather than to be sent to the Colonies.

text: Luke[edit]

text: Luke was Offred's husband prior to the formation of Gilead, having divorced his first wife to marry her. Under Gilead, all divorces were retroactively nullified, resulting in Offred being considered an adulteress and their daughter illegitimate. Offred was forced to become a Handmaid and her daughter was given to a loyalist family. Since their attempt to escape to Canada, Offred has heard nothing of Luke.

text: Professor Pieixoto[edit]

text:
Pieixoto is the "co-discoverer [with Professor Knotly Wade] of Offred's tapes". In his presentation at an academic conference, he talks about "the 'Problems of Authentication in Reference to The Handmaid's Tale'".[9]
Pieixoto is therefore the person who is retelling Offred's story, and so makes the narration even more unreliable than it was originally.

text: Setting[edit]

text: The novel is set in an indeterminate future, speculated to be around the year 2005,[13] with a fundamentalist theonomy ruling the territory of what had been the United States but is now the Republic of Gilead. Individuals are segregated by categories and dressed according to their social functions. Complex dress codes play a key role in imposing social control within the new society and serve to distinguish people by sex, occupation, and caste.

text: The action takes place in what once was the Harvard Square neighbourhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts;[14][15] Atwood studied at Radcliffe College, located in this area.

text: Politics[edit]

text: In Gilead, the bodies of fertile women are politicized and controlled. The North American population is falling as more men and women become infertile (though in Gilead, legally, it is only women who can be the cause of infertility). Gilead's treatment of women is based upon a narrow, fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible, meaning that women are the property of and subordinate to their husband, father, or head of household. They are not allowed to do anything that would grant them any power independent of this system. They are not allowed to vote, hold a job, read, possess money, or own anything, among many other restrictions.

text: A particular quote from The Handmaid's Tale sums this up: "The Republic of Gilead, said Aunt Lydia, knows no bounds. Gilead is within you" (HT 5.2). This describes that there is no way around the societal bounds of women in this new state of government. Handmaids, being not allowed to wed, are given two-year assignments with a commander, and lose their own name: they are called "Of [their Commander's first name]", such as the novel's protagonist, known only as Offred. When a handmaid is reassigned, her name changes with her. Their original identities before the revolution are suppressed, although while being reeducated as handmaids, they surreptitiously share their names with each other.

text: In this book, the government appears to be strong though "no one in Gilead seems to be a true believer in its revolution" (Beauchamp). The Commanders, portrayed via Commander Fred, do not agree with their own doctrines. The commander takes Offred at one point to a brothel in order to have sex with her in an informal setting apart from the Ceremony. The wives, portrayed via Serena Joy, former television evangelist, disobey the rules set forth by their commander husbands. Serena smokes black market cigarettes and expresses the forbidden idea that men may be infertile, and schemes to get Offred impregnated by her chauffeur.

text: Religion[edit]

text: Bruce Miller, the executive producer of The Handmaid's Tale television serial, declared with regard to Atwood's book, as well as his series, that Gilead is "a society that’s based kind of in a perverse misreading of Old Testament laws and codes".[16] The author explains that Gilead tries to embody the "utopian idealism" present in 20th-century régimes, as well as earlier New England Puritanism.[17] Both Atwood and Miller stated that the people running Gilead are "not genuinely Christian".[18][16] The group running Gilead, according to Atwood, is "not really interested in religion; they're interested in power."[19] In fact, in her prayers to God, Offred, reflecting on Gilead, prays “I don't believe for an instant that what's going on out there is what You meant…. I suppose I should say I forgive whoever did this, and whatever they’re doing now. I’ll try, but it isn’t easy.”[20] Margaret Atwood, writing on this, says that "Offred herself has a private version of the Lord's Prayer and refuses to believe that this regime has been mandated by a just and merciful God."[21]

text: Christian churches that do not support the actions of the Sons of Jacob are systematically demolished, and the people living in Gilead are never seen attending church.[16] Christian denominations, including Quakers, Baptists and Roman Catholics, are specifically named as enemies of the Sons of Jacob.[19][16] Nuns who refuse conversion are considered "Unwomen" and banished to the Colonies, owing to their reluctance to marry and refusal (or inability) to bear children. Priests unwilling to convert are executed and hanged from the Wall.  Atwood pits Quaker Christians against the régime by having them help the oppressed, something she feels they would do in reality: "The Quakers have gone underground, and are running an escape route to Canada, as—I suspect—they would."[21]

text: Jews are named an exception and classified Sons of Jacob. Offred observes that Jews refusing to convert are allowed to emigrate to Israel, and most choose to leave. However, in the Epilogue, Professor Pieixoto reveals that many of the emigrating Jews ended up being dumped into the sea while on the ships ostensibly tasked with transporting them to Israel, due to privatization of the "repatriation program" and capitalists' effort to maximize profits. Offred mentions that many Jews who chose to stay were caught secretly practicing Judaism and executed.

text: Caste and class[edit]

text: African Americans, the main non-white ethnic group in this society, are called the Children of Ham. A state TV broadcast mentions they have been relocated en masse to "National Homelands" in the Midwest, which are suggestive of the Apartheid-era homelands set up by South Africa.

text: Sex and occupation[edit]

text: The sexes are strictly divided. Gilead's society values reproduction by white women most highly. Women are categorised "hierarchically according to class status and reproductive capacity" as well as "metonymically colour-coded according to their function and their labour" (Kauffman 232). The Commander expresses the prevailing opinion that women are considered intellectually and emotionally inferior to men.

text: Women are segregated by clothing, as are men. With rare exception, men wear military or paramilitary uniforms. All classes of men and women are defined by the colors they wear (as in Aldous Huxley's dystopian Brave New World), drawing on colour symbolism and psychology. All lower-status individuals are regulated by this dress code. All "non-persons" are banished to the "Colonies". Sterile, unmarried women are considered to be non-persons. Both men and women sent there wear grey dresses.

text: Legitimate women[edit]

text: The division of labour among the women generates some resentment. Marthas, Wives and Econowives perceive Handmaids as promiscuous and are taught to scorn them. Offred mourns that the women of the various groups have lost their ability to empathize with each other. They are divided in their oppression.

text: Illegitimate women[edit]

text: Men[edit]

text: Men are classified into four main categories:

text: Men who engage in homosexuality or related acts are declared "gender traitors"; they are either hanged or sent to the Colonies to die a slow death.

text: Babies[edit]

text: In this society, birth defects have become increasingly common.

text: There are two main categories of human children:

text: The Ceremony[edit]

text: "The Ceremony" is a non-marital sexual act sanctioned for reproduction. The ritual requires the Handmaid to lie on her back between the legs of the Wife during the sex act as if they were one person. The Wife has to invite the Handmaid to share her power this way; many Wives consider this both humiliating and offensive. Offred describes the ceremony:

text: My red skirt is hitched up to my waist, though no higher. Below it the Commander is fucking. What he is fucking is the lower part of my body. I do not say making love, because this is not what he's doing. Copulating too would be inaccurate, because it would imply two people and only one is involved. Nor does rape cover it: nothing is going on here that I haven't signed up for.[22]

text: Language[edit]

text: In the novel's fictional fundamentalist society, sterile is an outlawed word.[23] In this society, there is no such thing as a sterile man. In this culture, women are either fruitful or barren, the latter of which are declared to be "unwomen" and are sent to the colonies with the rest of the "unwomen" to do life-threatening work until their death, which is, on average, three years.

text: Atwood emphasises how changes in context affect behaviours and attitudes by repeating the phrase "Context is all" throughout the novel, establishing this precept as a motif.[24] Playing the game of Scrabble with her Commander illustrates the key significance of changes in "context"; once "the game of old men and women", the game became forbidden for women to play and therefore "desirable".[25] Through living in a morally rigid society, Offred has come to perceive the world differently from earlier. Offred expresses amazement at how "It has taken so little time to change our minds about things".[26] Wearing revealing clothes and makeup had been part of her former life, but when she sees Japanese tourists dressed that way, she now feels the women are inappropriately dressed.[26]

text: Offred can read but not translate the phrase "nolite te bastardes carborundorum" carved into the closet wall of her small bedroom; this mock-Latin aphorism signifies "Don't let the bastards grind you down".[27] The significance of this phrase is intensified by the challenges the book has faced, creating a "Mise en abyme" as both the protagonist and the reader decipher subversive texts.

text: Genre classification[edit]

text: In interviews and essays Atwood has discussed generic classification of The Handmaid's Tale as "science fiction" or "speculative fiction", observing:

text: I like to make a distinction between science fiction proper and speculative fiction. For me, the science fiction label belongs on books with things in them that we can't yet do, such as going through a wormhole in space to another universe; and speculative fiction means a work that employs the means already to hand, such as DNA identification and credit cards, and that takes place on Planet Earth. But the terms are fluid.[3]

text: Hugo-winning science fiction critic David Langford observed in a column: "The Handmaid's Tale won the very first Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987. She's been trying to live this down ever since." He says:

text: Atwood prefers to say that she writes speculative fiction—a term coined by SF author Robert A. Heinlein. As she told the Guardian, "Science fiction has monsters and spaceships; speculative fiction could really happen." She used a subtly different phrasing for New Scientist, "Oryx and Crake is not science fiction. It is fact within fiction. Science fiction is when you have rockets and chemicals." So it was very cruel of New Scientist to describe this interview in the contents list as: "Margaret Atwood explains why science is crucial to her science fiction." ... Play it again, Ms Atwood—this time for the Book-of-the-Month Club: "Oryx and Crake is a speculative fiction, not a science fiction proper. It contains no intergalactic space travel, no teleportation, no Martians." On BBC1 Breakfast News the distinguished author explained that science fiction, as opposed to what she writes, is characterized by "talking squids in outer space".[4]

text: In distinguishing between these genre labels science fiction and speculative fiction, Atwood acknowledges that others may use the terms interchangeably. But she notes her interest in this type of work to explore themes in ways that "realistic fiction" cannot do.[3]

text: Historical context[edit]

text: Fitting with her claims that The Handmaid's Tale is a work of speculative fiction, not science fiction, Atwood's novel offers a satirical view of various social, political, and religious trends of the 1980s United States. Further, Atwood questions what would happen if these trends, and especially "casually held attitudes about women" were taken to their logical end.[28] Atwood continues to argue that all of the scenarios offered in The Handmaid's Tale have actually occurred in real life—in an interview she gave regarding Oryx and Crake, Atwood maintains that "As with The Handmaid's Tale, I didn't put in anything that we haven't already done, we're not already doing, we're seriously trying to do, coupled with trends that are already in progress... So all of those things are real, and therefore the amount of pure invention is close to nil."[29] Atwood was also known to carry around newspaper clippings to her various interviews to support her fiction's basis in reality.[30] Atwood has explained that The Handmaid's Tale is a response to those who claim the oppressive, totalitarian, and religious governments that have taken hold in other countries throughout the years "can't happen here"—but in this work, she has tried to show how such a takeover might play out.[31]

text: Atwood's inspiration for the Republic of Gilead came from her time studying early American Puritans while at Harvard, which she attended on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship.[28] Atwood argues that the modern view of the Puritans—that they came to America to flee religious persecution in England and set up a religiously tolerant society—is misleading, and that instead, these Puritan leaders wanted to establish a monolithic theocracy where religious dissent would not be tolerated.[28] Atwood also had a personal connection to the Puritans, and she dedicates the novel to her own ancestor Mary Webster, who was accused of witchcraft in Puritan New England but survived her hanging.[32] Due to the totalitarian nature of Gileadan society, Atwood, in creating the setting, drew from the "utopian idealism" present in 20th century régimes, such as Cambodia and Romania, as well as earlier New England Puritanism.[17] Atwood has argued that a coup, such as the one depicted in The Handmaid's Tale, would misuse religion in order to achieve its own ends:[33]

text: ... if you wanted to seize power in the US, abolish liberal democracy and set up a dictatorship, how would you go about it? What would be your cover story? It would not resemble any form of communism or socialism: those would be too unpopular... Nations never build apparently radical forms of government on foundations that aren't there already. Thus China replaced a state bureaucracy with a similar state bureaucracy under a different name, the USSR replaced the dreaded imperial secret police with an even more dreaded secret police, and so forth. The deep foundation of the US – so went my thinking – was not the comparatively recent 18th-century Enlightenment structures of the republic, with their talk of equality and their separation of church and state, but the heavy-handed theocracy of 17th-century Puritan New England, with its marked bias against women, which would need only the opportunity of a period of social chaos to reassert itself. Like any theocracy, this one would select a few passages from the Bible to justify its actions, and it would lean heavily towards the Old Testament, not towards the New.[17]

text: Atwood, with respect to those leading Gilead, further stated:[19]

text: I don't consider these people to be Christians because they do not have at the core of their behavior and ideologies what I, in my feeble Canadian way, would consider to be the core of Christianity … and that would be not only love your neighbors but love your enemies. That would also be 'I was sick and you visited me not' and such and such …And that would include also concern for the environment, because you can't love your neighbor or even your enemy, unless you love your neighbor's oxygen, food, and water. You can't love your neighbor or your enemy if you're presuming policies that are going to cause those people to die. … Of course faith can be a force for good and often has been. So faith is a force for good particularly when people are feeling beleaguered and in need of hope. So you can have bad iterations and you can also have the iteration in which people have got too much power and then start abusing it. But that is human behavior, so you can't lay it down to religion. You can find the same in any power situation, such as politics or ideologies that purport to be atheist. Need I mention the former Soviet Union? So it is not a question of religion making people behave badly. It is a question of human beings getting power and then wanting more of it.[19]

text: In the same vein, Atwood also declared that "In the real world today, some religious groups are leading movements for the protection of vulnerable groups, including women."[21] Atwood also draws connections between the ways in which Gilead's leaders maintain their power and other examples of actual totalitarian governments. In her interviews, Atwood offers up Afghanistan as examples of religious theocracies forcing women out of the public sphere and into their homes, as in Gilead.[30][28] The "state-sanctioned murder of dissidents" was inspired by the Philippines, and the last General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party Nicolae Ceaușescu's obsession with increasing the birth rate led to the strict policing of pregnant women and the outlawing of birth control and abortion.[30] However, Atwood clearly explains that many of these deplorable acts were not just present in other cultures and countries, "but within Western society, and within the 'Christian' tradition itself".[17]

text: The Republic of Gilead struggles with infertility, making Offred's services as a Handmaid vital to producing children and thus reproducing the society. Handmaids themselves are "untouchable", but their ability to signify status is equated to that of slaves or servants throughout history.[17] Atwood connects their concerns with infertility to real-life problems our world faces, such as radiation, chemical pollution, and venereal disease (HIV/AIDS is specifically mentioned in the "Historical Notes" section at the end of the novel, which was a relatively new disease at the time of Atwood's writing whose long-term impact was still unknown). Atwood's strong stance on environmental issues and their negative consequences for our society has presented itself in other works such as her MaddAddam trilogy, and refers back to her growing up with biologists and her own scientific curiosity.[34]

text: Critical reception[edit]

text: The Handmaid's Tale was well received by critics, helping to cement Atwood's status as a prominent writer of the 20th century. Not only was the book deemed well-written and compelling, but Atwood's work was notable for sparking intense debates both in and out of academia.[35] Atwood maintains that the Republic of Gilead is only an extrapolation of trends already seen in the United States at the time of her writing, a view supported by other scholars studying The Handmaid's Tale.[36] Indeed, many have placed The Handmaid's Tale in the same category of dystopian fiction as Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World,[31] with the added feature of confronting patriarchy, a categorization that Atwood has accepted and reiterated in many articles and interviews.[37]

text: Even today, many reviewers hold that Atwood's novel remains as foreboding and powerful as ever, largely because of its basis in historical fact.[38][39] Yet when her book was first published in 1985, not all reviewers were convinced of the "cautionary tale" Atwood presented. For example, Mary McCarthy's New York Times review argued that The Handmaid's Tale lacked the "surprised recognition" necessary for readers to see "our present selves in a distorting mirror, of what we may be turning into if current trends are allowed to continue".[40]

text: In the aftermath of the television series' debut in 2017, there was much debate on whether parallels could be drawn between the series (and by extension, this book) and American society following Donald Trump's and Mike Pence's election as President of the United States and Vice President of the United States, respectively.[41][42]

text: Feminist reading[edit]

text: Much of the discussion about The Handmaid's Tale has centered on its categorization as feminist literature. Atwood does not see the Republic of Gilead as a purely feminist dystopia, as not all men have greater rights than women.[17] Instead, this society presents a typical dictatorship: "shaped like a pyramid, with the powerful of both sexes at the apex, the men generally outranking the women at the same level; then descending levels of power and status with men and women in each, all the way down to the bottom, where the unmarried men must serve in the ranks before being awarded an Econowife".[17] Additionally, Atwood has argued that while some of the observations that informed the content of The Handmaid's Tale may be feminist, her novel is not meant to say "one thing to one person" or serve as a political message—instead, The Handmaid's Tale is "a study of power, and how it operates and how it deforms or shapes the people who are living within that kind of regime".[31][37]

text: Some scholars have offered such a feminist interpretation, however, connecting Atwood's use of religious fundamentalism in the pages of The Handmaid's Tale to a condemnation of their presence in current American society.[43][44] Yet others have argued that The Handmaid's Tale critiques typical notions of feminism, as Atwood's novel appears to subvert the traditional "women helping women" ideals of the movement and turn toward the possibility of "the matriarchal network ... and a new form of misogyny: women's hatred of women".[45]

text: Race[edit]

text: Other critics have characterized The Handmaid's Tale as "white feminism", noting that Atwood does away with black people in a few lines by relocating the "Children of Ham" while borrowing heavily from the African-American experience and applying it to white women.[46] Other critics have noted the parallels with apartheid and that it misrepresents how black people resist in times of crisis. The writer Mikki Kendall said about the book,

text: It requires me to believe that not only are my people gone, but often that they vanished quietly without any real resistance. As if. Like...Black people did not survive slavery, Jim Crow & the War on Drugs to be taken out by a handful of white boys with guns.[47][48]

text: Awards[edit]

text:
1985 – Governor General's Award for English language fiction (winner)
1986 – Booker Prize (nominated)
1986 – Nebula Award (nominated)
1987 – Arthur C. Clarke Award (winner)[a]
1987 – Prometheus Award (nominated)[b]
Commonwealth Literature Prize (winner)
Welsh Arts Council International Writer's Prize (winner)

text: Academic reception[edit]

text: Atwood's novels, and especially her works of speculative fiction The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake, are frequently offered as examples for the final, open-ended question on the North American Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition exam each year.[49] As such, her books are often assigned in high-school classrooms to students taking this Advanced Placement course, despite the mature themes the work presents. Atwood herself has expressed surprise that her books are being assigned to high-school audiences, largely due to her own censored education in the 1950s, but she has assured readers that this increased attention from high-school students has not altered the material she has chosen to write about since.[50]

text: Many people have expressed discontent at The Handmaid's Tale's presence in the classroom, as it has been frequently challenged or banned over the last 30 years. Some of these challenges have come from parents concerned about the explicit sexuality and other adult themes represented in the book. Others have argued that The Handmaid's Tale depicts a negative view of religion, a view supported by several academics who propose that Atwood's work satirizes contemporary religious fundamentalists in the United States, offering a feminist critique of the trends this movement to the Right represents.[43][44]

text: The American Library Association (ALA) lists The Handmaid's Tale as number 37 on the "100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000".[51] Atwood participated in discussing The Handmaid's Tale as the subject of an ALA discussion series titled "One Book, One Conference".[52]

text: Some complaints have included:

text:
1990: Challenged at Rancho Cotate High School, Rohnert Park, California, as too explicit for students.
1992: Challenged in schools in Waterloo, Iowa, reportedly because of profanity, lurid passages about sex, and statements defamatory to minorities, God, women, and the disabled.
1993: Removed because of profanity and sex from the Chicopee, Massachusetts, high-school English class reading list.
1998: Challenged for use in Richland, Washington, high-school English classes, along with six other titles determined to be "poor quality literature and [that] stress suicide, illicit sex, violence, and hopelessness".
1999: Challenged because of graphic sex, but retained on the advanced placement English list, at George D. Chamberlain High School in Tampa, Florida.
2000: Downgraded from "required" to "optional" on the summer reading list for eleventh graders in the Upper Moreland School District near Philadelphia due to "age-inappropriate" subject matter.
2001: Challenged, but retained, in the Dripping Springs, Texas, senior Advanced Placement English course as an optional reading assignment. Some parents were offended by the book's descriptions of sexual encounters.
2006: Initially banned by Superintendent Ed Lyman from an advanced placement English curriculum in the Judson independent school district in Texas after a parent complained. Lyman had overruled the recommendation of a committee of teachers, students, and parents; the committee appealed the decision to the school board, which overturned his ban.
2012: Challenged as required reading for a Page High School International Baccalaureate class and as optional reading for Advanced Placement reading courses at Grimsley High School in Greensboro, North Carolina because the book is “sexually explicit, violently graphic and morally corrupt". Some parents thought the book is “detrimental to Christian values".[53]

text: According to Education Reporter Kristin Rushowy of the Toronto Star (16 January 2009), in 2008 a parent in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, wrote a letter to his son's high school principal, asking that the book no longer be assigned as required reading, stating that the novel is "rife with brutality towards and mistreatment of women (and men at times), sexual scenes, and bleak depression".[54] Rushowy quotes the response of Russell Morton Brown, a retired University of Toronto English professor, who acknowledged that

text: "The Handmaid's Tale wasn't likely written for 17-year-olds, but neither are a lot of things we teach in high school, like Shakespeare... And they are all the better for reading it. They are on the edge of adulthood already, and there's no point in coddling them," he said, adding, "they aren't coddled in terms of mass media today anyway"... He said the book has been accused of being anti-Christian and, more recently, anti-Islamic because the women are veiled and polygamy is allowed... But that "misses the point", said Brown. "It's really anti-fundamentalism."[54]

text: In her earlier account (14 January 2009), Rushowy reported that a Toronto District School Board committee was "reviewing the novel". While noting that "The Handmaid's Tale is listed as one of the 100 'most frequently challenged books' from 1990 to 1999 on the American Library Association's website", Rushowy reports that "The Canadian Library Association says there is 'no known instance of a challenge to this novel in Canada' but says the book was called anti-Christian and pornographic by parents after being placed on a reading list for secondary students in Texas in the 1990s."[55]

text: In November 2012 two parents in Guilford County, North Carolina protested against inclusion of the book on a required reading list at a local high school. The parents presented the school board with a petition signed by 2,300 people, prompting a review of the book by the school's media advisory committee. According to local news reports, one of the parents said "she felt Christian students are bullied in society, in that they're made to feel uncomfortable about their beliefs by non-believers. She said including books like The Handmaid's Tale contributes to that discomfort, because of its negative view on religion and its anti-biblical attitudes toward sex."[56]

text: Other use in academia[edit]

text: In institutions of higher education, professors have found The Handmaid's Tale to be useful, largely because of its historical and religious basis and Atwood's captivating delivery. The novel's teaching points include: introducing politics and the social sciences to students in a more concrete way;[57][58] demonstrating the importance of reading to our freedom, both intellectual and political;[59] and acknowledging the "most insidious and violent manifestations of power in Western history" in a compelling manner.[60] The chapter entitled "Historical Notes" at the end of the novel also represents a warning to academics who run the risk of misreading and misunderstanding historical texts, pointing to the satirized Professor Pieixoto as an example of a male scholar who has taken over and overpowered Offred's narrative with his own interpretation.[61]

text: In other media[edit]

text: Film[edit]

text: The 1990 film The Handmaid's Tale was based on a screenplay by Harold Pinter and directed by Volker Schlöndorff. It stars Natasha Richardson as Offred, Faye Dunaway as Serena Joy, and Robert Duvall as The Commander (Fred).

text: Television[edit]

text: Hulu has produced a television series of the novel starring Elisabeth Moss as Offred. The first three episodes were released on April 26, 2017, with subsequent episodes following on a weekly basis. Margaret Atwood served as consulting producer.[62] The show won eight Emmys in 2017, including best outstanding drama series, outstanding lead actress in a drama series (Elisabeth Moss), outstanding writing for a drama series (Bruce Miller), outstanding supporting actress in a drama series (Ann Dowd), and outstanding directing for a drama series (Reed Morano).[63] The show was renewed for a second season, which premiered on April 25, 2018, and in May 2018, Hulu announced renewal for a third season.[64]

text: Radio[edit]

text:
A dramatic adaptation of the novel for radio was produced for BBC Radio 4 by John Dryden in 2000.
A Canadian dramatic adaptation for radio was written by playwright Michael O'Brien and produced on CBC Radio in 2002.

text: Audio[edit]

text:
An audiobook of the unabridged text, read by Claire Danes (ISBN 9781491519110), won the 2013 Audie Award for fiction.[65]
In 2014, Canadian band Lakes of Canada released their album Transgressions, which is intended to be a concept album inspired by The Handmaid's Tale.[66]

text: Stage[edit]

text:
A stage adaptation written and directed by Bruce Shapiro played at Tufts University in 1989.[67]
An operatic adaptation, The Handmaid's Tale, by Poul Ruders, premiered in Copenhagen on 6 March 2000, and was performed by the English National Opera, in London, in 2003.[68] It was the opening production of the 2004–2005 season of the Canadian Opera Company.[69]
A stage adaptation of the novel, by Brendon Burns, for the Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke, England, toured the UK in 2002.[70]
A ballet adaptation choreographed by Lila York and produced by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet premiered on 16 October 2013. Amanda Green appeared as Offred and Alexander Gamayunov as The Commander.[71]
A one-woman stage show, adapted from the novel, by Joseph Stollenwerk premiered in the U.S. in January 2015.[72]


document_title: List of National Basketball Association annual three-point field goals leaders

question_text: who has the most three pointers in a season

root

text: Key[edit]

text:
^
Denotes player who is still active in the NBA

*
Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

Player (X)
Denotes the number of times the player had been the
three-point field goals leader up to and including that season

G
Guard
F
Forward
C
Center

tag: table

text: Three-point field goals leaders[edit]

text:
Season
Player
Position[a]
Team
Games
played
3-point
field goals made
3-point
field goals attempted
3-point
field goal %
Ref.

1979–80
Taylor, BrianBrian Taylor
G
San Diego Clippers
78
90
239
.3766
[3]

1980–81
Bratz, MikeMike Bratz
G
Cleveland Cavaliers
80
57
169
.3373
[4]

1981–82
Buse, DonDon Buse
G
Indiana Pacers
82
78
193
.4041
[5]

1982–83
Dunleavy, MikeMike Dunleavy
G
San Antonio Spurs
79
67
194
.3454
[6]

1983–84
Griffith, DarrellDarrell Griffith
G
Utah Jazz
82
91
252
.3611
[7]

1984–85
Griffith, DarrellDarrell Griffith (2)
G
Utah Jazz
78
92
257
.3580
[7]

1985–86
Bird, LarryLarry Bird*
F
Boston Celtics
82
82
196
.4184
[8]

1986–87
Bird, LarryLarry Bird* (2)
F
Boston Celtics
74
90
225
.4000
[8]

1987–88
Ainge, DannyDanny Ainge
G
Boston Celtics
81
148
357
.4146
[9]

1988–89
Adams, MichaelMichael Adams
G
Denver Nuggets
77
166
466
.3562
[10]

1989–90
Adams, MichaelMichael Adams (2)
G
Denver Nuggets
79
158
432
.3657
[10]

1990–91
Maxwell, VernonVernon Maxwell
G
Houston Rockets
82
172
510
.3373
[11]

1991–92
Maxwell, VernonVernon Maxwell (2)
G
Houston Rockets
80
162
473
.3425
[11]

1992–93
Majerle, DanDan Majerle
G/F
Phoenix Suns
82
167
438
.3813
[12]

1992–93
Miller, ReggieReggie Miller*
G
Indiana Pacers
82
167
419
.3986
[13]

1993–94
Majerle, DanDan Majerle (2)
G/F
Phoenix Suns
80
192
503
.3817
[12]

1994–95
Starks, JohnJohn Starks
G
New York Knicks
80
217
611
.3552
[14]

1995–96
Scott, DennisDennis Scott
F
Orlando Magic
82
267
628
.4252
[15]

1996–97
Miller, ReggieReggie Miller* (2)
G
Indiana Pacers
81
229
536
.4272
[13]

1997–98
Person, WesleyWesley Person
G
Cleveland Cavaliers
82
192
447
.4295
[16]

1998–99[b]
Brown, DeeDee Brown
G
Toronto Raptors
49
135
349
.3868
[18]

1999–00
Payton, GaryGary Payton*
G
Seattle SuperSonics
82
177
520
.3404
[19]

2000–01
Walker, AntoineAntoine Walker
F
Boston Celtics
81
221
603
.3665
[20]

2001–02
Allen, RayRay Allen*
G
Milwaukee Bucks
69
229
528
.4337
[21]

2002–03
Allen, RayRay Allen* (2)
G
Milwaukee Bucks
Seattle SuperSonics
76
201
533
.3771
[21]

2003–04
Stojaković, PejaPeja Stojaković
F
Sacramento Kings
81
240
554
.4332
[22]

2004–05
Richardson, QuentinQuentin Richardson
G
Phoenix Suns
79
226
631
.3582
[23]

2004–05
Korver, KyleKyle Korver^
G/F
Philadelphia 76ers
82
226
558
.4050
[24]

2005–06
Allen, RayRay Allen* (3)
G
Seattle SuperSonics
78
269
653
.4119
[21]

2006–07
Arenas, GilbertGilbert Arenas
G
Washington Wizards
74
205
584
.3510
[25]

2006–07
Bell, RajaRaja Bell
G
Phoenix Suns
78
205
496
.4133
[26]

2007–08
Richardson, JasonJason Richardson
G
Charlotte Bobcats
82
243
599
.4057
[27]

2008–09
Lewis, RashardRashard Lewis
F
Orlando Magic
79
220
554
.3971
[28]

2009–10
Brooks, AaronAaron Brooks^
G
Houston Rockets
82
209
525
.3981
[29]

2010–11
Wright, DorellDorell Wright
F
Golden State Warriors
82
194
516
.3780
[30]

2011–12[c]
Anderson, RyanRyan Anderson^
F
Orlando Magic
61
166
422
.3934
[32]

2012–13
Curry, StephenStephen Curry^
G
Golden State Warriors
78
272
600
.4533
[2]

2013–14
Curry, StephenStephen Curry^ (2)
G
Golden State Warriors
78
261
615
.4244
[2]

2014–15
Curry, StephenStephen Curry^ (3)
G
Golden State Warriors
80
286
646
.4427
[2]

2015–16
Curry, StephenStephen Curry^ (4)
G
Golden State Warriors
79
402
886
.4537
[2]

2016–17
Curry, StephenStephen Curry^ (5)
G
Golden State Warriors
79
324
789
.4106
[2]

2017–18
Harden, JamesJames Harden^
G
Houston Rockets
72
265
722
.3670
[33]

text: Notes[edit]

text:
Jump up ^ The player's primary position is listed first.
Jump up ^ The 1998–99 season was shortened to 50 games due to the league's lockout.[17]
Jump up ^ The 2011–12 season was shortened to 66 games due to the league's lockout.[31]

tag: ol