The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood *****

 Gilead. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Offred is the Commander’s (Fred’s) Handmaid. She wears red. The women who work in the house (Cora and Rita) are Martha’s. They wear green. The Commander’s wife is Serena Joy. She wears blue. The male workers are Guardians. Offred’s purpose is to get pregnant. Serena Joy oversees the monthly ritual for this purpose. Many suspect that the Commander is sterile. “I almost gasp: he’s said a forbidden word. Sterile. There is no such thing as a sterile man anymore, not officially. There are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren, that’s the law.” A classic novel of a patriarchal dystopia. Read it.

Before Gilead, Offred had a name and a husband and a daughter. All that is gone, but life as a Handmaid is superior to being sent to the to being hung from a hook on the Wall, or “He could fake the tests, report me for cancer, for infertility, have me shipped off to the Colonies, with the Unwomen.”

Much of this book reminds me of 1984 where there is an opposition, but you can never be sure if the opposition is real or a trap. Much of the terror is not knowing who is a friend and who is a foe. Every transgressive act comes with a heightened risk since you can never be sure of your coconspirators.

Econowives (from Google)

In The Handmaid's Tale, Econowives are fertile women who are married to lower- and middle-class men, or Economen. They are expected to: Have children, Take care of their households, Cook meals, Clean their husbands' houses, and Support their husbands' careers.

Econowives are not assigned Marthas to help them, unlike Wives, who have many servants. Econowives are expected to fulfill the duties of a Handmaid, Wife, and Martha to their husbands. They wear red, blue, and green to symbolize this.

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