Book Club, April 08, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

TheSilence

Hello, everyone,

Welcome to April's book club thread. I am starting it a day early as my dad is having surgery tomorrow and I will be otherwise occupied.

This month we are discussing The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. This book was suggested by AWAKE&WATCHING. The format is open to any discussion you wish to have about the topic at hand, but if you're looking for something to stimulate some discussion you are welcome to use the questions below or come up with some of your own for others to answer.

Possible Topics for Discussion

1. The novel begins with three epigraphs. What are their functions?

2. In Gilead, women are categorized as wives, handmaids, Marthas, or Aunts, but Moira refuses to fit into a niche. Offred says she was like an elevator with open sides who made them dizzy, she was their fantasy. Trace Moira's role throughout the tale to determine what she symbolizes.

3. Aunt Lydia, Janine, and Offred's mother also represent more than themselves. What do each of their characters connote? What do the style and color of their clothes symbolize?

4. At one level, The Handmaid's Tale is about the writing process. Atwood cleverly weaves this sub-plot into a major focus with remarks by Offred such as "Context is all," and "I've filled it out for her...," "I made that up," and "I wish this story were different." Does Offred's habit of talking about the process of storytelling make it easier or more difficult for you to suspend disbelief?

5. A palimpsest is a medieval parchment that scribes attempted to scrape clean and use again, though they were unable to obliterate all traces of the original. How does the new republic of Gilead's social order often resemble a palimpsest?.

6. The commander in the novel says you can't cheat nature. How do characters find ways to follow their natural instinct?

7. Why is the Bible under lock and key in Gilead?

8. Babies are referred to as "a keeper," "unbabies," "shredders." What other real or fictional worlds do these terms suggest?

9. Atwood's title brings to mind titles from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Why might Atwood have wanted you to make that connection?

10. What do you feel the historical notes at the book's end add to the reading of this novel? What does the book's last line mean to you?

Next Month

Next month we will be discussing The Lord of the Flies by William Golding. This selection was suggested by me. It's a book more for young adults, I read it as a teenager, but it's one of my favorites of all time. It's a short read, so easy.

If you have any book selections you would like added to the list of books to be discussed please send me a pm.

Last Month

Last month we discussed short stories by Edgar Allen Poe. If you missed last month and would like to read through it or add to it the link is here:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/27/153841/1.ashx

Thanks,

Jackie

TheSilence

I found the idea of this book very interesting. However, once I started reading it I found it difficult to suspend disbelief. In thinking about this I believe the reason was because I couldn't relate to Offred's lack of action. She seemed to follow along with whatever authority figure was in front of her at the time... the aunts, the Commander, the Commander's wife. Even her rebellions were at the direction of those in authority. When she read it was because the Commander wanted her to read, when she went to the driver's room to try to conceive it was at the direction of the Commander's wife, etc. At no point did she act of her own accord when offered opportunities. She did not become more active with the first Ofglen. She did not participate in any of Moire's rebellions. She seemed to fall into being rescued simply by having been forced into the situation she was in with her rescuer. I found it difficult to relate to her compliance with her situation.

I did find the following passage very interesting. It is Offred describing her life before when she was still with her husband. She is describing the first night when everything changed:

That night, after I'd lost my job, Luke wanted to make love. Why didn't I want to? Desperation alone should have driven me. But I still felt numbed. I could hardly even feel his hands on me.
What's the matter? he said.
I don't know, I said.
We still have... he said. But he didn't go on to say what we still had. It occurred to me that he shouldn't be saying we, since nothing that I knew of had been taken away from him.
We still have each other, I said. It was true. Then why did I sound, even to myself, so indifferent?
He kissed me then, as if now I'd said that, things could get back to normal. But something had shifted, some balance. I felt shrunken, so that when he put his arms around me, gathering me up, I was small as a doll. I felt love going forward without me.
He doesn't mind this, I thought. He doesn't mind it at all. Maybe he even likes it. We are not each other's, anymore. Instead I am his.
Unworthy, unjust, untrue. But that is what happened.

It was powerful to me because it illuminated how fast the switch was for her from feeling like a partner to an object.

Jackie

llbh

Hi Jackie i am looking forward to reding this book will get this week

David

TheSilence

Hi, David,

I look forward to your comments after you read it ;)

Jackie

AWAKE&WATCHING

*sticky note*

Tara

I'm halfway through the book. It disturbs me greatly. I feel the same way as you about the main character, Silence. She makes me angry (or maybe it's the whole premise of the book).

TheSilence

Hi, Tara,

I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts when you've finished the book as well.

I'm surprised A&W hasn't commented yet (hint, hint, hint) ;)

Jackie

llbh

Hi Jackie i read this book halfway and found it very depressing so sadly did not fiinish it.

It reminded me of the way most religions treat women - badly and i just did not have the energy to finish it.

When we look at the extreme subjugation of women in fundamenatalist Islam and Christianity it saddens me and this book reminded me of that

Regards David

Robdar

I read the book last year and enjoyed it. I think Atwood is an interesting author. She is also agnostic. I loved her interview with Bill Moyers on "Faith and Reason."

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/media_players/atwood_full.html

Book Club, April 08, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

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