The Handmaid's Tale

One of the main topics in this particular novel was religion and whether or not the good intentions it sought forth after were in fact for the greater good of mankind. The countries religion is the base and ground working for the government. They create a world that was meant to be safe for women and protect them and help lives and the population of the world. The women are safe but with major consequences. They had almost all of their freedoms taken away and for the handmaid's they even had to give up their bodies for procreation to a man they never met. It is disgusting to even imagine what life must be like in their shoes because of all of the laws that prohibit them from living their lives. These women are monitored so closely they can't even be trusted to have any objects that could be potentially used as a weapon to kill themselves.


Another topic is that the religion itself isn't even taken seriously. They only follow it because they have to. The people don't have faith in the religion or believe in what the teachings teach. For example the part of the novel where Offred is watching the Soul Scrolls, "Ordering prayers from Soul Scrolls is supposed to be a sign of piety and faithfulness to the regime, so of coarse the Commanders' Wives do it a lot. It helps their husbands' careers." (167). The people can order a scroll and have a machine repeat it for them. This alone proves how unimportant religion is for people. They only do it to get farther ahead the social ladder.


One of the only quotes I enjoyed in this novel was near the end of Chapter 7 on page 39, "I would like to believe this is a story I'm telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it's a story I'm telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off."

I like this quote a lot because this relates to many people in different areas of the world. It is a defense mechanism she is using to save herself from herself. Without the stories she tells herself, then there really only would be reality for her; a reality that could cause her to take her own life.