The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

                          

      The Handmaid’s Tale (320 pages)  was first published as a novel in 1985, and so far,  its 8 million copies have  been sold. Recently , Margaret Atwood  has written  and published a sequel to  this book     with  the title ‘The Testaments’.

  The book is  a mixture of history and literature. It reminds us    that  totalitarianism  can happen   in the USA and  any where in  the world. Totalitarian regimes  rely on collusion  with  some of  their own people . Gilead is  an imaginary   totalitarian , theocratic state in the USA .In Gilead,  women  are classified as Wives, Handmaids, Aunts, Marthas  and   Econowives . Illegitimate women are  Unwomen  and  Jezebels. Men are classified as Commanders , Eyes, Angels, Guardians.

             In Gilead,  there is a severe limitation  of people’s rights , especially those of women . Women are forbidden to read or  write , handle money or to  hold property. A Handmaid  is indoctrinated  into life by  the government- trained  Aunts. She is assigned to produce children  for a Commander, one of  the ruling class of men  . The protagonist  is given a name Offred ( Of Frederick). Handmaids  are forbidden to use their birth names  and   must echo  the master whom they serve. The Commanders’ Wives  dress in blue , the handmaids in red  with   white veils  around their faces.

          At her new home, Offred  is  treated poorly by  the Commander’s wife  Serena Joy.  The Commander  and Offred  begin an illegal relationship  where they play Scrabble. He takes her to  a government-run  brothel  called  Jezebel’s  .She learns there that  those women who are found breaking the law  are mostly sent to  the Colonies  to clean up  toxic waste , women are also allowed to work at  Jezebel’s as punishment. After a few months,  Offred is pregnant.     Shortly afterward, men arrive  at the house  wearing the uniform of  the secret police.  (the Eyes), to take her away.  Offred is unsure if  leaving will result  in her escape  or her capture. Still, she enters the van.

         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.  Many scholars have  placed this book  in the same category of   dystopian fiction  as Nineteen Eighty  -Four  and Brave New World. Atwood  does not see the  Republic of Gilead as a purely  feminist dystopia, as not all men have  greater rights than  woman .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 re regime”.

     I decided to read this novel 35 years after its publication .I have no hesitation in saying that it has become more relevant to read it now than perhaps earlier. If you have not read it , please do read it .I recommend it.

Beloved by Toni Morrison

         Toni Morrison  died at the age of 88 years on August 5,2019. She was the first African –American  woman to  win the Nobel Prize in Literature,.” In her  memory , I decided to read  her book  “Beloved”  (1987)   which  had won the Pulitzer  Prize  in 1988. I had read this novel in  2005  but  had forgotten  it almost completely in 14 years . It is a book of the systematic torture that ex-slaves had to deal with after the  Emancipation Proclamation .

      Beloved is a multi-layered story  about the life of an  ex-slave Sethe  and others   in the USA  in  post civil war period (1865-75). Sethe killed her two year old daughter  to protect her from slave traders.

               Earlier ,Sethe had lived with her husband  Halle  and other slaves in a place called  Sweet Home . They escape from  Sweet Home  and get separated . After great difficulty , Sethe reaches (with her younger daughter)   her mother-in-law’s home in Cincinnati. Her two sons and her elder daughter also manage to reach there. The owner of Sweet Home  (School Teacher )  comes after Sethe  following her escape but is unsuccessful to recapture her and her  children. But she kills her infant  daughter to protect her from suffering the same abuses   she had as a slave. After this killing, her mother in law   takes to her death bed and dies. Her two sons  flee  because they feel  the  house is haunted . She stays with her  younger daughter Denver.  Later, she is joined by  an ex –slave Paul D who was earlier with her at Sweet Home.

                  Beloved is a young woman  who appears near Sethe’s house. She wants to stay with Sethe and Denver, and they take her in . They believe that Beloved is  the  daughter whom Sethe had killed. The haunting of house stops  after Beloved joins them. But slowly , Beloved  completely  makes Sethe  dependent on her. Denver reaches out to black community   to help , and they  arrive to exorcise  Beloved,  who finally disappears.

             Beloved  reflects forcefully a concern for the poor and the powerless, justice for ex-slaves   and a  need for  a free society. It  depicts  faithfully how pitiable the life of slaves was. The slaves could not keep a family with security because either of the spouses and children could be sold by the slave-owners. The book shows clearly how freedom and dignity  are essential for every human-being.

    Beloved is   a  short  book  ( about 280 pages)which  needs more than one reading  for  good understanding .In my views , it should be read  once every few years  to remind ourselves  of the need to   reaffirm  equality , dignity and  freedom from exploitation  of all human beings.