Summary
Summary The Handmaid's Tale
A plot summary of the events of the Handmaids tale. Does not Go into chapter by chapter depth but discusses the broad storyline as well as events and places as well as important characters
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The Handmaids TaleBook is dystopian fiction
OVERVIEW:
- Religious faction overthrew government (Sons of Jacob)
o America became Gilead
o Set in near future
o Dictatorship run by religious group
o Totalitarian theocracy
Narrator is a handmaid
- One of the few fertile woman left in America
- Narrator is called Offred (not real name)
- Bear children to the elite
- Have no human rights
- Learn about past life through flashbacks
SETTING:
- Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Mostly sterile population
o Birth rates decline due to
§ STI’s
§ Environmental degradation (Global warming)
Sons of Jacob Ideology
- Took over (overthrew) the government to raise the reproduction levels
o Against democracy, for reproduction (ruled out democracy)
- Justify through passages in the old testament
o Use army and a spy force called the Eyes to keep control (enforced)
- Roles
o Men take military roles
o Woman take household roles
Commanders (men
who designed and run
Worker bees work to support the lifestyles and the Gilead)
Wives (female elite)
structures of the elite Eyes (secret police)
Having kids is called assignment
- 3rd assignment to commander Fred and Aunts (train and control handmaids)
serena Joy
Offred can’t read write or speak freely
- Only leave house on supervised trips to
doctors or shops (once a month)
Handmaids (bear children for elite)
Martha (servants)
The ceremony Worker bees (menial and manual laborers)
- 1 time a month sleep with
commander (in order to bear
children)
- Justified by story of Jacob (Old Testament)
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