Blog 5- Andrea Abbott

For paper 3, I decided to analyze the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood. According to Amazon.com it proposes a question: “In the world of the near future, who will control women's bodies?” The Protagonist, Offred is a Handmaid owned by the Commander and his wife. She’s may leave home only once a day to walk to food markets whose signs do not have words because women aren’t allowed to read. She prays that the Commander makers her pregnant each month because birth rates have recently deteriorated; so Handmaids are only valued if their ovaries are viable. Offred dwells on the days before, “when she lived and made love with her husband Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now....”

            I chose this novel based off of Professor Bolaski’s recommendation of a dystopian fiction that works well from a Feminist perspective. The poor, wicked treatment of women as well as the struggle for survival makes this piece ideal for a dystopian critique. I am still in the process of reading the book, but I look forward to analyzing everything when I’m through. (I cannot give any further analysis until I read the material).