The Handmaid's Tale

One of the major themes of Margaret Atwood's novel, The Handmaid's Tale, is the transition from a society based on sex for pleasure to a society in which it has become for reproduction only. The origins of this transition could likely be found in the Church due to their desire for people to be more "orthodox". This loveless sex is demonstrated by the ceremony, in which Offred and others like here have sex with commanders, for the sake of reproduction. This is difficult for Offred because she remembers back to a time when she had control over whom she would have sex with, and could do it for pleasure rather than it having some "greater" purpose. I personally thought that the unhappiness generated by the "pleasure-less" world, was an attack by the author on the strictness of the church, which ties it again into the religious undertones.

"I wait. I compose myself. My self is a thing I must now compose, as one composes a speech. What I must present is a made thing, not something born." is a line that really demonstrates the lack of liberties of the people in the society, in a way that it is incredibly clear to me. The statement that she is "made ", as opposed to something born, is very profound in that it is showing that, she was not always like the way she is now, in need of being "composed" which is another word for controlled, but she was born with liberties, and now the world in which she lives, has "made" her to be what she is, the person in need of composing. In essence here, I just think that this quotation really shows the struggle for self-identity the people of Gilead are feeling.

As for my thoughts on the novel as a whole. I thought that this novel was superior to novels such as We, because the emotion of Offred, brought it to a whole new level that separated it from the "pseudo"emotionless characters of We. The Handmaids Tale, seems more realistic in that it is less of a science fiction novel, and more of a novel making a social commentary about the world we live, and how certain behaviors if taken to extremes, could be the bane of society. This is what makes The Handmaids Tale, so easy to relate to in comparison to other dystopian works.
As for the subject material, well it didn't exactly "thrill me" personally, but I felt like I understood the purpose of the novel, although I may not have agreed with some of it. So due to this I believe that the novel was good, but not excellent, which is why I'd rate it 3.5/5. This is because I simply found it hard to like the novel, although on the otherhand to deny the brilliance of its in depth writing would be folly. Thus in my biased opinion, it was good for what it is.