Handmaid's Tale: Essay Drawing From An Interview With Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid’s Tale: Essay Drawing from an interview with Margaret Atwood, it examines the author's intentions and motivations in writing The Handmaid's Tale through exploring her perspectives on feminism, how this novel connects back to real world events, and the dangers of authoritarian governments. In the beginning of Atwood’s interview, she discusses her views on feminism and how she decided to create a balance between the modern day beliefs through storytelling. For example, she makes note of more conservative views through the inclusion of Handmaids and how they live more isolated lives, through staying at home. This is obviously seen multiple times throughout the novel as Offred is isolated from the rest of the household, is under complete

some of them are still carrying their plates. some of them are still chewing” (126). The way Atwood describes this scene is completely opposite to the way that we’ve seen in the book so far, as the Wives are allowed to be grouped together and “hang-out” with each other. This definitely takes on the idea of how women are “in this together”, and while the Wives may not live very abusive lives like the Handmaids do, it still leans into the idea of how they are all there for each other. Both of these ideas, when they come together, back up with what Atwood conveyed during her interview. When asked the question “What are we to learn from The Handmaid’s Tale?”, Atwood responds by saying “Take these beliefs [feminism] to their logical ends and see what happens” (318). She is taking both extreme cases of feminism and while it might not be occurring right now, she creates a possible scenario about how these situations might someday be represented. Overall, through exploring many of the different female characters in the book such as Offred and Serena Joy, it can be argued that there are definitely differences between how these women live their lives and how Atwood portrays