Religion In The Handmaid's Tale

Just as religion is used as a bind for people to come together for the betterment of their futures, it is also used to validate the elimination and separation of people seen as unholy from the religious community. Within history, the elimination of peoples due to religion caused the marginalizing of peoples within America such as millions of natives murdered in the excursion of new lands and the women deemed as witches within puritan society. This is once again apparent in Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, where Gilead, formerly the United States, has returned to the former religious values that acted as the foundation of American society in order to heed more children when fertility was scarce. In Gilead’s society, the

Handmaids are given a “partner” when they go shopping, and though the government claims that this is for the handmaid's “protection” it is actually so the handmaids can “spy” on each other, meaning if one of them misbehaves, “both” are held accountable. This accomplishes Gilead’s goal of demoralizing the handmaids and keeping them distrustful of each other. However in Ofglen and Offred’s case, this partnership allowed the two to unify and share confidential information. This occurred in front of the Soul Scrolls, which is a place where the wives sent their “prayers” to machines that would speak the message aloud, however, the building was often “empty”. This led to a prohibited conversation that led the two into realizing that both of them were not “true believers.” Their relationship gave Offred a better understanding of what was occurring outside of the Commander's home within Gilead. Moreover, this led Offred into grasping that there was an “us” and a “we”, meaning that within their stern society, there was a unified group of the marginalized. This is represented by the group of handmaids in the bottom left corner of the collage, which shows the “we” that Offred mentioned, a community of

One of the few places where the handmaid’s are allowed to be in close proximity with each other is when they are shopping in these stores. They utilize this opportunity to attempt to seek someone that they know, either from the “Red Center '' or the “time before,” such as Offred recognizing the pregnant Ofwarren, or Janine. Because the stores are used daily This gives the women an opportunity to unify through the sharing of information to attempt and find people they once knew such as one of the handmaids asking Offred if she “was looking for someone”, and though Offred decides against it, she could have given her a description of Moira, showing that unification was possible. They do this through the recognition of their “red dress” and “white wings,” intended to make the women feel like objects, instead creating an understanding with each other through the recognition of their shared roles and troubles merely through dress. The dress signifies a sort of safety among the women and recognition that they share similar lives, which leads them to unification in a way that they cannot achieve with the other social groups such as the Commander’s wives who wear “blue”, the Marthas who wear “green”, or the Econowives