Revisiting The Handmaid’s Tale in These Uncertain Times

Even in 1989 I could imagine how Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel could become our reality. I just didn’t expect the prospect of that reality to occur in my lifetime.

I first read The Handmaid’s Tale as a college student in 1989, four years after it was published.

It scared the shit out of me.

Even then I could imagine — quite vividly, thank you very much — how Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel could become our reality.

I just didn’t expect the prospect of that reality to occur in my lifetime.

But, here we are, with recent legislation in Alabama and other states moving us ever-so-closer to becoming the Republic of Gilead, the name Atwood gives to the country formerly known as the United States.

I rarely re-read books but I recently revisited The Handmaid’s Tale.

There was so much I’d forgotten since 1989. I remembered the main character, Offred, and that she had once been married with a child. I remembered her relationship to and her purpose for the Commander.

And I especially remembered that Offred — “of Fred” — wasn’t her name.

“My name isn’t Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because it’s forbidden. I tell myself it doesn’t…