If you’re familiar with the dystopian genre, you will no doubt recognize the name of Margaret Atwood’s award-winning book, The Handmaid’s Tale. Within the pages of this 1985 novel, readers find a profound, relevant message about the current trajectory of society.
Along with all the remaining fertile women in the U.S., protagonist June Osborne is forced into the role of a handmaid, where her sole responsibility is to birth children for the leaders of the new patriarchal regime. How is the oppressive state of Gilead similar to current society, you might ask? Read on to discover the ways that Atwood warns her readers about the nature of exploitation and the rise of tyrannical powers.
Quotes About Succumbing to Injustice
In the midst of injustice, it is possible to lose your sense of what is “ordinary.” Over time, we become numb to unfair treatment and even come to treat it as the norm. With consumerism and entertainment as distractions, we lose our focus on what becomes of society, including ever-present elements of economic tyranny, political corruption, and inequality. Through these quotes, Atwood perfectly describes what occurs when we become complacent to such injustices.
“Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
“’Ordinary,’ said Aunt Lydia, ‘is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary.’”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
“Nothing changes instantly: in a gradually heating bathtub you’d be boiled to death before you knew it.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
Quotes on Female Objectification
The novel’s commentary on womanhood highlights how society continually objectifies the female body. Not only are there expectations for women to maintain a certain body image, but there is also a presiding sense of shame surrounding women’s bodies and their functions. These quotes depict a society, not far removed from our own, where the female body is used as a means of control.
“I avoid looking down at my body, not so much because it’s shameful or immodest but because I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to look at something that determines me so completely.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
“You wanted a women’s culture. Well, now there is one. It isn’t what you meant, but it exists. Be thankful for small mercies.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
“I have failed once again to fulfill the expectations of others, which have become my own. I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will. … There were limits, but my body was nevertheless lithe, single, solid, one with me. Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I’m a cloud, congealed around a central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and more real than I am…”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
“Don’t you know how many women’s lives, how many women’s bodies, the tanks had to roll over just to get that far?”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
Quotes on Societal Fairness
Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale presents an important commentary, not only on women’s rights and female objectification but also on the way that we react to such discrimination. The novel’s characters respond to the state’s new patriarchal leadership in a way that closely mirrors our own reactions to injustice. We may be told that widespread prejudice is a thing of the past, or that we have already attained the utmost liberty from inequality — when there is still much to be done on a global scale. From these quotes, we can learn about how we might choose to comprehend and counter societal injustice.
“Better? I say, in a small voice. How can he think this is better? Better never means better for everyone, he says. It always means worse, for some.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
“You can’t help what you feel, but you can help how you behave.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
The Handmaid’s Tale reflects a frightening reality for women around the world which, whether we realize it or not, draws nearer each time we choose to ignore or accept injustice. In the novel, Margaret Atwood warns us of what could become of society. With this reminder, we can rise beyond our current society’s unfairness and work toward a better future.
For more on how Margaret Atwood’s writing parallels with real life, click here.
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