The Handmaid's Tale Response Essay

At first, I did not expect much of The Handmaid’s Tale. Bearing the word “Tale” in its title, I initially thought the book would be a simple fantasy novel, far from reality, but I was wrong. The Handmaid’s Tale was one of the only fiction books that got me thinking about real life. The situations addressed in the book are not as far-fetched as they seem and I learned a lot about the fictional gloomy future it presents. Aside from what the author presents to the reader, the way the author presents her ideas is just as important. I liked how the author challenged the reader to unravel new information. Despite being a thought-provoking novel, The Handmaid’s Tale was a little hard to understand and I felt it was a little unorganized. By talking to members of my book club, I gained some understanding of the parts of the book it did not fully comprehend.
I never thought that I would learn so much about society, politics and gender in a …show more content…
Too many elements were in play and it made it difficult to fit the pieces together. However, the more I read, the more it made sense. Not every detail Atwood presents is readily used, but I kept as many details as possible in the back of my head and some of the details were proved useful in understanding the later parts of the book. I had mixed feelings about how Atwood presents the story. On one hand, I liked how it encouraged me to really think about the situations in the book. It felt like a treasure hunt and finding out something important about Gilead feels satisfying. On the other hand, I disliked how Atwood frequently alternates from past and present tenses which can be unnecessarily confusing. In addition to the complicated transitions in the book, I believe that Atwood intentionally leaves out many details in seemingly ideal spots. Overall, it made the book feel censored and incomplete, which might have been what the author was trying to