The Handmaid´s Tale: A Community Made of Classes

In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the community of Gilead is separated according to classes rather than people being their own individuals. They oppress differences by “censoring the threatening force of creative self-expression” and defining them into groups (Staels 459). People are forced to give up unique qualities and live a life of monotony. They are told that “memories of the past, together with personal desires, are supposed to fade away” and be forgotten (Staels 458).

The community of Gilead is sectioned into classes that are visible through the women. The classes are put into ranks according to wealth and significance. The highest class is symbolized with the color blue which stands for the wives of the commanders. The wives live a lavish lifestyle filled with parties and stunning things (Atwood).

The next level in Gilead, are the wives of low ranking officers and they are symbolized with the color green. During The Handmaid’s Tale, they are also referred to as the econowives because they are not nearly as wealthy and do not get the opportunity to attend elegant parties. The Martha’s are also labeled with the color green. However, the Martha’s are infertile and spend most of their time being maids for the wealthier wives (Atwood).

The symbol red stands for the Handmaids. They are considered to be the lowest class where they are solely looked at for their reproductive abilities. Once they have transformed to a Handmaid and lost all individual differences they are sent to live with the commanders and their wives. There, “they force you to kill, within yourself” and demoralize one into a sex slave made to have babies (Atwood 193).

Formally known as the Red Center, a place where fertile women were sent to ge...

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...ing who you are and being yourself and taking that away would cause a state of pandemonium. The Handmaid’s Tale is an example of what our government should not do if they want to keep the sanity and tranquility of our country intact. The oppression of individual differences goes against the nature of a human being and to stifle that is to cause the beginning of the end of a community or country.

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. New York: Anchor Books, 1998.

Miner, Madonne. ""Trust Me": Reading the Romance Plot in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale." Twentieth Century Literature (1991): 149.

Staels, Hilde. "Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale: Resistance Through Narrating." English Studies (1995): 457-459.

Thomas, Deborah A. ""Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down": Echoes of Hard Times in the Handmaid's Tale." Dickens Quarterly (2008): 91-95.