I have just begun reading The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. I was delighted the brief plot summary from one of my friends, but other than that, I have no idea what this book is about, the author’s style, or the genre. It would be very easy to find the answers to these mysteries, but I also like the idea of going into the book unbiased and interpreting it in my own way. I’ll do that. Below is a quote I read three times over at the beginning of chapter two, page seven.
A chair, a table, a lamp. Above, on the white ceiling, a relief ornament in the shape of a wreath, and in the centre of it a blank space, plastered over, like the place in a face where the eye has been taken out. There must have been a chandelier once. They’ve removed anything you could tie a rope to.
So far, the text has ominous themes of the colour red, females, and order. From the details I have retained, this story is set in a land where, as in most, women are categorized by status and their value is acquired according to that status. The main character seems to be middle-classed This allows her to interact with higher classed women, and recognize the satisfactory wealth of herself by being close to the poor. The part that caught my eye about this quote is the second sentence. The way in which Atwood wrote this leaves the reader to question whether “they” have removed anything you could tie a rope to because the women could escape, or, because the women could hang themselves. Either of these options, and the possible more, leaves the reader with a thirst that only reading further could quench. Either of these options are terrifying and set the stage of this book to be filled with thematic, and hopefully courageous, events.