Discussion Question (The Handmaid's Tale)

In the social structure of The Handmaid’s Tale, women are portrayed as vulnerable and oppressed. Eyes supervise women and prohibit women’s collaboration and resistance. However, women in different classes, such as Wives, Handmaids, and Marthas, do not empathize with other women even though they are classified as the same the same class. I think those scenes of disharmony between women question the difficulty of harmonizing different feminist point of views towards different positions of women in the world. For example, women in the western world and women in post-colonial countries require different views to sense their identities and social rights. Or does Atwood dramatize women’s vulnerability and powerful influence of the Public Gilead in a patriarchal society through disconnection between women?