02-03-2022, 02:02 PM
(02-02-2022, 05:04 PM)Nately120 Wrote: I don't know what that is.
It is a novel, developed into a popular tv show.
The plot, per Wikipedia....
In a world where fertility rates have collapsed as a result of sexually transmitted diseases and environmental pollution,[11] the totalitarian, theonomic government of Gilead establishes rule in the former United States in the aftermath of a civil war.[12][13][14] Society is organized by power-hungry leaders along with a new, militarized, hierarchical regime of religious fanaticism and newly created social classes, in which women are brutally subjugated. By law, women in Gilead are forced to work in very limited roles, including some as natal slaves, and they are not allowed to own property, have careers, handle money, or read.[14]
World infertility has led to the enslavement of fertile women in Gilead determined by the new regime to be "fallen women", citing an extremist interpretation of the Biblical account of Bilhah; these women often include those who have entered multiple marriages (termed "adulteresses", as divorce is not recognised under Gileadian law), single or unmarried mothers, lesbians (homosexuals being termed "gender traitors"), non-Christians, adherents of Christian denominations other than the "Sons of Jacob", political dissidents, and academics. These women, called Handmaids, are assigned to the homes of the ruling elite, where they must submit to ritualized rape (referred to as "the ceremony") by their male masters ("Commanders") in the presence of their wives, to be impregnated and bear children for them.[14] Handmaids are given names created by the addition of the prefix Of- to the first name of the man who has them. When they are transferred, their names are changed.
Along with the Handmaids, much of society is now grouped into classes that dictate their freedoms and duties. Women are divided into a small range of social categories, each one signified by a plain dress in a specific color. Handmaids wear long red dresses, heavy brown boots and white coifs, with a larger white coif (known as "wings") to be worn outside, concealing them from public view and restricting their vision.
June Osborne, renamed Offred, is the Handmaid assigned to the home of the Gileadan Commander Fred Waterford and his wife Serena Joy. The Waterfords, key players in the formation and rise of Gilead, struggle with the realities of the society they helped create. During "the time before", June was married to Luke and had a daughter, Hannah. At the beginning of the story, while attempting to flee Gilead with her husband and daughter, June was captured and forced to become a Handmaid because of the adultery she and her husband committed. June's daughter was taken and given to an upper-class family to raise, and her husband escaped into Canada. Much of the plot revolves around June's desire to be reunited with her husband and daughter and the internal evolution of her strength to its somewhat darker version.
