Atwood's 'Handmaid's Tale' substantiates history

“Atwood has said she prefers to call her work ‘speculative fiction’ instead of science fiction. Gilead isn’t just a work of total imagination - there’s precedence for that world.” Atwood wrote The Handmaid's Tale based on the actual events. She aimed to collect those events and piece them together into one ‘fictional’ story. Although Atwood’s novel does not resemble the present, “its structure and customs do mirror aspects of 17th century New England Puritanism and dictatorships seen in different eras across the globe.”

A dystopian community where women are made servants; human machines whose only purpose is breeding, breeding for someone else's sake. The Handmaid's Tale portrays a new world; a theocratic Republic of Gilead which had seized control over the United States. The impetus for originating such a community came from the fact that plenty of women could no longer give birth. These people unified and established the Republic of Gilead. They penetrated several cities and invaded the lives of thousands of families, mercilessly tearing them apart. They abducted women and made them servants, human machines for breeding. Gilead shut those women within the area of its power and prevented the entire community from contacting the outside world.

Both the protagonist and narrator of the story are embodied by one of the handmaids, June. She describes the everyday life in Gilead through her own eyes. She also enriches the story with flashbacks from the recent past which enable the reader to see more into the background of the community origins.

Margaret Atwood is a remarkably talented and skilful writer. Her precise usage of language and narrative flow create a story which provides the reader with vivid images. She pays attention to detail. Both her setting and characters are very elaborate. Atwood's particular endowment for writing makes her literary work phenomenal.

“It’s not me who has come up with it, it’s the human race over the past 4,000 years.” Atwood herself conceded that the narrative in The Handmaid's Tale was not of her own invention. Throughout her novel, she illustrated some significant moments which had already taken place in the past. She applied history to originate her novel. Therefore, Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale ought not to be labelled science fiction.