Analysis of Symbols of Choice

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale was written as a representation of a time when the ideals of independence, liberty, and freedom are stolen and government joins with religion to create a theocratic regime.  Embracing the teachings and traditional values of the Old Testament, the Republic of Gilead exists following a nuclear war.  The United States of America and all of its founding principles are abolished, and strict religious standards are upheld by a government run only by males.  Mass pollution and toxic radiation has caused a frightening drop in the number of healthy births.  This introduces a vast number of biblical allusions found within the text, dating back to the Old Testament of the Bible in reference to Jacob, Leah and his wife Rachel and his two Handmaids Bilhah and Zilpah, and Abraham and Hagar.  Women have been assigned a place in society; if ovaries are in good condition, they are sent to a Commander’s home to become Handmaids.  Each month, sexual intercourse through the procedure of ceremony is in occurrence between the Commander and the Handmaid, who lies upon the wife mating with the male through her.  In this way, if the Handmaid becomes impregnated, she bears the children through her own body to bestow upon the wife of the Commander.  This ritual is held as an allusion to those figures of biblical history.  Neither the Commander nor the other members of the party are comfortable in this situation.  Moreover, if a woman remains unable to produce offspring, she is declared an “Unwoman.”  This incredible loss of womanhood, apart from the general restrictions and oppression laid upon women by this society, is a main theme.  During one scene of the novel, Offred hides butter in her shoe after stealing it from the dinner table.  She reflects on her usage of it: 

I look for the pat of butter, in the toe of my right shoe, where I hid it after dinner . . . I rub the butter over my face, work it into the skin of my hands.  There’s no longer any hand lotion or face cream, not for us.  Such things are considered vanities.  (Atwood 96) 

This moment is Offred’s attempt to regain her womanhood, or a piece of femininity recognizable from past experiences.  This society deprives women of the ability to feel good about themselves.  In fact, it even turns the women against each other:  “Stabbed her with a knitting needle, right in the belly.  Jealousy, it must have been, eating her up” (11).  In Offred’s case, those who become pregnant become the subject of envy among other Handmaids.  Econowives are either jealous of Handmaids, or disapprove as Martha often do:  “Beneath her veil for the first one scowls at us.  One of the others turns aside, spits on the sidewalk.  The Econowives do not like us” (44).  Survival is essential for all members of Gilead, unless one seeks to liberate themselves with suicidal actions, which are also regulated by official Guardians.  The color a Handmaid wears, red, is the representation of lust and adultery.  Although declared legal and morally accurate, the position of the Handmaid is a vulnerable, exposing, humiliating act and is as close to rape, infidelity, and deceitfulness as anything can get!  The fruit of the Garden of Eden, also part of Genesis in the Old Testament of the Bible, can be compared to the “Fruit of a mother’s womb” ideal; fruit is fidelity.  The underlying indication present in this situation, however, is that woman who can not give birth to healthy children are blamed as they were in earlier times, although it is a man’s sperm who is the dominant, controlling factor in the process.  Anyone who objects to this is considered to be committing an act of treason against the Republic.  Other Biblical allusions may be found near the beginning of the novel where Offred and her walking partner Ofglen walk to the marketplace to shop for the Marthas.  Process signs such as “All Flesh” (27) and “Milk and Honey” (25) are observed by Offred while walking.  This connection is made to the Biblical land of milk and honey found in Exodus of the Old Testament.  Greetings are significant, as well.  Upon greeting, Ofglen says to Offred, “‘Blessed be the fruit,’” (meaning of the womb) with a reply of “‘May the Lord open,’” (19) in reference to sexual fertility.