The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

In every human beings life, one is given freedoms. With freedom comes responsibility, consequence following close behind. Sometimes this freedom is not freedom to do, but freedom from harm. The extreme form of this would form a Garrison mentality. A Garrison mentality is a situation in which a society protects but also confines an individual. “There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.” (Atwood 24). Gilead is a society with an intolerant theocracy. The commanders, in the highest power; followed by their wives; then the aunts, who are teachers; the angels, who are guards; the eyes, who are spies; the marthas, who are housemaids; and lastly the handmaids, who are given to the commanders to bear children. In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the society in which the characters live trap handmaids in a Garrison mentality.

The handmaids are trapped for protection. They are trapped in the commanders’ manors, kept in baron rooms, and not aloud so much as a pen or a book to read. This is to protect them from the harm of knowledge. The handmaids are the most important to Gilead’s society because they are the ones that give birth to new life. The handmaid (who is the narrator of the novel) is having her scheduled bath. While being bathed by one of the marthas, she notices the small tattoo on her ankle. “I cannot avoid seeing, now, the small tattoo on my ankle. Four digits and an eye, a passport in reverse. It’s supposed to guarantee that I will never be able to fade, finally, into another landscape. I am too important, to scarce, for that. I am a national resource.” (60 –61). The tattoo is a brand to say that she is a handmaid. This tattoo means that she can never be at a higher level, and that she can never pass as someone else. Because she is one of the still fertile women, she will always be a handmaid. If one day she is not able to bear children, she will be killed or sent to the colonies where other infertile women do hard labor. The handmaids are so important to society; they are given many restrictions. This is for their safety, so that they will stay well to bear children.