The Handmaid's Tale Initial Thoughts part II

As a continuation of my previous blog, I wanted to expand a bit on what I feel like are the major women's roles that I have seen in my faith/religious life. As I mentioned before, I have been to several different churches, and although the denominations may have been different, I feel like the roles of women were pretty much the same. Here are some of them:
- Worship team (singers, musicians, etc)
- Childcare - Women are mainly the ones who teach Sunday school.  I guess it goes along with the motherly aspect, our supposed innate ability to deal with and care for children.
- Church Coffee/ Church luncheons - Again, another semi-stereotypical job for women.
- Bible study leaders - women's fellowship is a big deal in my faith. Some of the "religious giants" of our generation are women, surprisingly.

At first glance, these may seem extremely stereotypical and restricted. Note, these are not the only roles that women have that I have experienced. I have dealt with female ministers, missionaries, religious global speakers. And what I have observed about all these women is that they are proud to do what they do. Even in the small actions like laying out cookies and coffee for social time after services, they take each opportunity as a chance to encourage fellowship. They truly find joy in the mundane tasks.

This is where I find the difference between my religious experience and that of the women in The Handmaid's Tale. My religion/faith is used to encourage women and have them step out into the world, whereas the women in the book are repressed and bound and silenced by theirs.

"Let the women learn in silence with all subjection." Here he looks us over. "All," he repeats (Atwood 233).

"Start them soon is the policy, there's not a moment to be lost -  still they'll remember. And the ones after them will, for three or four or five years; but after that they won't. They'll always have been in white, in groups of girls; they'll always have been silent" (Atwood 231).

"Notwithstanding she shall be saved by childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety" (Atwood, 233). Saved by childbearing? Salvation through a baby? That is how women in the book can be saved. In my experience with religion, faith is all you need.

I find this stifling and so powerful. It seems so against everything I have learnt about faith in my life to use it to bind and keep captive. When I was young my leaders would teach me in a way that would instill confidence and self-esteem in me. A lot of my strength and sense of self came from what I believed in. I cannot comprehend or imagine it any other way. I think that this experience of mine that is so opposite to what the women in the book experience allows me to see the severity of the situation. Not only that, it makes me extremely thankful that my experience has never been anything like that.

The Handmaid's Tale - Initial thoughts I

Although just having begun The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, I have already been captivated by the book. I find it incredibly intriguing, and very interesting. But perhaps what interested me the most was the religious or Biblical context of the book. Initially, I did not expect to see lines drawn to religion and the roles of women in religion, but I did spot the connection early on. The first mentioning of religion is in the line, "They can hit us, there's Scriptural precedent" (Atwood, 26). Later, on the same page, the narrator mentions gospel choirs and Sunday School.  And then I came across the line "when the sect wars first began" (Atwood, 53). Immediately I associated this religious context with Christianity, Christian denominations. I, being a Christian, recognized the common words like Scripture (for those of you who may not know, that is the common name for the Bible), and have attended many a Sunday school.

As I read on into the story, I came across direct quotes from the Bible. Aunt Lydia, one of the leaders at the Red School, says, "Not all of you will make it through.  Some of you will fall on dry ground or thorns.  Some of you are shallow-rooted" (Atwood 28). From what I can recall, this quote comes from one of the parables that Jesus told his disciples about being seeds for Christ, and becoming rooted and grounded in faith.  However, in this book, it relates to the roles of women. "Making it through" means successfully carrying out their duties as Handmaids and bearing the children of the Commanders. Falling on "dry ground or thorns" translates to unsuccessfully bearing children, or, ironically, being barren. When a woman is "dry" she cannot have children. If a woman is "fruitful" she will bear several healthy children.  There are also mentions of being "real believers" and "defenders of the Faith." Out of the context of the book specifically, these parables apply to all of mankind.  In the story, they were used at the Red Center in order to preach to the girls. It seems to me that the leaders of the Red Center take these verses out of context and twist them so that it seems that their actions are Biblical and righteous. Later in the

It is a common belief that women are strangled in religion, and by religion, Atwood describes the habits that the women are forced to wear to the unbelievable restrictions put upon them, and one cannot help but wonder back to the Puritan times and the various other similar time periods. Although we are now in the 21st century, and obviously much has changed between now and then, I still firmly say that I have never felt that my religion has debilitated me as a woman, or any of my female friends and family members of the same religion. I would like to call myself a non-denominational Christian. Having grown up moving around from place to place, we were changing churches just as often as schools and homes.  I have attended Baptist churches, Elim Pentecostal, Anglican, Alliance, Church of England, and even an underground church in a missionary community. Thankfully, I never felt limited by my gender in any of these.  In fact, I feel that women are most encouraged to step out in the name of religion. Women are more outspoken about their faith. I would even venture to say that sometimes I feel that men are ashamed to submit to religion or faith for fear of appearing weak. I found it quite interesting that I have yet to hear a man in the book speak of religion or of a Higher Power, yet it is in almost every line spoken by a woman. Tying to the two together, I wonder if the woman's association with religion is out of a perceived weakness or fragility on their own, and if a man's lack of religious ties relates to them wanting to seem as if they do not need anything or anyone, not even God.

Brothers and Sisters Around the World - Andrea Lee

I absolutely loved this piece of writing. For several reasons.

Firstly the imagery was great.  I though Lee did a fantastic job of painting a picture of what the island life was really like. Even in simple mentionings of the mango trees, or "behind the garden stretch fields of sugar cane and groves of silvery arthritic-looking ylang-ylang trees," gives the reader a strong visual of what Madagascar is like (Lee, 37). As I read the piece I could perfectly imagine the hot-sticky humidity and tropic air, it was very vivid.

On a different note I love the character of Hadijah. The Mother, the healer, the queen-of-sorts of the island. Though she isn't mentioned very often or closely examined in the text, she has such a presence about her that she stood out most to me out of all the characters in this piece. "To say she has presence is an understatement.  She got married when she was thirteen, and is now, after eight children, an important personage, the matriarch of a vast and prosperous island clan. She and I have got along fine ever since she realized that I wasn't going to horn in on her despotic rule..." (Lee, 40). The "queenly housekeeper" demands the respect and attention from those around her (Lee, 37).  I find her both fascinating and intimidating. Loving, but harsh. Aged, but witty. Though her actual presence in the text is very minor, I find her to be one of the most captivating and intriguing characters in the story.

The theme of the story is very interesting, yet puzzling. What I got from it was that there is a sisterly bond connecting women across the world. Women who have grown up in completely different cultures, socio-economic statuses, speak different languages… There is a feminine bond that pulls us all together on a deeper understanding of one-another, that is there without even addressing it in words. After the confrontation between Madame and the two girls, they seem to discover this bond, having broken the initial walls between them. “The formal greeting conveys an odd intimacy. It is clear that we are breathing the same air, now, that we have taken each other’s measure,” (Lee 41). After this it seems, there will be room for a relationship to blossom between them. “The curiosity of sisters separated before birth and flung by the caprice of history half a world away from each other.  Now in this troublesome way our connection has been established, and between my guilt and dawning affection I suspect that I’ll never get rid of these two. Already in my mind is forming an exasperating vision of the gifts I know I’ll have to give them…all of them extracted from me with the tender ruthlessness of family members anywhere,” (Lee, 42). I find this passage so beautifully written. It is mysterious yet conveys the unspoken bond between these three women, the bond that exists between women across the world.

This is how I pictured the two girls under the mango tree.

And the woman on the right is how I pictured Hadijah