In this science fiction novel there are several comments on our society. Atwood introduces us to a future society that has been formed as a reaction to what some people thought was wrong about our present society. An example of this is the need for women to reproduce in order to keep the population in the USA high enough. Birth control and abortion are seen as threats to the population growth, and therefore this is no longer allowed. There are people today who also share these believes about birth control and abortion, and in the US many people are willing to go far to stop doctors to carry out abortions.
Another way of controlling child birth is having a whole class of women (handmaids) to be resposible for child production for couples who cannot have their own children. A parallell to this is the surrogate industry where women voluntarily decide to be surragate mothers. This is a big industry in today's society.
A third tendency in society that this novel comments on is how it is to live in a religious totalitarian society. In "A Handmaid's Tale" it is a Christian society based on the old Testament. In today's society we read in the news about islamic totallitarian societies both in Nigeria and in Syria.
Another way of controlling child birth is having a whole class of women (handmaids) to be resposible for child production for couples who cannot have their own children. A parallell to this is the surrogate industry where women voluntarily decide to be surragate mothers. This is a big industry in today's society.
A third tendency in society that this novel comments on is how it is to live in a religious totalitarian society. In "A Handmaid's Tale" it is a Christian society based on the old Testament. In today's society we read in the news about islamic totallitarian societies both in Nigeria and in Syria.
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