Diana T. Otto
I teach twelfth grade English at Hill Regional Career High School in New Haven, a magnet school for students interested in business, medicine, and science. There are three sections of English for seniors, and I have the upper two tracks, Honors and Advanced Placement. The Advanced Placement course is designed to assist students in preparing for the A.P. English Literature and Composition exam in May. Students who do well on this exam may be given college credit for their participation, so its rigor requires them to develop into careful and critical readers and precise and thoughtful writers. The Honors course is designed for students who are prepared and ready for a challenging curriculum of reading and writing, but it is more flexible in regard to writing assignments than the Advanced Placement course, which is primarily expository essays and research papers; the Honors English course features more creative writing and artistic expression. Both courses consist primarily of the traditional canon of British and world literature, though there are some modern and American selections.
Our block schedule allows for in-depth coverage of works of literature and for good use of a writing workshop. Our classes meet every other day with periods of eighty-two minutes each, so little time is wasted on trivialities like attendance, announcements, etc. My class numbers are relatively small, with my largest class at twenty-four members and my smallest at nine. With two periods of Advanced Placement and three periods of Honors English, I have approximately eighty students. Students are motivated and bright, but some bring deficits with them in the areas of grammar and mechanics, and they do not always demonstrate an ability to read analytically and write with style and grace. These are skills I try to teach in whole-class mini-lessons and through individual conferences. Close readings of texts may occur as part of class activity or as homework, and writing assignments are generally done at home and in class, with time allotted for a writing workshop and writing conferences with me. An average class, then, would include a discussion of a reading assignment, a close examination of areas of ambiguity or difficulty in the text, a mini-lesson on a skill area such as grammar or punctuation, and a writing workshop in which students write and revise as I walk around, conferring with all students in turn and each again as needed.
Atwood’s
The Handmaid’s Tale
is a fabulous book for both Advanced Placement English and Honors English seniors. The plot concerns an overthrow of a contemporary U.S. government by religious fanatics who seize fertile women in an effort to control this valuable resource since pollution and nuclear disaster rendered many women -- and men--infertile. The narrator is an unremarkable woman before the religious Republic of Gilead comes into control, and it is her pragmatic response to the turmoil that makes the book such an interesting read. As one of the few women with viable ovaries, Offred is required to serve as surrogate mother for a high-status military officer and his wife. If she is impregnated while lying between the knees of the commander’s wife, her child will be theirs. Once breastfeeding is completed, her connection to the infant will be over, and she will travel to another house to become impregnated again. Offred’s failure to become pregnant by her commander inspires her to have an affair with a member of the household staff (at first arranged by the commander’s wife, then continued illicitly), become pregnant by him, and then escape as the fighting for supremacy in the Republic of Gilead continues. A post-script to the novel indicates that the power of the Republic was short-lived, and that it led to a decline in North American power and culture in general. Other countries, less susceptible to sexual oppression and religious intolerance, less spoiled by nuclear disaster and ecological foolishness, have claimed the role as world leaders while the United States foundered.
The challenge while teaching this novel is finding ways for the students to see its relevance. My goal, then, is to explore historical evidence that explains male dominance as a recurring political, social, biological, and religious phenomenon. My students have experienced discrimination, but their experience has generally been in a society where discrimination, while common, is also against the law in most meaningful ways. They have not had to surrender their possessions to a spouse or religion, nor do they risk great harm when they do not dress in accordance with guidelines. Earlier this year at Career, for example, Erik wore a shirt that said “Heineken: Been There, Drank That,” risking being asked to turn it inside out or wear something over it. He did not risk being beaten to death, like a woman in Afghanistan who showed a bit of ankle as she crossed the street. The Republic of Gilead comes to power by swinging our cultural pendulum from “anything goes” back to an ultra-orthodox interpretation of the Bible, and the new order requires a number of strictly enforced dress codes, travel limitations, and curfews. My students are all interested and affected by these issues, and I think they would like to explore ways in which a social contract is forged successfully.
The book itself takes a passage from the Bible for its central idea: Genesis 30:1-3, which suggests that important men may have children with their servants if their wives cannot, that a handmaid’s duty may be also to provide offspring for the powerful couple. It is imperative that my students read Genesis to understand the whole tale of Rachel and Jacob. Rather than a barren woman desperately in need to be mother, Rachel is more of a competitor with her sister Leah, also wife to the same husband, in a race to bear sons. The husband, Jacob, loves Rachel more than Leah, yet copulates and impregnates both sisters and their handmaids. We don’t see Leah worrying that Jacob loves her less, or Rachel triumphant because Jacob loves her more: only the number of births matter in determining the worth -- and happiness -- of the wives. Progeny must not be a reflection of love between two people, then: it can be seen as a competition between mothers, with each birth adding to the value of the wife, even if the birth is from her handmaid, and not from the wife herself. It will be interesting for them to evaluate the Biblical passage in order to determine various ways it might be interpreted. Are we to believe that this passage promotes this behavior, discourages this behavior, or merely tells the tale? Where is the moral to be found?
Further readings will explore evidence of the same from other countries and eras: If the moral is about providing heirs to a powerful man, then to what extent are “illegitimate” children of the elite likely to be tolerated or even encouraged, and under what circumstances? Students may be interested in researching the Scottish prefix “Fitz” as an indicator of illegitimacy, and of the tendency of some Asian cultures to name boys upon birth but refer to females as “girl” until they become “wife of ___” or “mother of___.” Students may be surprised to learn that many of the practices of the Republic of Gilead in Atwood’s novel have roots in ancient and modern cultures.
There are several ways to distinguish the status of a woman in the Republic of Gilead. Western cultures tend to name children after their fathers, but this patrilineal system is discarded by the Republic of Gilead, at least as far as the Handmaids are concerned. Handmaids are given the prefix Of- to the name of the Commander they serve. Since Offred’s Commander’s name is Fred, hers becomes Offred, at least while she is living with him and his wife. When and if she leaves to serve another couple, her name will change again. It is forbidden to tell others your name from “the time before,” and in this way women are even more isolated and unlikely to be rescued from their roles as baby factories. As everyone is a potential spy, it is a real risk to discuss anything other than positive news about the Republic’s Wars or the joy that being a Handmaid brings. There are other systems in place to separate women from forming friendships and supportive communities as well.
In Gilead status and function are clearly communicated by clothing and color. Women belong to a class system in Atwood’s novel that links their status to that of their husbands and childbearing ability. The wives wear blue, have the highest status, and maintain their first names, though they undoubtedly adopt their husband’s patronymic after marriage. The Aunts are brown-garbed Uncle Toms, oppressing their sisters to appease the men that don’t hold them equal. Aunts are the manipulative mouthpieces of the commanders, always trying to believe that “freedom from” (sex? choice? independence?) is much better than “freedom to.” The Marthas are servants who wear dull green, and the Unwomen of the Colonies, infertile or old women who clean up toxic waste and battlefields, wear gray. The Handmaids wear red, symbolic of blood and birth and sex and life; depending on the eye and leanings of the beholder. Econowives wear stripes of all colors, for they must perform all of the duties assigned to females, cleaning, giving birth, and being homemakers as well, though there is a promise that Econowives won’t have to exist much longer, after the dust from the takeover settles. Daughters wear white until their marriages, which take place shortly after menstruation, since their work will be to repopulate the land with as many children as they can have before their childbearing years end. With a population crisis on hand the girls are not allows to wait for emotional maturity: bearing children and caring for their husbands, who will be promoted if a wife or Handmaid bears a child.
Atwood herself has indicated that part of the book was inspired by a trip to Afghanistan in the late 1970s. She and her husband were impressed by the beauty of the country and by the silence of its women, who rarely spoke or looked directly at them. This predates the more current history of the Taliban, of course, but the ideas were taking root even as they visited historical sites. Human rights groups have kept a close watch on the gradual removal of freedoms for citizens, particularly female citizens, of Afghanistan, and have addressed the issues at length. Our students, who have been taught a great deal of fiction but have not read non-fiction nearly as much, should have the opportunity to read the stories of women in oppressed countries. I have included a reading list that they can draw from, though undoubtedly it is but a small sample of the wealth of material available.
Because I want them to respond aesthetically and intellectually to the book, I have designed a creative project as well as a “Supplemental Sources Project” that will require them to read another fiction or nonfiction book and articles in addition to
The Handmaid’s Tale
. I think that if students were to read just one of the stories in Nayra Atiya’s
Khul Khaal: Five Egyptian Women Tell Their Stories
, for example, their eyes would be opened to the challenges women living right now face in their cultures. The stories about how dowry affects families are very interesting, and it isn’t such a jump, after all, to connect these concepts with some of our more cherished American traditions related to weddings so elaborate that the parents of the bride are nearly crippled by debt. Certainly the impulse to shame females out of their sexuality by the Aunts in
The Handmaid’s Tale
will seem mild compared to the routine clitoridectomies (removal of the clitoris and sometimes partial removal or suturing of the labia) done in some parts of Africa and the MiddleEast. This view into other cultures will allow them to glimpse life though unfamiliar eyes, and will allow them to see their own lives with greater clarity.
I will present the project questions to my students, and they will all read
The Handmaid’s Tale
and excerpts from the other sources that are appropriate and interesting to them. I’ll read through a few articles with them, perhaps a chapter from
Khul Khaal
or something like it, and then I’ll do book talks about a few of the books on my list. The list itself isn’t meant to be limiting; the point is to showcase the discussion and connection process more than provide details about a book or limit their choices. I think that there are books that complement one another, but that the most critical part of doing the comparison is being able to discover the comparisons that aren’t so obvious. That part is difficult for my students, as they don’t always make thematic connections as quickly as I’d like. The students will have an opportunity to find their own choices and to confer with me about how a book they find interesting might fit our supplemental sources project. I’ve tried to choose books that are fairly diverse and that would be appropriate for an A.P. Literature course. After giving an overview of the areas of investigation, I will ask them to choose one of the following areas to investigate further, relating each to sexual (or gender) oppression or elitism:
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Politics: Offred seems the have a superficial understanding of politics. She seems to be a character that is more concerned with her life and the life of her family rather than larger political structures. An investigation of how women involve themselves in politics, and why, may prove a fertile research ground for papers.
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Public assistance: Explore similarities and differences in public programs for men and women. This is a very controversial issue currently, with money designated to help encourage recipients of public assistance to marry. What guidelines are used to determine public assistance? Do women and men need to meet the same expectations to receive help? How do public assistance guidelines affect the ways family members live? Why are policies regarding the marital status of welfare recipients so controversial?
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Public education: Scholarship funds are of great interest to my students, and many of the girls have felt that there are not enough opportunities for female athletes. Students may also be interested in passages from
THT
that describe Offred’s memories of school and the ways that boys and girls were drawn -- or driven -- to differing academic and extracurricular programs.
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Marriage and family: How spouses are chosen and the degree to which families participate would be an interesting area to research. I have already mentioned traditions for wedding expenses, of course, but there are other areas to consider, particularly inheritance issues and support (or the lack of support) following the dissolution of a marriage. What happens when a marriage ends in divorce and the parents remarry? Does the commitment to the children remain on the same level by both parents?
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Biology: An examination of behavior through comparisons to animal groups and behaviors may provide another way to think about behaviors that we may take for granted. The power struggles and community life of chimpanzees and bonobos, for example, may suggest that nature provides a wide variety of gender roles for males and females, and that organizational structures may indeed be varied.
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Religious organizations and influence: Offred is aware of major denominations, but provides little explanation about how a war between Christian sects may have been sparked. Additionally, she does not have the understanding of the Bible to challenge the interpretations of the Republic of Gilead, even though she recognizes that there are parts that have been changed or left out. It would be interesting for students to study the amount of female participation in religions, and then again what kind of participation. Do females have supportive or decision-making roles? Are males and females given the same moral instruction? Does this vary with race and socioeconomic status, and why might it do so?
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Historical precedents: Students who read carefully will realize that the Republic of Gilead “relocates” Jews (though one report states that they are dumped at sea) and rounds up the “Children of Ham” (African Americans) for removal to the Colonies. “Gender Treachery” (homosexuality) is a hanging offense. “Ethnic cleansing” may sound cleaner than genocide, but it’s the same thing, and there is plenty of it to research. Students may choose to examine any of the wars that have destroyed populations over ethnicity and religion. Nazi Germany may be an obvious place to start, but there are others: the 30 Year’s War, the Croats and the Serbs , Ireland’s ongoing struggles between the Catholics and Protestants, Bosnia’s disastrous religious warfare, the Turks and the Armenians, and any of a number of Reformations and Crusades. “Comfort Women” enslaved by the Japanese Imperial Army in order to provide sexual outlets for soldiers have been telling their tales publicly to a world audience.
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Environmental concerns: Offred recognizes the problem of having only 10% of females being fertile. How does over- or under-population affect a community? Students in our science magnet school may be interested in investigating how long environmental effects linger -- one generation, two generations, ten generations? The Republic of Gilead faced numerous environmental disasters, including nuclear contamination. We have become increasingly aware of the potential for nuclear disaster, bioterrorism, chemical warfare, environmental terrorism, etc. An investigation into the effects of atomic warfare on Hiroshima and Nagasaki may be of interest to my students, or perhaps the impact of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on its local community and the entire planet.
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Agricultural concerns: Offred hints that use of pesticides and farming methods may have played roles in poisoning the environment. Students may wish to investigate how farmers farm and what guidelines exist to protect consumers. We’ve also heard a lot about genetic engineering for agriculture, and they may wish to investigate the risks and benefits of it.
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Other questions they would like to pursue.
