Identity

"The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood had me thinking about identity and the importance of having one.  The women in this novel are completely stripped of their identities in this new world that has been thrust upon them.  They have taken away their real names, clothing, education, and even their children.  It is as if whatever they knew before they lived in this lifestyle is completely removed from memory and replaced with subjective information that is completely brain washing these women.

The treatment of these women feels similar to how Jews and other minorities were sees as less than human and had their identities taken from them in the holocaust.  The treatment of these women in "The Handmaid's Tale" proves to me that women are only seen as objects and are only sees as useful if they are fertile.  If women weren't needed for reproduction, it appears as if their fate would would parallel to that of Jews in the holocaust.  Just as the women are giving labels of property, Jews were given numbers as their identity and were forbidden to use their real names.  Just like the women in this novel, Jews would secretly call themselves by their real names as a reminder who who they truly are.  "We learned to whisper almost without a sound.  In the semi-darkness we could stretch out our arms, when the Aunts weren't looking, and touch each other's hands across space sideways, watching each other's mouths. In this way we exchange names, from bed to bed" (14). What is so terrifying about the women described in this story is that they are beginning to believe the things that they are being brainwashed about.  For example, when one women is raped, the other women truly believe that she brought it upon herself.  Perhaps if the holocaust had gone on longer than it did, Jews would begin to believe that they were unworthy and that they had no identity.

Just as the narrator of "The Handmaid's Tale" continues to tell us, a story must be told even if no one is listening.  Telling her stories is what is keeping the narrator sane through out this novel.  Telling stories of their past lives and using their real names is what helped to keep oppressed Jews sane during the holocaust.  When someone loses site of their overall identity, that is when hope is lost, and when the oppressors have achieved their goal.