About the Book: The Handmaids Tale
It isnt running away theyre afraid of. We wouldnt get far. Its those other
escapes, the ones you can open in yourself, given a cutting edge. Offred is a
Handmaid. She has only one function: to breed. If she refuses to play her part
she will, like all dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly
of radiation sickness. She may walk daily to the market and utter demure words
to other Handmaids, but her role is fixed, her freedom a forgotten concept.
Offred remembers her old life-love, family, a job, access to the news. It