Utopian / Dystopian

I am a huge fan of utopian and dystopian novels. Postman has referenced Orwell and Huxley, both of which wrote novels fixated in a future world very different from ours today. The interesting thing about these novels is how extreme they may seem, but the scary possibility that our future may become something like them. Just look at it this way, how would people from the past (hundreds and thousands of years ago) feel about our present? I’m pretty sure it would be a very frightening reality.

This past summer, I was fortunate enough to read the novel The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood. I had been meaning to read this book for quite some time mainly because I knew it was a dystopian (essentially a “nightmare” world) novel. The story is set in the future world of Gilead, where women’s only job is to breed. Women who are not able to reproduce are considered useless, and usually act as servants. Women are not allowed to form friendships, read any sort of book, or have a career. The protagonist is Offred, who frequently thinks about her former family and wants to escape the life she leads.

Atwood is an incredible writer. Even though the story is startling, she manages to add in her own form of wit. I thought the story itself is eerily remarkable. Just the thought of living in that type of world sends chills down my spine. It’s as if everything women have worked hard to achieve is completely ripped apart from them, and they are reduced to specifically reproduce. I would recommend this book to anyone, mainly because it is a great example of a dystopian novel.

Works Cited:
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1985.