Account 1

To anyone who is reluctant to watch this show or read the book because it's "Too sad" or "Too dark and miserable," this isn't supposed to be some happy fantasy. This is a hint of a reflection of what life is like for many women in other, non-first-world countries who are undermined and taken advantage of all under the guise that it is "for their own good" or that "it's what [insert religious book or figure or being] would want." This is supposed to be a show that invokes deep thoughts and reflections and sparks meaningful conversation. It's so easy to choose to turn a blind eye to such things, thinking that "This could never happen to me/us/this country." Yet, as the author's new 2017 note in the front of the book says, she lived in Germany during WWII and as little bits of freedom, rights, and comfort were stripped away, everyone took no heed and kept thinking that "What could possibly go even more wrong?" There was even the Lebensborn SS program that sought to increase the amount of "racially pure" children through fertile women of certain phenotypes (look it up). So if you decide to think that this show/book is anti-religion, it is not, as Atwood herself wrote, and you have missed the point. It is a warning. A warning to be wary of authoritarian rule disguised as fighting for your beliefs and values and/or tradition, and a call to fight for the necessary and progressive rights that you and your first-world-countrymen/women have. It is also not, as many people like to think "leftist propaganda to scare us into hating the religion that made this country what it is." If that is the thought process, you may have missed the part that shows/mentions how the very women that fought to attain Gilead now resent it in subtle, yet poignant ways. They thought it would be a nice religious and traditional refuge but failed to envision the authoritarian, controlling, brutal, and actually very anti-Christian motives behind it until it was too late. On a side note, the acting is brilliant and the show well-written. I advise as many people who can to watch it and give more thought to things happening around you and around the world. Self-examine and see if you're trying to hide from such truths and possibilities, painful as they may be. This is the information age, so do not let yourself be taken away from the information and thoughts that give you good freedom and understanding. For an educated society is one that is harder to overtake. If you don't like the society in this book (which I hope no one does), then fight in your own ways to make sure it doesn't happen.