SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1ADOLESCENT LITERATURE

DIVISION FIVE

Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale is a dystopian view of the very near future. A group of religious fanatics assassinates the President of the United States. A civil war ensues, and a new state named Gilead is formed. Gilead is a theocratic nation. It engages in war with other communities that are of different faiths. It is autocratic and very strict. Women are chattel. They are not allowed to own money, not allowed to read, they are essentially slaves to the states. Fertility has become a problem due to pollution and radioactive fallout. High ranking men in the government of Gilead whose wives are sterile are given a Handmaid, who the men impregnate instead of their wives in order to propagate the race.

Normally division five would contain a section containing other works by the author. After reading the novel again, I would be very hesitant to include it in a high school literature program in the Erie or Crawford county school districts, except perhaps in a honors class of juniors and seniors. If I were able to relocate, to another district, I would reconsider teaching it, but here I could see a lot of problems with teaching this work from parents in this area.

Margaret Atwood has written poetry, children stories, short stories, and novels. I have only read The Handmaids Tale. Reading over book reviews of her other works, I found that it would be easy to string together most of her books, as she deals mostly with women and womens place in society. I do not feel from the reviews that many of her works would be appropriate for a high school audience. Proceeding from that statement, if I were to do an author unit on Atwood, here are the works I would include.

Cat's eye, the ninth of Atwood's novels, is the story of Elaine Risley, a successful painter who returns to Toronto, the city of her childhood. Most of the novel flashes back to her childhood and focuses on the relationships she had, particularly the relationship between herself and a girl named Cordelia. Cordelia and the other girls teased and tortured her so much that Elaine loses all her self self-esteem and adopts bad habits, such as peeling her skin, biting her nails, and pulling her own hair. Atwood also explores the world of artistic creativity for female artists. The book also gives the reader a clear picture of how much society and the landscape of Toronto had changed from her childhood memories in the 1940s and the 1950s to the Toronto she revisited in the 1980s.

ADVANCE \d 5Alias Grace: Grace Marks was a sixteen year old housemaid in 1843 when she was convicted, along with a manservant, of killing her employers. Margaret Atwood has chosen to tell Grace's story in fictional form although the major characters and events are as they happened. Atwood portrays the Victorian prison system and asylum life in detail, including issues Grace has with the warders who escort her to her work in the Governor's house, other prisoners who see her receiving preferential treatment, and the governor's family. Simon Jordan is a doctor who is using the new science of psychology. He meets with Grace and listens to her story drawing her out about her life and her crime. The Handmaids Tale: ADVANCE \d 5U ADVANCE \d 5ure after Protestant fundamentalists have taken over the government, young fertile women are dubbed Handmaids and forced to couple ADVANCE \d 5