Critique: The Testament (Margaret Atwood)

This story is the sequel to ‘Handmaid’s Tale’. It follows, in third person (a departure from the first person perspective in the previous book), the stories of three women. One is Aunt Lydia. Another is Daisy, a Canadian teenager. The last is Agnes, a girl growing up in the restrictive Gilead.

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Good Parts

 

There was plenty to appreciate in this book.

Regarding her statue, Aunt Lydia notes that ‘moss has sprouted in my damper crevices.’ That line has me cackling every time.

One of my favourite lines was ‘Wedlock: it had a dull metallic sound, like an iron door clicking shut.’

Wives make offerings to Lydia’s statue for fertility and chant praise ‘as if Latin could have more effect than English.’ This is funny, considering Latin seems to be the go-to for magical and religious importance. This aside, there is a reason for this attitude. For centuries, Latin was the official language across Europe, of the ruling class and of professional endeavours. Hence Latin was perceived to be more important than local language.

Agnes rewards a young Guardian for doing as he’s told by showing her ankle!

The political intrigues of the Aunts is fascinated and convoluted and I love it.

‘[B]ut terror does not exactly reign. Instead it paralyzes. Hence the unnatural quiet.’

Judd says it is in Lydia’s hands who notes, ‘how easily a hand becomes a fist.’

 

 

Women in Gilead

 

Gilead’s views about women are appalling. It’s even institutionalised, being taught to the girls from a young age so they’re less likely to challenge it. Commander Judd says it’s cruel to promise women equality. The fact that men go around thinking their mothers, sisters and daughters are lesser than they are astounds me.

            Girls are told they aren’t clever or important enough to be involved with men’s work. Swings are banned because people could look up their skirts. They aren’t even allowed best friends because this leads to disharmony! Lydia convinces the Commanders that women need to be women because men have better things to concern themselves with. It horrible.

The girls are told to cover their arms, hair and legs because otherwise men lose control and ravage them. It’s putting the blame for rape and sexual assault on the victims rather than the abusers.

Aunts, unlike most women, are allowed to write and read because they aren’t married. Yet in the previous book, nuns were sinful for not getting married and reproducing. Every belief system has contradictions but Gilead doesn’t even try to hide it.

The Aunts keep records of official parentage and true parentage. The official parentage is of the Commander and his Wife of the pregnant Handmaid. The true parentage names the biological parents, being the Handmaid and whoever impregnated her (a driver, a doctor, whomever it really is), to prevent incest. So for Gilead’s systems and beliefs to hold, it still relies on attitudes of the past, the very attitudes that Gilead denies and wanted to overthrow.

 

 

Questions

 

Plenty wasn’t wrong per se but it was definitely… off. It makes the reader question why the editors didn’t remove it and why it’s even in the book in the first place.

It says the girls wear braids but something in the back of my mind says that braids weren’t allowed?

The girls aren’t allowed best friends because it leads to whispers (yes), plotting (possibly), traitors (an escalation) and adulteresses (what?) The last listed item is such  a bizarre conclusion that doesn’t follow the rest. It’s so out of place that it can’t even be claimed as tenuous.

Agnes’ dad, having three Marthas, makes him more important than Shunammite’s because her has one. Yet Commander Fred had only two Marthas and Ofglen said that Fred was at the very top of the Commanders. This seems incongruous but it’s not unreasonable that Ofglen didn’t have completely accurate information.

In this book, it says that croissant are breakfast sandwiches. Um, what?

The Aunt’s motto is really quite bizarre: ‘Through childbirth labour with the female reproductive cycle.’

Daisy wonders why Lydia hadn’t had her mole removed. Woah. Why would you remove a mole. That’s such a bizarre concept. Unless, of course, it’s cancerous, but Daisy’s attitude towards Lydia’s health clearly isn’t the cause of her thought.

 

 

Problems

 

Other things were plain wrong.

Aunt Lydia has dirt on all the Commanders. They know this. Yet none of them think to kill her? Gilead isn’t shy of executing anyone so their reluctance over Lydia seems odd.

When Daisy and Agnes escape Gilead, a guy asks what took them so long then immediately says the bus is always late. If this was him correcting himself, this contradiction would be fine. But there’s nothing in the text that suggests he did this.

Later, when the pair wash up on a beach, they’re greeted by Ada. The beach landing wasn’t a part of the plan so how did Ada know where they were?

 

‘I could get irritated by her singing, I’m sorry about that now.’

Both halves of these sentences are main clauses. Inappropriately, they’re only separated by a comma: a conjunction, colon or semi-colon are the only ways to properly connect two main clauses in the same sentence.

The same mistake is made in an otherwise beautiful sentence: ‘The world was no longer solid and dependable, it was porous and deceptive.'

 

In Canada, the teacher’s annoyed with Daisy because she says baby Nicole (who was smuggled into Canada years ago) is being used as a political football between Canada and Gilead. The teacher tells Daisy this doesn’t respect people’s rights and feelings and, incredulously, that Daisy needs to grow up. Um, no: recognising a bargaining chip in international politics is an adult realisation.

 

Pearl Girls are missionaries sent abroad to bring back converts. They a liken sex rings with free love (because that makes sense).

They also seem to bring back loads of converts to be initiated at the same time? Either they coordinate when to bring them back or they have so many converts all the time.

The latter’s scary because it means so many people are falling for something disgusting. The former seems risky: I’d want to bring converts to Gilead as soon as possible so they didn’t have time to change their mind.