The Handmaid's Tale
(HBO Productions, 1990, 108 Minutes)
Review by William Buskist, Auburn University
Film Relevance and Connection to the Text
This movie explores the issues of conformity, love, repression, sexism, and racism; it centers on an entirely white culture attempting desperately to reproduce its own kind, while simultaneously trying to destroy anyone who is different. As such, the movie can be viewed and discussed using the topics discussed in the following chapters as a starting point: Chapters 3 (The Self in Culture), 4 (Attitudes), 6 (Persuasion), 7 (Conformity and obedience), 8 (Liking and Loving), 9 (Prejudice), 10 (Aggression), 11 (Gender), 14 (Intergroup Relations and Multiculturalism), and 15 (Applying Social Psychology: Conflict Resolution, the Law, and the Developing World).
Summary/Synopsis
This film is set in a futuristic America ruled by the far religious right, in the midst of a "war of purification" to rid society of homosexuals, African-Americans, non-believers, and other such "undesirable" citizens. Meanwhile, environmental pollution threatens human existence--99% of all women are sterile. Against this backdrop, we meet Kate, a young, fertile woman captured by the forces of Gilead (the new name for the United States), as she and her family attempt to escape the country. She is forced to become a handmaid, whose only function in society is to become pregnant by the man to whom she is assigned. Kate, fueled by the memory of life when she was a free woman, detests this role and joins an underground resistance movement to overthrow Gilead. She successfully assassinates her arranged lover: the Commander of Gilead's ruthless Security Forces.
Discussion Questions
- Describe the processes used by Kate's captors to train the mental states of the handmaids.
- What challenges to her self-concept does Kate face as she is indoctrinated by her captors?
- Why is Kate's memory of her daughter so important to her ability to remain sane after the two are separated?
- What is the social psychological significance of the handmaid's red attire and the blue attire of the barren societal women?
- Compare and contrast the differences in Kate's feelings for the Commander, the man with whom she is forced to have sex and for Nick, the man with whom she chooses to make love.
- What significant social psychological functions are served by the public humiliation of the handmaid who had an abortion as a teenager, and the public execution of the unfaithful handmaid?
- What role did the principle of reciprocation play in the relationship that Kate had with the Commander? (Put another way, what did the Commander hope to gain by giving Kate hand lotion, magazines, and taking her out?)
- Explain how jealousy figured in the relationship between the Commander and his barren wife.
- Describe how the social status of the Commander's wife was threatened by handmaids who could not become pregnant by her husband. Likewise, describe how the social status of societal women is enhanced when their husband's handmaid bears a child.
- How did the film depict gender roles? In what ways are those gender roles similar to, or different from, gender roles in modern American culture?
Student Assignment Suggestions
- After viewing the film, ask students to write a short essay on the cultural changes that could possibly be wrought by unbridled prejudice. Compare and contrast the similarities between the culture as shown in the movie and the culture as described in students' essays.
- To spark class discussion, ask students to elaborate on the role of obedience to authority in maintaining social order within any culture. Ask students to draw comparisons between attempts at motivating obedience as shown in the movie and the means that our present culture uses to produce similar results.
- In "The Handmaid's Tale," a catastrophic event, environmental pollution, threatens the human species' ability to procreate, a process we often take for granted. The movie raises important questions regarding who, ultimately, has control over a woman's ability to procreate. Ask your class to discuss this issue in light of a woman's status in modern American culture.
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