The Handmaid's Tale: A Biblical AllusionImagine a country where choice is not a choice. One is labeled based on age and economic status. Dark red coats, embroidered blue dresses, and pinstriped clothing are all uniforms that define a person's position in society. To be judged, not on beauty, personality or talents, but rather on the ability to procreate. Not believing in the Puritan religion is certain death. To read or write is to die. This definition is shown to be true in the book The Handmaid's Tale (1986) by Margaret Atwood. This is the heartbreaking story of a young woman and her transformation into Gilead society, the society described above. In the book, we meet Offred, the narrator of the story. This story is not the first to create a society in which the only two important beliefs are the ability to procreate and a strict belief in God. We see it several times in the Old Testament, the Bible. Biblical society is not as rigid as the Republic of Gilead, built by Margaret Atwood, but it is very similar. The Handmaid's Tale contains several biblical allusions. The first biblical allusion is that of the Republic of Gilead. Gilead is mentioned several times in the Bible as a place of fertile land. The Bible says, "In the east, [the Israelites] occupied the land... because their livestock had increased in Gilead" (Numbers 32:1, NIV) and "The [tribes], who ruled very great flocks and herds, I saw that the lands of Jazer and Gilead were good for livestock” (1 Chronicles 5:9, NIV). The biblical land of Gilead was a thriving cattle land. Families and tribes came to Gilead because of the lush, green, fertile soil of the land. The Republic of Gilead was also...... middle of paper...... an individual, but each person is only noticed by the clothes they wear. Imagine a country where the husband is the head of the family and no other member of the household has any rights. Imagine a country where reading and writing are crimes punishable by death. One can imagine it, but no one can understand the pain, suffering, and emotional death one must acquire to live in a society such as the Republic of Gilead. This story of the future could very well be a story of the past; a story based on principles found in the Bible, but taken so literally and applied so strictly that the country becomes a theocracy to be hated.BibliographyAtwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1986. The NIV Study Bible. Barker, Kenneth: general editor. Grand Rapids, Michigan: The Zondervan Corporation, 1995