Margaret Atwood An absent friend

 WHY ATTWOOD SHOULD BE PART OF EVERY CURRICULUM?

I have always found Margaret Attwood's description of women unapologetic. She rarely victimizes them from the few novels that I have read of hers. What I found extremely fascinating was her utter lack of judgement. How in her worlds women are allowed all those traits she is denied in the real world. How her plots understand the sentiments the society deems unfit for a lady. Mostly how liberating her analysis of a female is. For her, we as a gender, are human, flawed to the core, yet not being prosecuted by people. Her stories always find a place for the so labelled misfits.

THE HANDMAID'S TALE: 

The society she foresaw years ago finally descended on us, we were caught in her fabricated truth. The horrors she feared, those fears found a vessel, that vessel made its way to us, in the form of a well-documented novel. 

My first experience in Atwood's world was that of a naive child, whose eyes were opened but mouth sealed. Who knew about all those sentiments, but was too afraid to admit. I remember the first thought that came to my mind while reading this bold statement was, I am not alone. It was a feeling of finding companionship in an isolated and desolate desert. My voice found a confidante, my thoughts a comfort! 

The Republic of Gilead is the nightmare of our ancestral mothers, it's the fear that we as daughters inherited, it's the trauma we can't unhinge ourselves from. It's the echo of a future we want to avoid desperately, but sadly is our present. Gilead is what we get if we stopped the scream and buried the truth. It's the premonition of a world, we must at all cost spare confrontation with. It's everything we were warned about, it's everything we are facing today.

The emptiness and helplessness, the total lack of autonomy.

 " Ignoring isn't the same as ignorance." Atwood wrote. 

And in that moment of enlightenment if one can have it while reading this, the parody of freedom that we are supposedly enjoying shatters! 

Atwood's handmaid tale is the assurance that nothing changes at once. That radicalisation of an idea doesn't happen overnight. That the deep-rooted nuances, deeply cultivated problems, they don't flourish in a day! There are always signs, stories on social media, silent friends, weeping mothers, there is enough evidence of mutilation and corpses in ditches. 

But they are not believable, awful, wrong, enough to keep us awake at night but not believable. 

Her testament is the proof that we live between those stories. Her Gilead is the monstrous prophecy that needs to be wrong, for our sake at least!

THE ROBBER BRIDE :

Atwood's Robber bride teaches the importance of adjectives. A lot of society's prescribed adjectives for women aren't Atwood's favourite. Innocent is not one of them. Neither is pure. Nor perfect. In her world women are allowed to fall, they are given free hand to explore the darkest inside of them, to dig deeper into emotions they are denied off. To be the witch, the evil stepmother, the wretcher, the seller. 

When she writes, especially a female character, it isn't portrayed as weak, it's never under any obligation to do anything. She never opposes an opinion and that's commendable. Her villains, they just are. There are no reasons for them, no redemptions. And they aren't seeking any salvation any acceptance. The beauty is they aren't rejected out. 

Atwood's villains are humans. Especially the women! Because evil can lurk in the heart of a woman. And it can be contagious for those around. She can use love to bend a man's will, hatred to make him retreat and revenge to burn everything to the ground! 

Her Robber Bride is everything we are taught not to be. In her subtlety, you'll hear the opening doors to absolute deliverance. Between the lines, you'll learn what you were never taught. All the deeds labelled as sins and all the liberties hid under the cover of compromise, she uncovers through 4 very different yet alike women. Because being a woman is never being apologetic. She pens the greed we breed in ourselves, too scared to voice. She writes about the fruits we are denied. She jots down the hunger we can't satisfy and the thirst we are not allowed to quench. Her Robber bride is all that we can't be without repercussions. 

Atwood's books are a comfort. They are a refuge we can seek shelter in. A house, willing to accept us at times when even we are not...