The Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Atwood
Published in Canada in 1985, this work of speculative fiction set in New England has won multiple awards, including the 1986 Booker Prize.
Major thematic elements: the subjugation of women in a patriarchal society, loss of individuality, and the ways in which women fight back against the restrictions put upon them.
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IB Literature and IB Language and Literature Connections
Place of publication: Canada
Language: English
Era: 20th Century
Genre: Fiction
Author: Female
Readers, writers and texts | Time and space | Intertextuality: Connecting texts
Identity | Culture | Creativity | Communication
Perspective | Transformation | Representation
Full text, basic summaries, and overviews
Full text PDFs of The Handmaid’s Tale are findable via Google. We haven’t posted them here because it’s not clear that the people or organizations who have published the full text have the rights to do so. All extracts posted here are from credible sources.
The Handmaid’s Tale | Margaret Atwood | Google Books
At the top of the screen is a search bar. Viewers can search for words or phrases and Google Books will pull up extracts with that word or phrase.
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Excerpt from The Handmaid’s Tale | Margaret Atwood | Penguin Random House Canada
Full text of chapters 1 and 2 and part of chapter 3
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The Handmaid’s Tale | Hulu | TV Series
Link to Hulu, the producer of the TV series The Handmaid’s Tale. Season 1 follows many, but not all, of the major plot points of the novel. Additional perspectives and storylines are present in the TV series that are not present in the text.
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The Handmaid’s Tale | Wikipedia
Overview of novel, including plot, characters, setting, reception, awards, and presence in other media
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The Handmaid’s Tale | Study Guide | Course Hero
Site includes overview of novel, chapter summaries, quotes, symbols, themes, discussion questions, and more.
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The Handmaid’s Tale | SparkNotes
Site includes overview of novel, literary devices, questions & answers, quick quizzes, and more.
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About the author
Margaret Atwood’s Website
Personal website of Margaret Atwood: upcoming events, FAQs, and more.
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Margaret Atwood | Wikipedia
Includes early life and education, personal life, career, recurring themes and cultural contexts, activism, adaptations of her work, awards and honors, and a list of published work.
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Margaret Atwood | Poetry Foundation
Biography and links to poetry collections and individual poems.
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Margaret Atwood: The Prophet of Dystopia | The New Yorker | Rebecca Mead | April 10, 2017
Of particular interest in this profile: Atwood looking back on her early drafts of and research for The Handmaid’s Tale
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Margaret Atwood on What ‘The Handmaid's Tale’ Means in the Age of Trump | The New York Times | Margaret Atwood | March 10, 2017
Essay written by Margaret Atwood. Includes description of her early drafting and brainstorming of The Handmaid’s Tale and the way the novel connects to modern-day life in America.
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Articles, essays, and videos about The Handmaid’s Tale
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood: Examining its utopian, dystopian, feminist and postmodernist traditions | Angela Michelle Gulick
Masters thesis | Iowa State University | 1991
150+ page thesis that includes historical and literary contexts of the novel, feminist issues, and language in The Handmaid’s Tale
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Under His Eye: Gendered Power/Body Relationships in The Handmaid’s Tale | Senior Paper | Megan Rhyne | University of North Carolina | 2019
22 page essay which examines how “the body functions as a dystopic symbol of power, authority and control.”
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The Handmaid’s Tale vs. The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel as a Modern Reading of the Traditional Novel | Katarzyna Machala | Brno Studies in English | Volume 47, No. 1 | 2021
Essay examines how the new graphic novel of The Handmaid’s Tale connects to the original novel and explores how the new text informs the old.
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The Handmaid’s Tale, Feminism, and the Dangers of Religion: Is “The Handmaid’s Tale” pro-feminist? Is it anti-religious? | Psychology Today
David Kyle Johnson Ph. D | April 24, 2018
This essay borrows material from Dr. Johnson’s Great Courses course “Sci-Phi: Science Fiction as Philosophy,” and has the following sub-topics: Why Care About The Handmaid’s Tale?, Rejecting Intentionalism, Is The Handmaid’s Tale Feminist?, First-Wave Feminism, Second-Wave Feminism, Third-Wave Feminism, Is The Handmaid’s Tale Anti-Religious?, and Guilt by Association?
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Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood on All Things Evil | Margaret Atwood | InterviewMagazine.com | August 24, 2022
This is an interview between Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood that covers a range of topics, from what they’re writing, to true crime, to what life was like for a woman in the 60s.
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Unburnable Copy of The Handmaid’s Tale Sells for $130,000 | Book Riot | June 8, 2022
This short article reports on the sale of an unburnable copy of The Handmaid’s Tale and includes a video of Margaret Atwood trying to burn the book with a flame thrower.
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The Handmaid’s Tale Teacher Conference: Main Recording | YouTube | Amy Smith | January 8, 2022
From the video description: “A series of talks by expert English teachers on the topic of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’”
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Lesson plans and other teaching resources
The Handmaid’s Tale | PBS Learning Media
This collection includes two videos, one lesson plan, and one interactive lesson. It has the ability to be shared straight to Google Classroom.
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Language and Power in The Handmaid’s Tale and the World | ReadWriteThink | NCTE | Suzanne Linder
Two 50-minute lessons for grades 9-12, including standards and an instructional plan.
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Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale | University of Iowa General Education Literature Blog | Mieke Eerkens
Teacher blog post reflecting on the process of teaching The Handmaid’s Tale. Post includes classroom strategies, links to handouts, and a list of linked additional resources including a PowerPoint presentation and quizzes.
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The Handmaid’s Tale | Royal Holloway University of London | Department of English
This page is full of excellent resources for teaching The Handmaid’s Tale, including key points, suggested passages with discussion questions, further reading suggestions (with extracts), links to additional reading and suggestions for additional texts to be used with the unit.
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Shopping List
Texts and other resources you may find helpful.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
The Handmaid’s Tale
Paperback on Amazon.com
The Handmaid’s Tale
Graphic Novel on Amazon.com
The Testaments
Paperback on Amazon.com
Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (Reader’s Guide) by Gina Wisker
Paperback on Amazon.com
The Handmaid’s Tale Season 1 (Hulu)
Blu-ray or DVD on Amazon.com
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