Pregnancy In The Handmaid's Tale

Women do not have a life time to have children like men do, and after the age of thirty the peak of fertility starts to dissolve. In the time pre-Gilead finding fertile women was not such a problem. Women were often times even scrutinized for the age of which the mother was when she had a child. Offred—the main character, makes a statement about this while reminiscing about a conversation she had with her mother about people and their opinions on being an older pregnant woman saying, “When I was six months pregnant, a lot of them (friends) started sending me these articles about how the birth-defect rate went zooming up after thirty-five.—At the hospital they (nurses) wrote “Aged Primipara” on the chart, I caught them in the act. That is

Therefore, when one of the Handmaids become pregnant everyone knows about it. Once a woman is pregnant extra precautions ensure that the pregnancy goes through all the way. The pregnant Handmaid is then released of all her daily tasks to eliminate any means of a terminated pregnancy. She is not even compelled to go on her daily walk, however, one day when Offred and another Handmaid are out shopping two women walk in and Offred notices that, “One of them is vastly pregnant; her belly, under her loose garment, swells triumphantly. There is a shifting in the room , a murmur, an escape of breath; despite ourselves we turn our heads, blatantly, to see better; our fingers itch to touch her” (26). Many of the Handmaids such as Offred were once pregnant and had a family that was stripped away from them. Seeing this woman as they once existed overcomes them. The Handmaids itch to touch something that reminds them of their past. Females of all shapes, sizes, and species are protective over one thing, their offspring. If something so much as threatens their child’s wellbeing it is not going to end well. By taking away the Handmaids right to defend their children as they used to make it easier for the superiorities to control Gilead the way they want, because the Handmaids now have nothing to live for. Taking away something so precious such that of a child can cause torment in someone’s

Not only are there women (mostly shipped to the colonies) but a warrying sterility in men, especially among the powerful who ought to be reproducing themselves” (McCarthy).

Concentrating on one problem as Atwood does in her novel seems to cause more harm than good. By forcing the women into certain sectors based on their ability to have children disregards any other influence they might be able to contribute to fix the situation. The men are also placed in sectors, yet based on their rankings, not their fertility stand point. Gender bias in Atwood’s novel is present, but she does it to prove a point. Atwood wants the attention to be on the women and what they have to offer other than the ordinary circumstances were the concentration is primarily on the men.

Margaret Atwood’s descriptive writing makes sure that the audience gets the full effect of what Offred sees and feels. Atwood intensifies certain scenes such as Janine’s birth by graphically describing it such as this scene when Offred and the Handmaids are