THE HANDMAID'S TALE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. This novel is often associated with abortion-related issues, but is the novel more focused on the way women's bodies are regulated sexually through social conventions?

2. While sexual control of women is clearly the centerpiece of the oppression of women in the novel, what other forces before the collapse of the old society, during the collapse, and then in the present that Offred lives through constrain women?

3. Offred is present both in the past and in the present in complex ways. How has her life always been regulated because of her gender?

4. How have the social changes under the new political system affected men?

5. What does the novel suggest about relationships between women?

6. How does the historical note affect your view of the issues the novel presents?