After reading “The Historical Notes” or The Handmaid’s Tale, I gave the society of Gilead a second look. I mainly focused on the justification of the horrendous acts that took place in the society. After learning that birthrates were dropping due to things like abortions sexually transmitted diseases, it would make sense for the government to do something. However, the way they went about things I do not view this as justifiable or the correct way to fix society. I think it was smart to try to influence or persuade the “clean” women to reproduce but just because one’s society is not reproducing does not give them right for a full out rape scene with no consequences. I believe that Gilead was in suffering through desperate times and as the saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures. However, how far is too far is my question.
If society wants to change who draws the line of that change being “too far?” Better yet, what even is “too far?” At one point, somebody has to step in and say enough is enough but as history shows, that rarely happens in cases such as Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein. What those people did as well as the society of Gilead is use religion as a weapon. Me being a religious man, I firmly believe that the state should always remain separated from the Church or any religion as a matter of fact. One reason and the most basic is that nobody truly knows what religion is right and what religion is wrong, all one has is their faith. So who gives those people the right to shove a religion down a population of people’s throats and tell them this is right. Better yet, Gilead picked apart the Bible and twisted and used passages that could be used to further prove their points and goals. Not only in the historical context but throughout the entire story are examples and passages from the Bible involving women and reproduction. The Commanders and society as a whole all took those passages literally and made them sound like they were advocating for their beliefs.
molnarja 