FEATURE
A Classic of Dystopian Literature: 40 Years of The Handmaid’s Tale
by Anthony Aycock
 The year was 1985. Gas was $1.09 a gallon. A new house averaged $89,000, a new car cost $9,000, and a stamp was 22 cents. President Ronald Reagan began his second term, while the Soviet Union got a new leader: Mikhail Gorbachev. The wreck of the Titanic was discovered. Back to the Future made its debut, as did Calvin and Hobbes, WrestleMania, and the Nintendo NES. Coca-Cola changed its 99-year-old formula and launched New Coke, which it scrapped 3 months later.
Many other things happened, but I’ll mention one more: Margaret Atwood, a Canadian writer, released The Handmaid’s Tale. This novel of an alternate America in which a repressive right-wing regime overthrows the government to establish a new nation, Gilead, won the 1985 Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and the 1987 Arthur C. Clarke Award, and it was nominated for the Booker Prize. It was adapted into a 1990 movie, a 2000 opera, and, in 2017, a Hulu TV series starring Elisabeth Moss, which has won numerous awards, including 15 Emmys.
This spring, the show is scheduled to release its sixth and final season, making this the perfect opportunity to look back at the novel, which has often been banned or challenged due to its “profanity” and its “vulgarity and sexual overtones,” according to the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom. We’ll also look at some sites with high-quality resources about book banning.
THE NOVEL AND THE SHOW
'The Handmaid’s Tale Explained in 10 Minutes'
youtube.com/watch?v=acn8d6F_IgU
If you have no idea what The Handmaid’s Tale is about, “The Handmaid’s Tale Explained in 10 Minutes,” a YouTube video by Visual Book Summaries, offers an excellent description. There are many such video summaries, but this one is the best. Rather than showing clips or stills from the Hulu series, what accompanies the narration are hauntingly beautiful comic-book-style illustrations. Also, unlike other YouTube channels, it correctly pronounces “Gilead,” with a hard “g” as in “golf,” not a soft one as in “giraffe.” (I’m looking at you, 8 Minute Masterpieces.)
Geography of Gilead
the-handmaids-tale.fandom.com/wiki/Geography_of_Gilead
Perhaps you’re assuming that “overthrow” is an exaggeration for what the Sons of Jacob—i.e., the Gilead rebels—did to America. Maybe you’re picturing a few skirmishes with the rebels taking control of, say, one or two midsize Southern cities. In fact, the rebellion began in Boston and came to encompass all but Alaska, Hawaii, and parts of the periphery of the continental U.S. The Geography of Gilead page from The Handmaid’s Tale Wiki: Blessed Be the Fight elaborates, basing its discussion not on fan theories but on a map that appeared in a Season Two episode.
‘The Handmaid’s Tale—What’s Come True and What Hasn’t (Yet)’
youtube.com/watch?v=7YSNT_OOETw
In interviews, Atwood has said that she didn’t intend The Handmaid’s Tale to be a work of prognostication but a commentary on what was happening in the ’80s. Of course, those concerns seem to have grown more severe 40 years later. The Take’s “The Handmaid’s Tale—What’s Come True and What Hasn’t (Yet)” on YouTube highlights specific plot points that are now all too real, such as forced reproduction, fertility crises, LGBTQ+ oppression, censorship, the storming of the Capitol, and the celebration of the tradwife.
‘A Political Analysis of The Handmaid’s Tale’
youtube.com/watch?v=VHXfez1jlEI
In the world of The Handmaid’s Tale, environmental pollution has caused female fertility to plummet. To combat this, the founders of Gilead have forced fertile women to become “handmaids”: domestic servants forced into impregnation by the ruling men. Women are not allowed to read, vote, or own property, just as they could not do for much of world history. YouTuber Humanities With McGregor—a philosophy educator—delves more deeply into the feminist messaging behind this state of events in “A Political Analysis of The Handmaid’s Tale.”
'The Handmaid’s Tale: Book vs. Show'
audible.com/blog/article-the-handmaids-tale-book-vs-show
Season One of the show was a fairly faithful adaptation of Atwood’s novel, with later seasons surpassing the book’s narrative a la Game of Thrones . A post on the Audible blog, “The Handmaid’s Tale: Book vs. Show,” discusses the differences between the two, focusing not just on story details—some names are changed, and some events are omitted or added—but also on that gap in years until 2017 and beyond. For instance, characters in the show use smartphones and the internet, technologies that didn’t exist in 1985. Moreover, in the book, all of the characters seem to be white, while the show uses several non-white actors for key roles.
‘Gilead Revisited: What Went Wrong With the 1990 Handmaid’s Tale Movie’
collider.com/handmaids-tale-movie-natasha-richardson-robert-duvall
Most casual Handmaid’s Tale fans, and probably a lot of hardcore ones, don’t realize that Hulu’s adaptation is not the first to appear. Thirty-five years ago, the book was made into a movie written by Harold Pinter—you know, the Nobel Prize winner—and starring Natasha Richardson, Faye Dunaway, Robert Duvall, Aidan Quinn, and Elizabeth McGovern. Impressive lineup! Unfortunately, the film bombed. Read the Collider article “Gilead Revisited: What Went Wrong with the 1990 Handmaid’s Tale Movie” to find out why.
BOOK BANS
ALA: Intellectual Freedom
ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom
All librarians know that ALA is one of America’s most stalwart opponents of censorship. But I wonder how many have done a deep dive into the Intellectual Freedom section of its website. There are more resources than you have probably imagined. Did you know, for instance, that since 2016, ALA has published the Journal of Intellectual Freedom & Privacy and that every article is free online?
 PEN America: Book Bans
pen.org/book-bans
Founded in 1922, PEN America is one of the country’s leading author organizations, comprising a community of 4,500 novelists, journalists, nonfiction writers, editors, poets, essayists, playwrights, publishers, translators, agents, and other writing professionals, according to its About page. Such an organization naturally takes an interest in book bans. Check out the reports, interactive maps, and other resources in its site’s excellent Book Bans section.
EveryLibrary: Legislation of Concern in 2025
www.everylibrary.org/billtracking
EveryLibrary takes action, helping public, school, and college libraries become savvy political operators that get results at ballot boxes and inside boardrooms. Most useful on this site is its Legislation of Concern in 2025 section, which tracks state-level bills that weaken libraries or promote censorship.
Free Speech Center: The First Amendment Encyclopedia
firstamendment.mtsu.edu/encyclopedia
The First Amendment Encyclopedia, a project of the Free Speech Center, which is housed at Middle Tennessee State University, is one of the most comprehensive sites (1,700 articles and growing) devoted to censorship, book bans, and other First Amendment issues.
ATWOOD AND CENSORSHIP
Archival interview with Margaret Atwood
youtube.com/shorts/mT-S5GXJ42c
A YouTube Shorts video from the Old Toronto Series features Atwood talking about The Handmaid’s Tale and its relevance to U.S. politics. The interview is from 1986, only a year after the book came out.
'Why Was The Handmaid’s Tale Banned?'
cbr.com/why-was-the-handmaids-tale-banned
Texas, Florida, and Oregon are some of the states that have banned The Handmaid’s Tale. The book has also been challenged in Portugal, Spain, and Atwood’s native Canada. In Iran, translations were altered to keep the idea out of “women’s heads that they would be rewarded for activism.” Read “Why Was The Handmaid’s Tale Banned?” from CBR to find out more.
'Go Ahead and Ban My Book'
tinyurl.com/39kpsmkh
Attacks on The Handmaid’s Tale are not a new phenomenon. They’ve been going on practically since the ink dried on the very first copy. Atwood has pushed back here and there over the years, and in 2023, she dismantled her critics with an essay in The Atlantic titled “Go Ahead and Ban My Book” (a subscription may be required). It’s one of the best attempts at trolling the trolls I’ve ever read.
'Margaret Atwood Tried—And Failed—To Burn a Copy of The Handmaid’s Tale. Here’s Why'
tinyurl.com/bd566fna
While the Smithsonian Magazine headline “Margaret Atwood Tried—And Failed—To Burn a Copy of The Handmaid’s Tale” tries to make you think that Atwood, in an if-you-can’t-beat-’em-join-’em maneuver, decided to attack her own book, that’s not what happened. The copy in question was a special fireproof edition made from Cinefoil, a material that can withstand temperatures up to 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit. The book sold at auction for $130,000, but not before Atwood herself took a flamethrower to it. Penguin Random House has the video, titled “The Unburnable Book,” on its YouTube channel.
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