The Handmaid’s Tale Television Adaptation Sparks Interest in Academy’s Upperclassmen
May 9, 2017
To current freshman and sophomores, The Handmaid’s Tale is merely a TV show featuring Elisabeth Moss and Alexis Bledel, but to Juniors and Seniors, this TV show is turning a summer reading book that they critically analyzed junior year into a lively motion picture. Canadian author, Margaret Atwood, wrote the dystopian novel in 1985 to emphasize and draw awareness to the subjugation of women. The story took place in a fictional Republic of Gilead where a military dictatorship was in power taking away women’s rights and building a system that revolved around reproduction. The story follows the story of Offred, the narrator played by Elisabeth Moss who is striped from her husband and daughter and forced to work on bearing a child for a Commander and his wife.
Junior Macie McConnie said, “I remember having to annotated The Handmaid’s Tale and analyzing it in AP Lang. I don’t plan on watching the TV show due to reviews I have heard of the picture interpretation.”
Junior Elena Schillinger said, “I am excited to see it because I want to know how they turned a book into a TV show without changing too much because they will have to add things to make the episodes longer but hopefully the storyline won’t stray too far from the actual book.”
The book’s adaptation featured on HULU, has sparked a lot of awareness for the oppression of women and has even influenced the building of Handmaid’s Tale inspired art installation created by Paula Scher. The Public Art Installation at the Highline in New York distributes copies of Margaret Atwood’s novel free of cost.
Junior Nina Alberdi said, “The first five or so minutes of the first episode were really chilling but once the story line started I was very disappointed with how they interpreted, portrayed and narrated the book.”
Critic reviews have generally been positive, mainly focusing on the social construct and idea that the show confronts rather than commenting on the slow pace and first person narration of the show that obscures the quality of the of the show.
Although the TV show has good and empowering intentions, the interpretation differs from the book causing confusion and disappointment within the novel’s fans.