Scarlet Letters: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

Shannon Hengen is an associate professor of English at Laurentian
University and the author of Margaret Atwood’s Power: Mirrors,
Reflections and Images in Select Fiction and Poetry.

The “reader” Thompson has in mind, both for this reader’s guide
and for Atwood’s novel, is a literary one. Thompson’s method is
close reading, and her style is completely accessible and jargon-free.
Into her own analyses of patterns in the text, she also weaves the
commentary of other Atwood critics, presenting a summary and analysis of
210 reviews of the novel that were published in the United States,
Canada, and elsewhere.

Each text in this ECW series contains a chronology of the fiction
writer’s life and work, an evaluation of the importance of the work
under study and its critical reception, and—the largest section—a
reading of the text. Thompson’s reading is subdivided into 12 parts,
which treat male and female characterization, plot, setting, themes, and
language (the last is especially interesting). A unifying observation
among the sections is that Atwood’s strength lies in generic blurring,
which is perhaps connected to the recurring references to Atwood as
trickster. But generally the book aims at discrete insights rather than
at a sustained central argument.

Thompson praises the novel largely on the basis of its structuring.
Perhaps more could be said about its effect on readers beyond admiration
of that aspect. Given Thompson’s acknowledgment in the book’s
opening paragraphs of Atwood’s popular appeal, it is unfortunate that
her guide speaks only to an academic audience.