Handmaid's Tale controversy

If you haven't been following this story about Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale,  do check it out.

This book has been a part of school curriculum at least since I was in high school nearly 20 (gulp) years ago. Do you remember it?

A parent has filed a complaint saying the book "is rife with brutality..." towards women and sometimes men.

Should the TDSB even be reviewing books? How do you feel about a potential book-banning? Where should the TDSB and other boards draw the line if they are going to start removing established literature from the curriculum because of the subject matter?

Share your thoughts and observations about this issue and your memories about studying The Handmaid's Tale by commenting on this blog or the story.

Comments

[Helen Tsamis]

I am appauled at the school system for even considering this individual's complaints. The Handmaids Tale is a masterpiece of work, I remember studying it in grade 12, and all the students being interested and engaged by it. It was the one book that the whole class actually read. I beleive there are more important stuff in the world, like killing innocent civilians, to worry about. Does this man allow his children to watch television or even walk outside?, there are far more stuff that depict "brutality" on television and on the outside world.

[Matthew Nichols]

Perhaps we should have high school students reading Barney the Purple Dinosaur and teach them that the world is a happy, loving place where everyone gets along.

Do we really need to be censoring what 17 year olds are reading? Atwood is a world-renowned author.

[Pynal]

I can think of another book that is "rife with brutality towards and mistreatment of women (and men at times), sexual scenes, and bleak depression".

It's called the bible.

[lindsay]

you all missed the point - .....

i remember readign this book in high school 10 years ago and thinking - how quickly women could be put in this situation. turn off our access to money - shut down our bank cards and what would we do.

people in the class said that could never ever happen - women woudl never be denied education, and woudl never be forced to cover them saleves in public and not be allowed out with out an escort.

TALIBAN - AFGANISTAN

it happened - it happened fast and no one could stop it - not even the mightly USA.

you have to let people read - these books - it made me not take my rights for granted and make sure to watch when others are trying to take them away.

[ljcampbell]

This novel is not for the faint of heart, if you are a man. When I first read it, around the time of the Montreal university attacks, I was already feeling deeply resentful of the hatred-of-males, collective-male-guilt being foisted around, and there is little question the book expresses attitudes about men, among other groups, that are inflammatory, denigrating and downright hateful.

But, there isn't anything wrong with that. Because the book absolutely infuriated me doesn't mean it isn't a good or worthwhile book. The fact that it engaged me so strongly speaks to its powerful voice. And it is a voice that expresses very eloquently a pefectly legitimate viewpoint.

And I have no issue with it being presented to a Grade 12 age group. I think that is precisely the age that students need to be challenged, and how their parents feel about the book is not particularly relevant. There isn't any question about its cultural or artistic merit. As to the message, let the kids get out of it what they will. "We don't need no thought control", thank you very much.

[livefromthegrassyknoll@gmail.com]

Puh-leeze...

Again with the censorship?

There's always some hysterical parent thinking he/she knows what's best for everyone.

[michael]

I'm sorry but what I find the most ridiculous thing about this article is that the kid is then assigned to read Brave New World. Personally, I think the kid lucky because I thought Brave New World a better book, but that book should be just as offensive on the grounds of the father's complaint: the expected promiscuity, the anti-family mantra, eugenics, the caste system and the generally de-valued view of human life.
When I was in school I was assigned 1984 which I thought was better than both of these books. Why did the inferior A Handmaid's Tale replace that classic?

[Allison]

jathome1 - "Mr. Edwards is correct about one thing: hypocrisy is rampant in our schools. "No swearing, but in literature it's all right."

That's not hypocrisy, they are totally different situations. To use a cliched example, I would not want my kids running around saying "ni**er". But I would want them to read "Huckleberry Finn", where the word appears many times. Should we throw that book's message of basic human dignity and freedom out with the linguistic bathwater?

Anyway, I strongly suspect this parent's specific issue is the negative portrayal of the Christian religion in the novel:

"He said if the book was anti-Islam, it wouldn't be allowed."

It's easy to make claims like that, but until that situation arises, they are simply spurious hand-waving.

[tim]

I agree the left wing rabble should not be allowed to dictate what our children read. Thankfully my parents sent me to a private Christian school. In our English class we got to read Brave New World, 1984 and a Handmaid's Tail. All books that expound the value of freedom in the face of a totalitarian state.

[Manda]

I agree with Alison entirely.

If we were to apply the student code of conduct to the literature or artwork that was appropriate to present in a classroom, Shakespeare wouldn't make the cut by a long shot. Romeo and Juliet opens with a few frat boys making jokes about raping and decapitating women... Some of the most famous pieces of visual art in the world wouldn’t be acceptable by the student code of conduct.

Whether or not the book is any good isn't really the question. It certainly must be admitted that it is generally accepted as being a very successful piece of art by the academia and it does generate engaging and valuable discussion.

Although I must applaud the father for expressing an interest in what his son is reading, this is very obtuse argument for an adult to try to make. It smacks of having read something he disagreed with, and then trying to justify why it ought to be unacceptable.

[jane]

There are far rougher things in the Bible- Lot offering his own daughters for townspeople to rape, Abraham prepared to kill his own son, etc....

[Rana]

Why are we becoming so narrow-minded?Literature is the medium by which society explores itself,and one can see that the real objection seems to based on the assumption that it's anti-christian.We have to stay alert towards this spread of fundamentalist thinking and I'd urge TDSB to stand firm and support the book selection.It's done a fine job promoting thought and discussion amongst young people who need to be well prepared-it's a tough world out there.

[wcullen]

The novel, lightly veiled, speaks to the economic and fiscal restraints of the 1980's and social conservatism. Like most of the great dystopian novels--Brave New World, 1984--the dangers of present day ignorance ae revealed illustrating that such benign concerns are not so benign.

What is perhaps most concerning is the ignorance Mr. Edwards displays in the (not-so-deep) subtext of the novel. Atwood's brilliance hinges on the fact that Orwell and Huxley wrote their dystopian worlds singularly from the perspective of men. Therefore, Mr. Edwards is doubly: ignorant of the fact that his concerns are the problem not the solution and, secondly, that he speaks out of concern of the novel's brutality against when Atwood has already done so more elegantly, subtly, and certainly from a more informed position in The Handmaid's Tale itself.

Mr. Edwards, I hope you take a moment to realise what road you walk upon in your ignorance...one of them leads to Giliead...

[Vronvron]

Pynal

I had a similar experience when the movie based on The Handmaid's Tale came out in 1990. I was discussing the book and the novel with a female friend who said that what happens in the movie/novel could not happen in real life. My reaction was to comment: If men ever find a way to make women stay in the home and have babies men will do so.

Irony: When I was 17, the library in the Catholic high school I was attending did not have a copy of Brave New World and when I commented on this, the librarian discouraged me from reading it. I found a copy of Brave New World in the public library.
Now Edwards' son is reading Brave New World instead of The Handmaid's Tale! I hope that Edwards complaint sends every high school student to the library or to a bookstore to borrow or buy the book to find out what the fuss is all about.

[Sylvie]

Gee, I thought people had gotten over banning books by now. You know, ever since To Kill a Mockingbird became not so scandalous. I'm disapointed to see this... I read this last year, in 11th grade and it was definitely one of the best books I've read at school.

Geez, the kid's 17. If I had to walk out of the class everytime the class discussed The Handmaid's Tale because my father sent a complaint, I'd be beyond embarassed. What did the father do when his kids came face to face with sex ed. Lie about what a condom really is and forbid them to take the class? At 17, you can pretty decide what's right and wrong by yourself. And reading "bastard" in a book won't change your life. It's not like you've never heard it before. You can read the book with an objective point of view and develop your own opinion... It's not like Atwood is showing this society as a positive one. She's not encouraging discrimination agains women! For heaven's sake! Read between the lines.

And the fact that the kid'll be missing the discussion is the worst of all. He'll have read the entire blasphemous work but won't have the opportunity to discover what's behind it all with the help of his teacher.

Unfortunately, my mom is just like that man, but she doesn't have the guts to go tell someone it's not appropriate for me. Besides, I'd sneak read it if I had to. It's what I did with The Da Vinci Code.

Point is: This guy is pissing me off.

Margaret Atwood is by far my favorite Canadian author.

[natalie kong]

As a grade 11 student who just finished reading another one of Atwood's books (Alias Grace), I feel that this complaint really stereotypes all teens as being easily corrupted - we don't know wrong from right, etc. And sometimes I feel that this is the reason why some teens might not open up to adults - please stop treating us like little kids and you can't censor everything bad from us forever or protect us from reality forever.

Atwood wrote the book so that we can read it and discover the question that the book is trying to ask us. This question is also what the teacher helps us discover. The book isn't giving us an answer but rather making us discuss and share our opinions. This is what our parents should be guiding us through so as to make sure we aren't distorting our opinions into some form of hatred (e.g. all men are -insert book's sterotype here-)
This sort of process is what helps grow as individuals.

Also, religion will always always be criticized. And not only religion either. I believe that our job is not to turn a blind eye to all these criticisms (that's such a childish thing to do) but to accept them or at least acknowledge them to better ourselves. This is what humanity is about.

I apologize if I may have regressed from the intended topic but since this complaint has a lot to do with censorship, I really suggest that you read Salman Rushdie's essay titled "Is Nothing Sacred?"

[Heather]

I find this complaint it a little absurd. I could see parents not wanting their elementary school children reading such a novel; however, by grade 12 kids need to be exposed to the real world, otherwise how will they ever deal with it on their own? By grade 12, a literature course should be filled with controversial books that will make you think, question. Besides, what parents don't understand is that their children are exposed to such things anyway. If they don't read it in class they'll hear it from their friends or see it in the cinema. It's perfectly natural for parents to want to shelter their children; however, I don't see how there is anything in the Handmaid's Tale that a 12th grade student wouldn't already have been exposed to, in some form or another.

[AJC]

I thought book banning was a -80's/90's in the USA- thing. Books that really need to be read, from Go Ask Alice to The Diary of Anne Frank, have been targeted. The Handmaid's tale got me hooked on Peggy's style of writing, and as a Christian and a man I was unnerved by nothing in this book. I really enjoyed it.

What does bother me is cases I have heard of where teachers are giving in to parents' demands. I am not critisizing profs - most are worth their weight in gold - but if I were a teacher I would never let a misguided individual control my classroom. I think if a parent didn't want his child reading a book I assigned, I would send a letter explaining the reason I did so (accountability is not a bad thing) but that the child would lose marks that were set aside for that book if they didn't read it. Sounds tough, but people who don't understand about freedom of ideas and exposing students to different ways of thought can do some serious damage if they are allowed to.

Plus, that poor kid is probably humiliated by the whole thing. I read about a girl who had to walk around school with certain pages of Soul On Ice taped up because her dad thought some of it was pornographic. Good grief!!

[Tammy MacKenzie]

At 17 a person may give permission for surgery, drive a car, have sex... And they need to be protected from a book??? They've already seen and heard worse on the evening news! Censorship only leads to the kind of restrictive attitudes this book portrays (in one form).

[Margie Simon]

My daughter attends private Catholic all girls school. This book is part of the English curriculum. I read it with her. I used it as a teaching opportunity to talk to her about freedom of religion, and individual rights, and what can happen when fundementalism takes over. It was a strange novel, but a good teaching tool.

[Louis Kesur]

The Offense taken concerning the Handmaids Tale is pointless and seems as if they are trying to filter what young adults read. the language in the novel is realistic and a few swear words here and there aren't going to affect teenagers seeing as teenagers already abuse these words everyday. The themes in the novel are said to be too strong and innappropriate for High school students and is Anti Christian, but just get out any MA15+ film and it is just as bad or worse than This book, and students as young as 15 can view these novels

[Ruowen Wang]

This story has nothing to do with the Handmaids Tale, but will show you how school boards shy away from books with least controversial content: http://www.insidetoronto.ca/article/71443.

[Judy]

Students have access to media reports about the extent of human brutality. Do we remove television, the internet, newspapers, radio, and periodicals from our children's lives? Do we believe that senior students do not already know that female children are raped during wars, very young boys are forced to become soldiers, and war atrocities are still being committed on a daily basis? Do we believe that senior students do not know about genocide in their lifetime? Do we believe that Atwood's novel is any more horrifying than information contained in global history course textbooks? Is Atwood's dystopia more brutal than life under Ceausescu, Amin, or Pol Pot?

If Atwood's book is removed, what will be the next target?