Atwood's Targets

• The Handmaid's Tale works as a Satire, where Atwood explores and brings attention to the violent recent past of the time (THT was published in 1986).
• Atwood explores social trends, human nature, and interaction with each other.
• Atwood draws from many regimes, looking at how civilised society can turn brutal and how ordinary life can be horrifically changed.
• In 1995, the massacre of Bosnian Muslims by Serbs at Srebrenica in the former Yugoslavia shows Atwood's awareness of this.
• THT is a satire, the reader must acknowledge that Atwood is making demands from them.
• THT asks us to reflect on social attitudes and the way we view and treat others.
• THT sometimes shows both sides of the issue, Gilead’s repressive way but also the questionable areas of our personal freedom.