e them, carry them to their furthest logical conclusions.” (Atwood 318)Atwood says the movement was a strong part of her life. She didn’t voice loudly with one particular group, but with many of them. She describes the society in the novel as a “throwback to the early Puritans whom [she] studied extensively at Harvard under Perry Miller, to whom the book is dedicated.” (Atwood 318) The early Puritans came to America to set up a society that would be a theocracy, like Iran, ruled by religious leaders. They came from England where they were being persecuted for being Puritans, to America where the persecuted anyone who wasn’t Puritan. The book ties in personal beliefs with carefully studied historical events to create a mysterious dystopia based on social changes. Atwood weaves many elements into the novel: hatred of feminism, religious bigotry, racism, contempt towards older women, environmental destruction, and religious patriarchal control of women's bodies are part of the background of the novel. So many things were going on in the tiome that she wrote this the height of the Reagan , Thatcher, western conservative years, the Moral Majority in ascendance; the general resurgence in American religious fundamentalism; and the U.S. Supreme Court just begining to turn rightward -- obviously impacted Atwood greatly. ...
