Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. Toronto: McClelland-Stewart, 1985, Seal Books edition 1998 In "The Handmaid's Tale" one of the main themes is the influence of government. All areas of peoples' lives are controlled by the government, which is a totalitarian regime. The government in Gilead rules with the political concept that the citizen should be totally subject to an absolute state authority. The state in this case believes (or at least tells the people it is governing) …showed first 75 words of 1763 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1763 total…on how much people value their freedom. Change always happens and as the Commander said, "Better never means better for everyone, he says. It always means worse for some." (page 264) There are certain social trends today that the public should be aware of and not just think things will always remain the same. The Christian fundamentalist totalitarian regime found in the book is an extreme example of what could happen in the future in America.