Resource Key
LEVEL 1
brief, basic information laid out in an easy-to-read format. May use informal language. (Includes most news articles)
LEVEL 2
provides additional background information and further reading. Introduces some subject-specific language.
LEVEL 3
lengthy, detailed information. Frequently uses technical/subject-specific language. (Includes most analytical articles)
Databases
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JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Scholarly resources on JSTOR include Archival and Current Journals, Books, and Primary Sources.
Introduction
Season 1, Episode 1: ‘Offred’
Washed-out colors — moss green, dusty blue, sunlight like aged parchment — give the premiere episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale” an almost fairy tale quality. Flashbacks depict a near-future version of the United States, full of people that use cellphones and reference Uber. But that world eventually becomes Gilead, a retrograde and repressive theocratic society in which the title characters wear Amish-like bonnets. The cinematography and the blend of signifiers from different time periods make it all feel somewhat timeless. (Which is part of the point. This could be any moment in time given the history of female oppression.) But there is one color that stands out: blood red. It’s the color of the robes that “handmaids” like Offred (Elisabeth Moss) must wear as a mark of their position in this world.
Bastien, A. (2017).The Handmaids Tale Series Premiere Recap: Welcome to Gilead. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/arts/television/the-handmaids-tale-hulu-episode-1-recap.html
Episodes IMDB
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IMDB. (2019). Episode List. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5834204/episodes?season=1
Offred, one of the few fertile women known as Handmaids in the oppressive Republic of Gilead, struggles to survive as a reproductive surrogate for a powerful Commander and his resentful wife.
The Handmaid's Tale Episode 1
Miller, B. (Producer). (2017). Offred. [Television Broadcast] USA: Hulu
The Handmaid's Tale Episode 2
Miller, B. (Producer). (2017). Birth Day. [Television Broadcast] USA: Hulu
The Handmaid's Tale Characters
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Fandom. (n.d.) Handmaid. Retrieved from https://the-handmaids-tale.fandom.com/wiki/HandmaidHandmaids are a class of women in the Republic of Gilead. They are perhaps the most important - but also the most oppressed - class of women in Gilead, as they are tasked with breeding and thus supplying Gilead with more children. Fertile women who in some way break the laws of Gilead are forced to become Handmaids - otherwise, they will be sent to the Colonies, where they will almost certainly die. They are assigned to the homes of Commanders and sometimes Angels, where their task is get pregnant by the men, so as to provide them and their Wives (if she is incapable of conceiving) with a child. The novel's main protagonist, Offred, is a Handmaid, as are a few of the secondary characters
Senior Library Books
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The Handmaid's Tale
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This is the story of Offred, one of the "Handmaids" under the new social order who have only one purpose: to breed. In Gilead, where women are prohibited from holding jobs, reading, and forming friendships, Offred's persistent memories of life in the "time before" and her will to survive are acts of rebellion.
Call Number: F ATWISBN: 9780099511663Publication Date: 2010 -
The Handmaid's Tale and Philosophy
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Philosophers give their insights into the blockbuster best-selling novel and record-breaking TV series, The Handmaid's Tale. The story involves a future breakaway state in New England, beset by environmental disaster and a plummeting birth rate, in which the few remaining fertile women are conscripted to have sex and bear children to the most powerful men, all justified and rationalized by religious fundamentalism.
Call Number: 791. 457 2 HANISBN: 9780812699920Publication Date: 2018-12-04 -
The Handmaid's Tale (Graphic novel)
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Everything Handmaids wear is red: the colour of blood, which defines us. Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, where women are prohibited from holding jobs, reading, and forming friendships. She serves in the household of the Commander and his wife, and under the new social order she has only one purpose: once a month, she must lie on her back and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if they are fertile. But Offred remembers the years before Gilead, when she was an independent woman who had a job, a family, and a name of her own. Now, her memories and her will to survive are acts of rebellion. Provocative, startling, prophetic, The Handmaid's Tale has long been a global phenomenon. With this stunning graphic novel adaptation of Margaret Atwood's modern classic, beautifully realized by artist Renée Nault, the terrifying reality of Gilead has been brought to vivid life like never before.
Call Number: F ATWISBN: 9780224101936Publication Date: 2019