Critics' Reactions to The Handmaid's Tale This essay will focus strictly on critics' reactions to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. For the most part, we found two distinct opinions about The Handmaid's Tale, regarding feminism. Some people think it is a feminist novel, while others think it is not. Feminism: doctrine advocating social, political and economic rights for women equal to those of men, as recorded in Webster's dictionary. This topic is prevalent in the novel The Handmaid's Tale. Margaret Atwood, a Canadian writer, spends most of her time profiling women in her books, novels and poetry that examine their relationships in society. In the book, Atwood centers her novel around a girl who happens to be one of the handmaids. These servants are essentially women used to give birth to babies. According to Atwood in one of her many interviews, “Women were inherently good and men evil; to divide along lines of allegiance, i.e. women who wore high heels and makeup were immediately suspect, those in overalls were acceptable” (Problems of). These ideas were and have been created by our social and political system and cannot be corrected until these systems are reformed. The feminist ideas expressed in this novel are necessary. Furthermore, these women not only exist in the novel but women like this exist in real life. Women are treated as property and not as human beings. Their one and only purpose in life is to have children. The dystopian novel she created isolates certain social trends and exaggerates them to highlight their most negative qualities. Pornography is a big factor in The Handmaid's Tale. This becomes clear in chapter twenty where Offred describes the films that Aunt Lydia showed her and the other handmaids during their stay at the Red Center. This type of film was used to show the future servant “what life was like” (Atwood 118). Atwood used Offred to express her ideas about pornography. Atwood clearly doesn't like that. But, in another sense, she points out the fact that Aunt Lydia was lying to Offred and the others that this was the way life was. Atwood never overlooks the fact that women have been misrepresented, both by themselves and by men. She takes care to go through the entire novel without blaming and leaving the questions to the reader. How did this company get here? Could this really happen? Are we doing anything to prevent it? In the novel, there is no real strong force. Especially no dominant male or female role, which makes it difficult to decide who is to blame. Feminism is clear throughout the book and Atwood represents women very well. Many readers have questioned the novel's character as feminist criticism. The Handmaid's Tale offers a conservative interpretation of women's ideal social actions, advocating what resembles traditional femininity more than revolutionary feminism. Atwood's main character, Offred, dreams of being free. But Offred's vision of freedom is very unfeminist. For example, at the beginning of The Handmaid's Tale, Offred dreams of things that she is sometimes allowed to do, such as helping to bake bread. “Or I would help Rita make the bread, plunging my hands into that soft, resilient heat that looks so much like flesh” (11). Offred wants to experience touch, but why must Atwood display this need in such a domestic manner? For me, making bread is the quintessence..