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Abstract: "Gilead is within you," proclaims Aunt Lydia, the disciplinarian who oversees the handmaids in Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. This internalization of Gilead's indoctrination seems ominous enough. There is, however, something more dire to the statement "Gilead is within you," something pointing to an insidious political mythos that underlies American culture. This would be what Sacvan Bercovitch defines as the American Jeremiad. The emergence of the American jeremiad in The Handmaid's Tale not only reveals how the Sons of Jacob conquered America, but why they felt it their divine right. It further will show why other members of Gilead (Handmaids, Marthas, and Wives) gradually succumb to Gilead's toxic ideology despite their subjugation. The jeremiadic call for sacrifice echoes in Offred's statement that "this is what I chose,"- thus revising her position as subjugated to sacrificial (Atwood 94). Covenantal promise appears in Serena's desperate need to produce something valuable and be rewarded for her labors-she knits Angels' Scarves, buys Soul Scrolls, and grows flowers, attempting to earn Gilead's favor. Aunt Lydia preaches the cultivation of "poverty of spirit" (Atwood 64) yet heartily contributes to a nostalgic refiguration of American capitalism. The American jeremiad leaves no Gileadean, and no citizen of the United States, untouched. Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale depicts a horrifying future that demonstrates the fatal outcome of an unchecked American spirit born from the American jeremiad taken to an ultimate, destructive end.
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Dystopian literature unnerves readers using methods other than the jump-scares, gore-ish scenes, and supernatural phenomena often seen in horror; it sells something far more terrifying-a future complexly intertwined with an irreversible past and an ever-changing present. Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale shocks readers because the portrait she paints closely resembles a uniquely American past and an increasingly desolate American present. Since its publication, The Handmaid's Tale has received critical attention because of its contemporary resonance. Atwood wants critics and readers to connect their present society to Gilead's and finish the text both alarmed and reflective, recognizing that the text in many ways "convict[s] us all" (Weiss 137). The recent resurgence in the popularity of The Handmaid's reveals the potency of the text's dystopic warnings with modern readers. The source of this increased resonance, however, remains unclear.
The Handmaid's Tale can...