(Text/Yang Shiyang)
Suddenly, everything changed.
Women are no longer eligible to work, no longer have the right to go out, their accounts are locked, deposits are frozen, all this comes without transition. No one is responsible for telling the reason, those men with guns only show the results to everyone. All you have to do is to obey the authority and execute orders. Any questioning and resistance are only exchanged for bullets and artillery fire. The meaningless things of quarrel and pity have long since disappeared. If violence is affirmed, who else would choose to use words? There are only two kinds of people left in this world-the obedient and the object that needs to be eliminated. All you can do is choose sides.
Everything is under duress. Facing a gunpoint and an armed, expressionless brawny, the gentle boss asked all his female employees to pack up their personal belongings in embarrassment and helplessness. The women hid at home with their best friends and the equally overwhelmed husband secretly. Discussing what was happening outside the window, they cautiously looked out from the gap between the screens of the window. The street was full of chaos. The road was full of glass shards and bomb remains, as well as a corpse and people who were being dragged. All this is beyond experience, and all people can do is pray. Then, something worse happened.
This is the beginning of "The Handmaid's Tale". This American drama is adapted from the novel of the same name by the famous Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. Usually, it is classified as a "science fiction" type-after all, the story takes place in a fictitious future, everything seems absurd, it seems that it will never happen. But obviously, this story is not science fiction at all. To some extent, it is more like a branch of realism—a kind of "alert realism" in which the writer expresses deep anxiety and introspection about the real world. In some civilizations, everything in "The Handmaid's Tale" is actually happening. The form may change slightly, but the essence is completely the same. In that case, can you still say that this story is a kind of "fantasy"?
"The Handmaid's Tale" tells an extreme situation, the future world, due to pollution and other reasons, the fertility rate drops sharply. After the violent revolution, some areas of the United States have entered a completely revolutionary state of military control. People are divided into three, six or nine classes. Leaders and their wives occupy the top of social resources. In addition to having a maid who does chores and housework, there is also a "handmaid" whose purpose is to be full-time. give birth to. They are imprisoned in magnificent mansions all day long. Going out shopping requires two people to go together and supervise each other. They are surrounded by eyeliners, but you don't know who the eyeliner is. There will be a "ritual" during the monthly ovulation period. They lie on their backs between the mistress's legs and have sex with the noble man. Some people claim that the maid and the mistress become one at that moment. The birth of a child is a rescue for the maid. If they fail to conceive repeatedly, they will be sent to a more terrifying place of delivery.
The color of this American drama made it half the success. The dark green robes of the heroines and the crimson robe of the servant girls at the bottom became the most dazzling class division marks in that world. Those robes, mansions, white hoods, admonitions, threats, and trembling expressions make the story full of true doomsday.
Obviously, this is a dystopian story with an obvious feminist tendency. Some people may think that this subject matter is a bit speculative, but this story is not only about feminism and women, it shows a larger world and a more complex psychological landscape. In it, women are just an incision, a handle, and an introduction to show the retrogression of civilization and the evil of human nature.
From a large perspective, the story is of course a confrontation between the "handmaid" and those in power. Those in power include those high-powered men, as well as their infertile wives. However, when the story is unfolded in detail, people will discover the more complicated characters hidden in the two camps and the more complicated and ambiguous inner world of each person. The leader and his wife look alike, but they secretly play chess with the maid in the study every night. The relationship between them is a taboo. Do you think the relationship between a man and a maid is just a sexual attraction? Maybe not, it's more like a social relationship between men and women on an equal footing. By the campfire, they played crosswords, joked at random, sipped a sip of wine, and secretly gave the woman a fashion magazine that had slipped through the mass destruction. Almost only at that moment, the expressions on their faces were close to normal. Human beings, all the time other than that, everyone looks tight, whether it is a woman as a slave or a man as a slave owner. This small detail explains the truth to people that only equality can bring dignity, and to characterize one part and make the other part superior to others is destined to fail to satisfy the emptiness in people's hearts. The pursuit of equal communication is also part of human instinct.
In addition to these, there are more subtle psychological states, such as the hostess, what do they feel when they see their man having a relationship with another woman? They are indoctrinated. All of this is just and necessary. That woman is not a woman at all, but an organ, but they know in their hearts that these are lies, that is, a woman, a woman like themselves, so they are contemptuous and jealous, even Some mistresses will also have some sympathy for the maid. From this perspective, the female protagonists who seem to be superior may be as pitiful as the maidservants.
There are also circumcised lesbians, low-level male laborers who are similarly objectified, some women who seem to be rebellious but are quickly tamed, and seemingly tame but ultimately sacrificed rebels...the mood of everyone There are parts that are quite different from the surface. The tough people may hide their softness, and the kind people may turn into demons at any time.
"The Handmaid’s Tale" uses a way of retracing and constantly intertwining the present. This way of writing is actually a bit dangerous. The backtracking part is too dense and it will make people bored. But, cleverly, it retraces the "past life". "In fact, it corresponds to the present, normal world in our reality, and the "now" in the story corresponds to the future in the real world. In this way, it will naturally make people feel alert and frightened. It is like a loud warning to people: Empowerment and peace take a long time and a painful price, but regression can happen at any time, and everything may be overnight.
(This article first published "Beijing Youth Daily")
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