In the “Handmaid’s Tale” the author Margaret Atwood in her introduction she talks about what inspired her writing as well as her surroundings, and the world around her such as events and situations happening when she was writing, as the setting around her influenced her writing and story. “One of my rules was that I not put any events into the book that not had already happened.” (Atwood XIV) showing that depending on the situations around her the situations and events within her narrative would also change as well. The second epigraph is based off on Ireland’s lack of food and famine with a larger population than they could feed at the time. It has a line that suggests that children be raised like livestock and be sold and cannibalized to combat the shortage of food. Although the line is mostly said in jest the situation itself does present what is said as a probable solution. This gives hints that the novel itself while extremely dark sarcasm is used it should be seen as more than simple dark humor. In the novel the entire world is portrayed as a difficult one for its inhabitants however handmaids are mostly portrayed as having the most difficult jobs from working as sex slaves and prostitutes as well as care takers or babysitters. They would suffer both mental and physical abuse from other parties. While the other roles as well feel pressure they don’t appear to have the same level of suffering or abuse given to those who fall into the roles of handmaids. While there is a distinctly more difficult and harsher role within the story it is much harder to find what would be called the “easiest” as they all fall under pressure and abuse one way or another albeit far less than those who are handmaids.
