Azar Nafisi

In her novels, Atwood gives us a subversive view of this black-and-white world, where any form of opposition is met with elimination and death, and she reveals the complications, inconsistencies, and paradoxes that even the fanatics in the absolutist states cannot wholly evade: the Guardians who want a peek at the Handmaid’s face; the Commander who uses his power and risks his position to play Scrabble with the Handmaid; the almost all-powerful Aunt who is secretly planning the destruction of Gilead. Suddenly, behind the seemingly immovable façade, there are all sorts of movements. Uncontrollable. Inevitable.

The more they dehumanize us, the more we should humanize them.

the black-and-white world of Gilead, Atwood introduces gradations of color. As readers, we hate this system that has created so much suffering, and we know that it must be destroyed. Yet when confronted with individuals within that same system, we discover that they are human like us, or that we are human like them.