“使女們穿的衣服都是紅色的:血的顏色，它定義了我們?！眾W弗萊德是基列共和國的使女，在那里女性被禁止從事工作、讀書和交朋友。在新的社會秩序下，她只有一個目的:每月一次，她必須仰面躺著，祈禱指揮官讓她懷孕，因為在出生率下降的時代，奧弗萊德和其他使女只有在能生育的時候才有價值。但奧弗雷德記得在吉利德之前的那些年，那時她是一個獨立的女人，有工作，有家庭，有自己的名字。她的記憶和求生意志都是反抗的表現(xiàn)。
"Everything Handmaids wear is red: the colour of blood, which defines us." Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, where women are prohibited from holding jobs, reading, and forming friendships. She serves in the household of the Commander and his wife, and under the new social order she has only one purpose: once a month, she must lie on her back and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, ecause in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if they are fertile. But Offred remembers the years before Gilead, when she was an independent woman who had a job, a family, and a name of her own. Now, her memories and her will to survive are acts of rebellion.
