The Handmaids Tale

Research paper

Novel

1985 The Handmaids Tale  by  Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, first published by McClelland and Stewart in 1985. The novel, set in Cambridge, Massachusetts,[1] explores themes of women in subjugation, and the various means by which they gain agency, against a backdrop of the establishment of a totalitarian theocratic state. Sumptuary laws (essentially, dress codes) play a key role in the form of social control in the new society.
The novel is commonly assigned in college-level English courses in the United States, usually in comparison with other dystopian-themed novels. In the UK it is frequently a part of A-level syllabuses, and in Canada and the United States, it is frequently used at the Grade 12 level. It is also part of the HSC syllabus in New South Wales, Australia as well as the TEE syllabus in Western Australia. The American Library Association lists it in “10 Most Challenged Books of 1999” and as No. 37 on the “100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000” due to a high volume of complaints from parents of pupils on these courses regarding the novel’s anti-religious content and sexual references.
The Handmaid’s Tale won the first Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987. It was additionally nominated for the 1986 Nebula Award, the 1987 Prometheus Award, and the 1986 Booker Prize. 

Citation instruction

At least two books cited, at least two articles cited, and at least two electronic sources cited. Note that if your articles are taken from electronic sources such as a library database listing (the best source) the citation counts as either an article or an electronic source.  This means that if you get four articles from electronic sources, you have all you need. If you use a quote from your primary source (the novel you are talking about (-and probably you would!) and you document that, you need only something from another book to make up the required two citations.