The Handmaid's Tale

Because Gilead was formed in response to the crisis caused by dramatically decreased birthrates, the state's entire structure, with its religious trappings and rigid political hierarchy, is built around a single goal: control of reproduction. The state tackles the problem head-on by assuming complete control of women's bodies through their political subjugation. Women cannot vote, hold property or jobs, read, or do anything else that might allow them to become subversive or independent and thereby undermine their husbands or the state. Women are reduced to their fertility and treated as nothing more than a means of reproduction. At one point, Offred lies in the bath and thinks about how before Gilead, she considered her body an instrument of her desires; now, she is just a mound of flesh surrounding the womb that must be filled in order to make herself useful.
Because it is illegal for women to hold jobs, there is a system of titles in Gilead. Men are defined by their military rank, and women are defined by their roles as Wives, Marthas, or Handmaids. This too strips them of their individuality. Blacks and jews are also reduced to titles. They are referred to in biblical terms like “children of ham”, and “sons of Jacob”, setting them apart from the rest of society.
I know that this isn’t necessarily a close reading of the novel, but it is just something that has disturbed me at many points of the novel. It is like Gilead is this town completely ran by the government in order to serve the elite.