Society's Tool - The Handmaid's Tale

There are so many ongoing themes that play an intricate part in really understanding this novel that it's hard to just speak on a few. To begin, it is very interesting how these women are stripped of their names, in turn stripped of their whole identity prior to the rise of this theocratic society. For all purposes, these women are just vessels to harbor the children of the powerful men, though it seems that society is matriarchal in rule. I also noticed that in taking their names, the women were given new ones. Offred could actually be read as "Of" "Fred", meaning she is the "property" of the family of Fred. I noticed the connection when the BIRTHMOBILE brought them to the house of Warren to assist in Ofwarren's (Janine) delivery. It may be a wrong interpretation of the names given. If the women, the Handmaids, are to be placed in another household would their names change as well or would they forever be known by the name given to them by their first "family"?
Because these women are stripped of their names, they are also deprived of any human contact whether intimately or through friendly gestures. There are many times when Offred longs for the touch of a man, or of anything having to do with feeling and contact with another living being. That plays into the sexuality aspect and the fact that she is not longer and autonomous being when it comes to playing out her sexual desires and fantasies. She is and will always be seen as a vessel for child bearing. A tool in producing a better society.
Reading further into the book, there is a sense of the "Women's Liberation" movement gone overboard. There are a lot of contradictions with the doctrines used to train the Handmaids. I feel the use of the Bible to "brainwash" (for lack of a better term) the women is a biased and misrepresentation of what the Bible is meant for. For instance, Chapter 15, the household gathers to hear the Commander read from the Bible. Offred goes back and reminisces about her time at the Gymnasium and how they would play verses over and over through the loudspeaker. She recalls how the Beatitudes were repeated and how some of them did not sound right to her recollection; she knew some were added in just to be drilled within their minds. In the case of this book, many verses were taken and mis-interpreted to serve the purpose of this new society. Even the story of Bilhah in the book of Genesis is used as justification for their practices. It's just amazing at how differently things can be interrupted by people and how it can have such an influence as to change the whole structure of society and base everything on religious sects rather than having political control of things.