Editorial: Journal of Corporate Citizenship (63)

In Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, the phrase “context is all” becomes a guiding thread that summons the reader to witness what happens to the novel’s narrator and protagonist Offred and other “handmaids”, as the novel’s sociocultural context evolves. This contextual metamorphosis enables “certain casually held attitudes about women [to be] taken to their logical conclusions”. For Offred, putting things into context enables her to cope and to hope: “What I need is perspective. The illusion of depth, created by a frame, the arrangement of shapes on a flat surface. Perspective is necessary … Otherwise you live in the moment. Which is not where I want to be … But that’s where I am, there’s no escaping it … Time to take stock … I have trouble remembering what I used to look like … But something has changed, now, tonight. Circumstances have altered. I can ask for something. Possibly not much; but something” (Atwood, 2012, p. 165). Earlier in the novel, Offred reflects on how quickly one’s context can be altered: “It has taken so little time to change our minds, about things like this” (p. 32). This is a helpful reminder about the importance and value of understanding the contextual evolution of ideas and experiences.