The Handmaids Tale is a speculative fiction, which narrates the struggle to define and maintain identity with in the context of culture and gender. Discuss.

Margaret Atwood uses the term "speculative fiction" to describe her work. This classification generates strong reactions from her own readers, as well as from science fiction readers in general. Atwood notes that speculative fiction is different from science fiction. In her eyes, science fiction as "filled with Martians and space travel to other planets, and things like that, ' and she seems to view science fiction as inferior to speculative fiction in that science fiction's only purpose it to entertain, whereas speculative fiction attempts to make the reader rethink his or her own world based on the experiences described the novel.

For additional information, read through GradeSaver's theme page for the novel, specifically, the section on the place of the individual is society.