In today's society, families break up and divorce. Not all families obviously, but the percentage is higher year after year. Destroy means “to destroy; ruin” (Webster's 169). This is what most people would say about their family if their parents were no longer together. In Gilead this is what all the families say. The government destroyed families by taking women away and giving them to other families as a piece of property. In Gilead, most wives can no longer bear children. Keeping a city alive requires reproduction. To do this, the government groups together all women capable of having children. They are called handmaids and are basically like a mistress, "they are constant reminders of wives' failures to conceive" (Callaway 55). When the handmaids go to the commander's room there is only one thing they are used for. They are trying to get pregnant. During the intercourse between the commander and the handmaiden, the wife is in the room watching. He not only looks, but holds the hand of the handmaids. “Serena Joy holds my hands as if she, not me, is being fucked” (Atwood 94). The government of Gilead fears that because there aren't many women capable of reproducing, the city will fall apart. They found a solution to make sure there is enough reproduction each year to create a city. Putting all the women together and sending them to different homes to reproduce is what they thought was best. Once the handmaids have a child with a commander, they hand him over to the commander's wife. Nobody wants to see their husband with another woman. They especially don't want to sit in a room and watch them have sex with that woman. This is what they are forced to do... middle of paper... nnavi. Everyone would be left single and sleep around to allow the children to grow the community. Of course this would be organized sleeping around. If everyone separated and gave up their children to be raised by someone else, the city would fall apart. One needs a relationship to feel better. We would like to have these friendships, but since everyone is with everyone it is difficult to trust another person. Works Cited Atwood, M. (1998). The Handmaid's Tale. New York: Anchor Books. Callaway, A. A. (2008). Women Disunited: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale as a Critique of Feminism. SJSU ScholarWorks, 48-58.Cooper, P. (n.d.). Sexual surveillance and medical authority in two versions of the Handmaid's Tale. 56.Guralnik, D. B. (1983). Webster's New World Dictionary. New York: A Warner Communications Company.