Handmaid's Tale / 10 Tiny Finger, 9 Tiny Toes.
Sue Townsend's Ten Tiny Fingers, Nine Tiny Toes brings to the surface of our own minds the possibility of a future where society is regimented by its own perfection. The society that will be created according to Townsend will be formed on that of perfection of the outer person and not of that of their inner self, making way for financial standing within the community to have a hold on ones position within that society. However The Handmaid's Tale written by Margaret Atwood looks at the function of breeding as a necessity to maintain the human race. Whereas Townsend suggests that breeding is for quality, not quantity. By the same token Atwood does discuss quality to the same extreme that Townsend does with the only difference being quantity. .
Sue Townsend places the idea in the readers mind that the future could hold a society where citizens are placed in classes and there are strict rules for each class. These classes are created to improve the quality of the human race. These classes are broken up into categories that are identified using numbers from one through five; one being the highest class of society, level three is an average level of living with class five being the lowest form of society. These different levels of society have varying levels of regulations. These levels of regulations consist of rules such as level five residents not being allowed to breed whilst level four occupants are allowed to breed with strict guidelines. .
The playwright specifically identifies that quality is needed to create a perfect society and the government believes that the lowest class can not breed perfect babies. All parts of society are under strict control, even the holiday venues are controlled to correspond to the class structure. .
"Lucinda Could I please keep the baby sir? I"m willing to drop a grade. I could live a Grade Four life. Leeds and its environs is quite a pleasant place.