Handmaid'd Tale pages 1-49

I was a bit lost at the beginning of this book because it jumps right into the story. Not giving any background inofrmation at all. However, as the story goes on the explanation for why things are the way they are begins to be revealed little by little. The setting of the story is very odd, it seems almost like a prison, with barbed wire surrounding the area and guards watching over. It descibes how the place has no ropes, chandeliers, or anything that someone could strangle themself and how no one can talk or write. This sounds like a very dissatisfying place to reside. The purpose of the narrator in this situacion seems to be of reproduction. The narrator tells how she hadn't always lived like this. All of this makes me wonder why this situacion is the way it is, what is going on here.