The Handmaid's Tale Post #6

I really did not like the ending of this book!!!!! I'm so upset that I have no idea what happened to Offred. I'm not sure if Nick is good or bad. Or if she is going to the Colonies or getting saved. "and so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light" ..... what kind of an ending is that??? Boo. My prediction is that Nick was actually a good guy and that the van is taking her to freedom. If it was taking her because of something she did wrong, i feel like Serena Joy would have known about it before it showed up. Also I don't think that Nick is bad, because he wouldn't have been messing around with her all that time, and then turn her in. I think he would have turned her in a long time ago if he was working for the true "believers". The other person that I can't figure out is the new Ofglen. Is she bad or good? At first when Offred is trying to figure out if she is a true "believer" it seems like she is, but then she gives Offred inside information right before she leaves, that I feel like she would have gotten if she was a "non-believer" maybe she is a "non-believer" but she was just acting like she was a "believer" in case Offred was a spy and would tell on her for being a "non-believer". Sorry, i'm not sure if that made any sense. Anyway right now i'm just confused with how the book turned out.

The Handmaid's Tale Post #5

I was really shocked when I read about "the club". I never would have suspected that they would have a place like that. I guess it kind of makes sense though. People have to be able to have some kind of fun. With all the restrictions they have, it seems like it would be so hard for them to get away with it though.

In any event, I really liked the chapter about the club because it was so out of the blue and unexpected. I was very glad to hear that Moira is alright. And it was cool to hear about her journey and how the people tried to help her escape Gilead. The way the people helped the women escape was very similar to the underground railroad. Reading this made me think of not only how in the book these people jeapordized everything, but but also about history, how much people risked to do what they thought was right. Back when people got caught for helping slaves escape through the underground railroad, they would have horrible consequences. Like the past, in the book, the people who get caught face terrible punishments. It made me think about, that even when an entire society is out of control, there are still some good people who believe in doing what is right.

The Handmaid's Tale Post #4

One of the things that stuck out to me in chapter 30 was when Offred was contmplating whether or not she would be able to forgive the people who have done all of this terrible stuff to her, and the other women in the society. She says she thinks that it would take a while, but she would be able to forgive them eventually. I personally don't think I would ever be able to forgive them. They have treated completely horrible, and wasted a big portion of her life. If my baby and my husband got torn away from me, I would never be able to forgive the people who have done it.

That reminds me, one of the things that I am a little unclear about is her relationship with Luke. Parts of the story make it seem like Luke was cheating on his wife with Offred, but parts of it make it seem like Offred and Luke are married. I'm confused about what their relationship was.

Something else that comes as a huge surprise to me is how Serena Joy suddenly starts being very nice to Offred. It is very strange that she would go behind her husband's back and try to help Offred. Then again though, the commander is going behind his wive's back also. The two don't seem to have a very trusting relationship, since they are both hiding things from each other.

The Handmaid's Tale post #3

So, a few very important things have happened in the last few chapters of the book. One of them is that Offred has established some relationships that she did not have prior to now. There is her relationship with Ofglen and also her relationship with the commander. Before this point in the book, Offred prefered to stay distant from Ofglen. Her reasoning for this is that she didn't know if Ofglen was a true believer and follower, and she didn't want to take the risk of being turned in. After Offred finds out that Ofglen is not a believer either, a friendship begins to form between the two since they know that they can trust each other. Offreds other relationship is with the commander. I find this relationship between them a little bit odd. It's sort of wierd that when he has a wife that he can hang out with he would call a handmaid in to his office so they can talk and play scrabble. I'm not quite sure why he would do this when he knows what the consequence is if they got caught. I think that overall the friendships that are forming between Offred and the people around her are good. Even though secretely socializing with these people puts her in a great deal of danger, I think it is good for her to have some friends. Especially now that Moira is not in the picture, she needs someone for moral support, for her to know that she's not this alone.

The Handmaid's Tale post #2

Something that I find very interesting about this book is the role that religion plays in the novel. In many ways it seems that religion is supposed to dominate in Gilead, and that Gilead is supposed to be a puritan society. Everywhere you look there is something religous. Rather it be the church that was turned into a museum, the seat cushion in the narrators room, or the prayers that the commander is required to read to the handmaid and marthas at night before they go to bed. What is confusing to me though is that one minute it seems like they are meant to follow the bible strictly, but then the next we see them comitting sins left and right. For example, the commanders commit adultry with the handmaids. This is one of the ten commandments "though shalt not commit adultry", for such a religous society, you would think that they would at least follow the ten commandments. Another thing that these people do, which is also a part of the ten commandments, is that they murder. I wonder if Atwood is trying to tell us something by setting up the society so religously, but being completely hypacritical in having them commit two of the major sins all the time.

The Handmaid's Tale post #1

One of the main motifs of this book that I have noticed is the color red. Everything is red, and even when you know something is red, Margaret Atwood stresses the fact that it is red. I think that the red symbolizes fertility. So far, throughout the book, one of the big issues that is discussed is the "luck" of getting pregnant. I don't really understand why all of the Handmaids want to get pregnant. Why is it so much better that they get pregnant. What does it "fix". Do they not have to work after they get pregnant?

Something else that I don't get is why certain people got assigned to certain roles, and why other people got assigned lower or higher roles. And the big question I have is what happened to the society? They havn't really given us the background yet. I get that somebody came in and took over, but i'm not sure why. It doesn't make sense that the asian tourists are free, but the narrator isn't. Is this book supposed to be set in a colony? If so, why don't the people just leave?

April Fools Blog Post

For this blog post I decided to write about "When it Changed" and give my thoughts on the Novel.

I found the story to be a bit confusing. It really threw me off how in the beginning of the novel it seemed like it was a "normal family" (husband, wife, and kids), and then it was not until about half way throught reading the story that I realized, it was actually two women who were married. I've noticed throughout this semester, all the stories that we have read have been like this. None of them have any explanations, and they all jump right into the plot. On one hand this is kind of cool because it makes the book/story more like a mystery, but on the other hand it sort of ruins the work because you spend half the time you're reading trying to figure out what's going on so you can't enjoy the writing.

Once I got the jist of what was going on in "when it changed" I found it very interesting. It is almost like Whilaway is the opposite of Gethen. On Whileaway the female gender dominates, and on Gethen (even though there is not supposed to be any gender) it seems as if the male gender dominates. It was cool to see another authors view of what she thinks life would be like if there was only one gender instead of two.

Another relationship I noticed between Left Hand and When it Changed was the people's resistance to change. Just like when King Argaven gets furious when he thinks of starting a nation full of perverts, Katy freaks out when she sees that the men are trying to come back to Whileaway.