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.

Left Hand of Darkness Post #5

One of the things that I noticed about the book, (especially closer to the end) was the motif of Shadows. Le Guin uses shadows in several different ways, so I'm not exactly sure what they symbolize, but I have a few ideas.

The first time shadows really stuck out to me was when Estraven and Genly were on their journey to Karhide. They keep saying that in the ice and snow, that they have no shadows. In this part of the story, I think that their lack of shadows, might symbolize them not having a past. A shadow is something that follows behind you, just like the past. I think that out there on their journey, it's sort of like they have no past. Both Genly and Estraven are trying to move on with life, and build their relationship with each other. It doesn't matter to them what the other did in the past, they are both striving to work for a better future, and to forget about what happened to them previously in life.

Another thing that shadows might symbolize are power. In the last chapter of the book, Genly talks about how some men's shadows grew and some shrank, referring to the men who were replaced as the 33 comencals. Basically by this he is saying that when a person has more power, their shadows are larger, and when they get pulled out of power, or demoted from something, their shadows get smaller.

The other thing in the book about shadows is the idea of shifgrethor. We find out towards the end of the book, that the word, translated, means shadow. One way that this could be interpreted is that your pride is something that is always with you, just like your shadow. I'm not really sure about other meanings that it could have. I was a little confused as to why Le Guin would make Shifgrethor translate to shadow. It's a little hard to understand, because it seems like shadows have so many different meanings in the book.

Left Hand of Darkness Post #4

I feel like it would have been much better if the Eukemen would have sent more than one person rather than just Genly Ai. This issue is addressed in a conversation between Genly and Estraven. Here is the quote:

"The first envoy to a world always comes alone. One alien is a curiosity, two are an invasion."

I think it definately would have made much more sense if they would have sent more than one person to try and talk with the Gethenians. First of all, one person is just not convincing enough. Especially a person who looks almost exactly like a normal Gethenian. (It might have been a bit more believable if Genly actually looked like an alien, but he looks pretty much the same as a Gethenian). Secondly, what if the new world was anti-alien, and they turned on the envoy. You wouldn't want to just leave somebody in a completely new world without anyone there for him to talk to or get help from. And lastly, if something was to happen where the envoy needed to get back, he is completely trapped there. It takes 8-13 days for Genly to call his starship down, and by that time it could be too late. It would be nice if there was at least one other person there with him. I dissagree completely, I don't think that two envoys would be an invasion. For it to be an invasion, it would have to be a whole lot more than 2 aliens. I think anything under 10 would be ok. You would need more than one to be able to convince people. As we can see from the book so far, Genly has only really convinced one person, but if all the people from his starship were to come down, I bet everyone on Winter would imidiately believe him.

Left Hand of Darkness Post #3

These are a few of the things that stood out to me in the last couple of chapters.

When Genly is in the truck on the way to the prison/factory, he reflects about kindness. He thinks that even when people have nothing else left, that they still have kindness. I sort of agree with Genly, but I think it more or less depends on the person. Some people have a lot but are very mean, and some people have nothing, but are very kind. I think that even when everything else is gone, people still have emotions, a contious, and feelings. It depends on the person as to how they use these things.

I was really surprised that Estraven went and saved Genly. Even when it was basically Genly's that Estraven got exiled. We learn alot about Estraven's character in this chapter. Even though he hasn't seemed like it so far in the story, he is really quite selfless.

I'm confused about what dothe is? Is it just a period of time where a person has super strength, and then once it's over they get weak and must recover?

Genly and Estraven's conversation about their trust for one and other was interesting. It never occured to me that this whole time, Estraven was trying to help Genly. He was even willing to help him to the point where he got exiled, and to the point where he could have been killed while trying to escape. Estraven is definately starting to seem like a much more trustworthy character at this point in the book.

Left Hand of Darkness Post #2

We are about 1/3 finished with the book, and I still don't really understand that much of it. I feel like Le Guin jumps around too much, and she is leaving too much out of the book. Just when I start to understand one land and culture, Genly leaves and goes to another place, or she switches view points completely. ie: Chapter 6 which is from Estravens point of view, or Chapter 9 which is a flashback/story.

Something else that really bothers me about the book is how they refer to all people as men, even after it has been made perfectly clear that they are not MEN but instead of no specific gender. This matter is addressed in Chapter 7 of the book.

"Yet you cannot think of a Gehtenian as "it." They are not neuters. They are potentils, or integrals. Lacking the Karhidish "human pronoun" used for persons in somer, I must say "he," for the same reasons as we used the masculine pronoun in referring to a transcendent god: it is less defined, less specific, than the neuter or the feminine. But the very use of the pronoun in my thoughts leads me continually to forget that the karhider I am with is not a man, but a manwoman."

On one hand I do agree with this quote, because I think it would be wierd to call all gethenians "its", but I do find it very sexist of them to refer to everyone as a man. It makes the reader forget that it is not a world of all men. Also I find it very hypocritical, considering that Le Guin goes throughout the book saying that there's no gender, that everything is fluid, but then she refers to them as men, never as girls or women, (unless a person is in the femenin stage of kemering), everyone is a man. It's kind of like in foreign languages, how if there's a group of men and women, even if there's just one man, its referred to as a group of men. It's annoying how the male gender always dominates.

The Left Hand of Darkness Post #1

I found Faxe's and Genly's conversation on the bottom of page 71 really interesting.

"The unknown," said faxe's soft voice in the forest "the unforetold, the unproven, that is what life is based on. Ignorance is the ground of thoght. Unproof is the ground of action. If it were proven that there is no God there would be no religion. No Handdara, no Yomesh, no hearthgods, nothing. But also if it were proven that there is a God, there would be no religion... Tell me, Genry, what is known? What is sure, predictable, inevitable-- the one certain thing you know concerning your future, and mine?"

"That we shall die."

"Yes. There is really only one question that can be answered, Genry, and we already know the answer... The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next."

I think that Faxe brings up a really good point here. The fact that we are all going to die some day is the only thing that we are absolutely sure of. I am a little confused, however, with what he is trying to say. Since he is a foreteller, is he saying that when he tells the future that he could be wrong.

This conversation reminds me of Beadwoman. Just like in Beadwoman, Faxe is basically saying that people shouldn't know what is going to happen to them in the future, because it's the finding out that makes life worthwhile.

Something I noticed about this chapter is its motif of ignorance. We see it first when Genly tells Goss that he is exceedingly ingorant. Next ignorance comes up when Genly is reflecting about the Old Men of the Handara. Then ignorant is used to describe the matter of which the foretellers must be to the question asked. Finally we see the motif repeated in the conversation between Faxe and Genly. I think that in thier culture they value ignorance and it is not a bad thing to be ignorant. (Ingorance is Bliss) This is different from our culture in that people tend to view ignorance as a bad thing.