The Handmaid's Tale- C28

The Handmaid's Tale- C28

1. summary

   • thinking about Moira who would probably dislike Offred’s deal with the Commander, since she thought Offred was wrong to take Luke from another woman.
     • Offred worked at an insurance company and lived in a run-down house. She told Moira that she couldn’t create a perfect life just by ignoring men.
       • Later, Offred moved to a better apartment for two years until Luke got his divorce. She worked digitizing a library. Back in the current time, Offred ponders the strange fact that millions of women used to have jobs.
         • the Gilead leaders killed the president and Congress, and “Islamic fanatics” got the blame. The army, in a state of emergency, said that it had to temporarily stop using the Constitution.
           • shuttering newspapers, adding roadblocks, and closing down “Pornomarts”. Generally people accepted these measures, feeling safe. Offred found that her money card for her Compucount didn’t work anymore
             • Offred’s boss at the library, seeming unbalanced and distracted, fired her and all the other female employees, saying the law required him to.
               • Moira came over, said their money transferred to male family members. Moira seemed happy and determined. Offred felt luke didn’t understand, and he was even being patronizing.
                 • Offred became a stay-at-home housewife. Offred used to wish her mother would be less brazen. Offred felt that the balance of power had shifted, that she was luke's possession, and that he might even like the way that events had turned. But she never asked him.

2. narrator

   • describes herself 'like a cocoon'- has potential but also 'enshrouded' like she is a corpse
   • unreliable narrator 'probably she'd disapprove'- feeling the need to imagine Moira to feel not as alone
   • offred's old library job is ironic because she was getting rid of books and essentially working for the regime and now cannot read books
   • Likes books 'feel of them' and 'the look', described as being like 'an antiquarian'
   • was against 'pornomarts' 'wasn't sad to see them go'- some aspects of regime 'approved'
   • 'tension' of regime taking over made her do 'smoking more' and 'drinking more coffee'- negative effects
   • regime manipulated to make her feel as if she 'made the mistake' herself with her card
   • felt she 'didn't know what steps' to take, lost and restless after job loss and needed comfort
   • 'started doing more housework, more baking' and 'started to cry'

3. other characters

   • Moira shut 'herself in a women only enclave' and wanted all men 'to go away'
   • Even though offred does not see moira she still classes her as her 'oldest friend' and they could 'fight and wrangle' and nothing would 'change anything underneath'
   • ladies who worked at library thought manager was 'crazy' 'loopy' as he was influenced by regime
   • regime's army soldiers 'in uniforms, with machine guns', like 'sudden apparitions, like martians' 'they were too vivid'
   • Moira 'was gleeful' as if 'expecting' that 'for some time' and now 'been proven right'
   • offred felt she 'couldn't put my arms around' Luke now their relationship doesn't feel equal
   • Offred 'didn't know many of the neighbours' and when they spoke it was only 'ordinary greetings' as no one 'wanted to be reported'
   • offred's mother dressed 'as if she were young' and 'swear so much' liked being 'more outrageous than' offred
   • Nick is her 'flag' 'semaphore'
   • offred and luke 'never talked' about their shift in relationship because she was afraid of losing him

4. plot development

   • regime 'shot the president' and 'blamed it on islamic fanatics', 'entire government, gone'- made people look 'for some direction'
   • regime took women's jobs away, froze their accounts
   • Luke and Offred's relationship affected as soon as regime made relationships unequal 'something had shifted' offred described herself 'small as a doll' 'felt love going forward without' her
   • might suspect that the balance of power had never been equal, given that she was Luke’s mistress, and she had to wait around for him. Gilead merely made her more aware of this implicit inequality.

5. setting

   • offred's old apartment was 'run-down' 'clapboard house near the river' 'rickety outside back staircase'

6. themes

   • gender roles- 'balance of power was equal between women'
   • gender roles 'any account with a F on it instead of an M'- only female accounts frozen 'women can't hold property anymore'
   • rebellion 'there were marches' but were 'smaller' as 'people were scared'

7. literary devices

   • simile 'like remembering paper money'- jobs and paper money both don't exist anymore
   • triadic list 'unworthy, unjust, untrue'- offred's opinion of regime favouring men

8. dystopian features

   • 'it's strange, now, to think about having a job'- so used to regime now
   • rules are very strict when it comes to blasphemy
   • regime took over; 'compubank' 'shot the president' 'roadblocks' 'identipasses' 'you can't work here anymore' 'frozen' the bank accounts for women 'some other army'
   • regime described as a 'subterranean hum' and 'everyone was a little jumpy'
   • 'no children walked to school anymore' due to 'disappearances'- regime kidnapping to be brought up by believers
   • regime impacted on everyone 'his eyes were pink and wobbly'- manager of library 'i don't want any trouble'- scared of regime
   • when they lost their jobs regime 'made us feel we deserved it'
   • regime has put people in survival mode 'everyones on the take'

9. context

   • dystopian books- Fahrenheit 451 destroyed books
   • Moira 'put out books on birth control and rape' but 'wasn't as much demand' for that anymore
   • when Offred was 'fourteen' there were 'a lot of bombings' of 'clinics, video stores' from feminists