"I also know better than to say yes. Modesty is invisibility, said Aunt Lydia. Never forget it. To be seen - to be seen - is to be - her voice trembled - penetrated. What you must be, girls, is impenetrable. She called us girls" (28).
"The summer dresses are unpacked and hanging in the closet, two of them, pure cotton, which is better than synthetics like the cheaper ones, though even so, when it's muggy, in July and August, you sweat inside them. No worry about sunburn though, said Aunt Lydia. The spectacles women used to make of themselves. Oiling themselves like roast meat on a spit, and bare backs and shoulders, on the street, in public, and legs, not even stockings on them, no wonder those things used to happen. Things, the word she used for whatever it stood for was too distasteful or filthy or horrible to pass her lips. A successful life for her was one that avoided things, excluded things. Such things do not happen to nice women. And not good for the complexion, not at all, wrinkle you up like a dried apple. But we weren't supposed to care about our complexions anymore, she'd forgotten that" (55).
Do not be seen, says Aunt Lydia, you are not supposed to be beautiful, you are not supposed to be bare, you are invisible. What a horrific world. I will dress how I please! Anyway. To be invisible is to be impenetrable, and since women are supposed to be pure in this world, and untouched except by the Commander, that means they should never, ever be seen! The Angels wear wings to hide their faces, for the most part. They are to be bare for no one except the Commander, who, along with the Angel, stays clothed for the "fucking." Even then, they are not to be totally seen. She keeps her eyes closed, even if his are open, but his face is tilted toward her torso anyway. They do not look at each other, never should.
Also, no oiling, no taking care of your appearance, you are not supposed to be pretty. You are a shell: only your insides matter. Only your healthy ovaries are of any consequence. To abort a baby is to commit a terrible crime - sounds familiar. Only this book looks like what the future will be (what will we do if Trump wins the election? lose all rights to our ovaries, most likely). In this book, reminiscent of life, it's seen as a woman's fault if she in assaulted. The women here are even made to feel guilty, to be outright told: THIS IS YOUR FAULT. Don't be beautiful, don't show your body, be invisible. Do not be penetrated.
You react as powerfully to these moments as I do, Jade. Atwood was clearly reacting to some of the same discourse we're negotiating back in the 80s when she wrote this.
“Aunt Lydia said it was best not to speak unless they asked you a direct question. Try to think of it from their point of view she said, her hands clasped and wrung together, her nervous pleading smile. It isn't easy for them” (14).
“Now we walk along the same street, in red pairs, and no man shouts obscenities at us, speaks to us, touches us. No one whistles. There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it” (24)
“You are a transitional generation, said Aunt Lydia. It is the hardest for you. We know the sacrifices you are being expected to make. It is hard when men revile you. For the ones who come after you, it will be easier. They will accept their duties with willing hearts. She did not say: Because they will have no memories, of any other way. She said: Because they won't want things they can't have.” (117).
I think passivity and confinement and freedom play a prominent role in this novel. The handmaids are constantly being told that their oppressive, patriarchal society is better than the world that they, those who lived through the Pre-Gilead times, used to know. And it’s interesting that Aunt Lydia is the one whose voice is constantly reminding them that things are better this way and that they should just accept their role. It seems to suggest that passivity often leads to oppression, which I could be interpreting wrong because it could also be suggesting that oppression leads to passivity since it’s easier to control victims when they are passive. Passivity also seems to be a form of freedom since being active leads to cruel punish and possibly death and being passive seems to be the only way to live in this world. i also couldn’t stop thinking about Edna from The Awakening because that novel and this novel suggest that women are tied down because of their bodies and their ability to give birth. In The Handmaid’s Tale, the women are confined because of their bodies but there is strange kind of freedom with that because if they get pregnant then they are rewarded by not being sent to death, but if they fail to get pregnant then they are forced to give birth to children that they do not want by men that they don’t care for or love.
“Women were not protected then. I remember the rules, rules that were never spelled out but that every woman knew: Don’t open your door to a stranger, even if he says he is the police. Make him slide his ID under the door. Don’t stop on the road to help a motorist pretending to be in trouble. Keep the locks on and keep going…Now we walk along the same street, in red pairs, and no man shouts obscenities at us, speaks to us, touches us. No one whistles. There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.” (24)
“We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of the print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories.” (57)
The idea of freedom in both of these passages is emphasized a lot throughout the story and it’s interesting that in a land where there is no freedom at all they still find a way to call not having any rights a type of freedom. Since they live in such a controlled society where everyone has to follow extremely strict rules and not step outside of their roles the definition of what their freedom is seems very significant. They call the freedom they had before having a freedom to, which meant they could do what they wanted essentially and they had the right to choice. They now have freedom from which is having freedom from being catcalled or fearing random men on the street. The whole sense of having any freedom now is false and just seems to be used as a way to justify the rights that were taken from them.
"It isn't running away they're afraid of. We wouldn't get far. It's those other escapes, thats ones you can open in yourself, given a cutting edge"
This is haunting. This quote speaks for itself. They are so bound to this life style that wasn't even chosen for them. The wives, commanders, aunts, guardians, and angles want to keep the handmaids locked up, locked up even from themselves. They wanted to keep them trapped from any form of escape weather its running away or suicide. This quote is dehumanizing in a way. The people in control had so much fear of escape that even escape from oneself was against the law.
Freedom was not a privilege, it was not a luxury. freedom was just an ideal and image of the past. Women had no freedom, not even from whom they were. They were seen as mere object that could produce. When does it come to a point where these women just dont break the law any way? There is no punishment if you are dead. But I guess the punishment in this story is life and living with knowing that you are never really allowed freedom. What is it worth in the end knowing you are free or living with knowing you are trapped?
This passage really stood out to me, too, Cat, especially since I've been pondering Edna's suicide and whether it's "escape" or not since we read that novel...
"Give me children, or else I die. Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? Behold my maid Bilhah. She shall bear fruit upon my knees, that I may also have children by her." (88)
The women in this novel are stripped of their freedoms, forced to either be wives, birthers, or maids for the rest of their lives - roles that have typically been "assigned" to women throughout history. These roles make them trapped, either sentenced to death or forced to live for the benefit of men. This novel seems to take place in a dystopian society, but sadly it is not too different from patriarchal societies all over the globe today.
Yes. As we'll discuss today, Atwood views this as "speculative fiction" because she believes that, taken to its logical end, misogyny could reshape society in this way...
"Where I am is not a prison but a privilege, as Aunt Lydia said" (p. 8).
"It's an event, a small defiance of rule, so small as to be undetectable, but such moments are the rewards I hold out for myself, like the candy I hoarded, as a child, at the back of a drawer. Such moments are possibilities, tiny peepholes" (p. 21).
"There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it" (p. 24).
Throughout the book, there is a striking lack of quotations during conversations. Each time Offred is reiterating the lessons of Aunt Lydia, rather than being Aunt Lydia's own words, the text is seamlessly added into Offred's thoughts. However, the struggle between accepting the rigid authority and following one's own inclinations as a social creature is constantly being waged for Offred. Although her training has made her accustomed to this oppressive way of life and she attempts to follow it as best she can, her desire to be an individual repeatedly shows itself.
Additionally, the idea of freedom to vs freedom from should not condone the types of behavior being practiced by the government. While Aunt Lydia claims that the government is protecting women from rape and violence by other citizens, they are not protecting people from getting executed by their own government. In a society which provides freedom from, only the essentials can be provided but not assured - for example, freedom from starvation is ensured, however, freedom from being murdered is not a given (as displayed with the Martha who was shot down).
"As we walk away I know they're watching, these two men who aren't yet permitted to touch women." (22)
"The spectacles women used to make of themselves. Oiling themselves like roast meat on a spit, and bare backs and shoulders, on the street, in public, and legs, not even stockings on them, no wonder those things used to happen. Things, the word she used when whatever it stood for was too distasteful or filthy or horrible to pass her lips. A successful life for her was one that avoided things, excluded things. Such things do not happen to nice women." (55)
This second quote in particular stood out to me as I was reading, and I reread it a few times over, fully realizing how though this novel is set in somewhat of a dystopian society, it very closely mirrors certain aspects of our own society, which is actually terrifying. This book blames women and their bodies for the "things" that happen to them, rather than placing the appropriate blame on men for lacking any sort of self-control and violating another person's body. This made me think of the super-cliche "what was she wearing," which is often asked at the mention of rape, thus placing the blame on women and suggesting that wearing revealing clothing implies that women are "asking for it." This idea has always baffled and angered me; blaming the victim is never okay. Nobody "asks for it." I connected the second quote with the first one because of the implication that at some point, men are entitled to a woman's body, that touching a woman at will is both a right and a right of passage. Together, these quotes suggest that a woman has very little ownership to and rights over her own body, and that men can do with them what they please if they do not take appropriate precautions. This is an issue that obviously needs to be addressed in the society in this book, but is also frighteningly one that needs to be addressed and taken far more seriously in our own.
I too made the connection between the first passage and the fact that it so very much echoes the "she was asking for it" dogma perpetrated by our patriarchal society. Fix the victims, right? Not the problem itself. Encouraging such discourse is a great way to maintain the status quo.
“Now we walk along the same street, in red pairs, and no man shouts obscenities at us, speaks to us, touches us. No one whistles. There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it.” (pg 24)
“Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary.” (pg 33)
These two quotes caught my eyes as I was reading, and brought to mind catcalling (or rather, the first one brought it to mind, and then the second one really drove it home). It’s something that I used to find normal, and sometimes flattering, simply because it was really the only time anyone complimented me. At the time, I didn’t realize that I was being harassed, not complimented. From the beginning of the novel, we’re presented with women whose roles in life are clearly defined. However, throughout history, where you could be a maid, and have children, or a cook and have children, the women in The Handmaid’s Tale are not given that choice: their lives, not truly their own, are predetermined, and their roles are constricting. Their communication, even between their own sex, is restricted, and frowned upon. The ways in which Atwood communicates the marginalization of women’s bodies and lives in reality often hits a little too close to home.
Women were not protected then. I remember the rules, rules that were never spelled out but that every woman knew: Don’t open your door to a stranger, even if he says he is the police. Make him slide his ID under the door. Don’t stop on the road to help a motorist pretending to be in trouble. Keep the locks on and keep going…Now we walk along the same street, in red pairs, and no man shouts obscenities at us, speaks to us, touches us. No one whistles (24). After reading the text I got a sense that women were not able to do half the things men could and even when women were allowed to do things they were being watched closely. Being watched by their oppressors. Till this day in places like the Middle East women are still stripped from doing things that other women from different countries can do.
Give me children, or else I die. Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? Behold my maid Bilhah. She shall bear fruit upon my knees, that I may also have children by her (88). What I got out the text is that women cant live their life how they want to, it must be through someone else views. For example, with kids being forced to marry a guy because of his status or wealth, when it actuality they would rather marry someone as broke as them but still feel happy and at peace.
Good connections to contemporary discourse, Dermar. I think the passage from the Bible that you quote here might be important to bring up and dissect a bit...
"...and the tulips are opening their cups, spilling out color. The tulips are red, a darker crimson towrds the stem, as if they have been cut and are beginning to heal there." (12)
"The future is in your hands, she resumed. he held her own hands out to us, the ancient gesture that was both an offering and an invitation, to come forward, into an embrace, an acceptance. In your hands, she said, looking down at her own hands if they had given her the idea. But there was nothing in them. They were empty. It was our hands that were supposed to be full, of the future; which could be held but not seen." (47)
So flower symbolism is huge in this novel. Every other page it seems has a reference to flowers: white daffodils, blue forget-me-nots, yellow sunflowers, and espeically the red tulips. This makes sense, flowers are often seen as symbolic for female sexaulity, spring as an "awakening" for sexuality. The handmaids, it seems are supposed to be these tulips, for they have been "cut" from their enivornment and are beginning to "heal", adjust to their new lives and surroundings. The imagery Aunt Lydia's open hands and the open tulips reminded me of eachother. The open tulips are full of life, like the Handmaids are supposed to be (supposedly bearing new life), unlike Aunt Lydias hands which are empty, representing the barren present.
"My nakedness is strange to me already. Did I really wear bathing suits, at the beach? I did, without thought, among men, without caring that my legs, my arms, my thighs and back were on display, could be seen. Shameful, immodest. I avoid looking down at my body, not so much because it's shameful or immodest but because I don't want to see it. I don't want to look at something that determines me so completely." (63)
"Can I be blamed for wanting a real body, to put my arms around? Without it I too am disembodied. I can stroke myself, under the dry white sheets, in the dark, but I too am dry and white, hard, granular; it's like running my hand over a plateful of dried rice; it's like snow. I am like a room where things once happened and now nothing does, except the pollen of the weeds that grow up outside the window, blowing in as dust across the floor." (104)
These two quotes caught my eye when I was reading, mostly because of how detached Offred is from her own body. She describes herself as having to sort of detach her mind from her body many times throughout the novel, mostly so that she can keep on going with her life. Sort of going with the theme that others have posted about before me concerning catcalling and women "asking for it", these quotes sort of show the point that women, handmaids especially, though they do remember a time before, they often do not look on it that highly. In some ways, they see a 'benefit' or good side to this new life, but for the most part they are trying everything they can to disassociate themselves with their realities; Offred dreams of her daughter and Luke, and this is how she keeps herself going (it seems) throughout the novel.
I think you're right on with the idea that disassociation is a defense mechanism. It might be in their best interests to buy into the ideology, after all...at least mentally...
“As we walk away I know they’re watching, these two men who aren’t yet permitted to touch women. They touch with their eyes instead and I move my hips a little, feeling the full red skirt sway around me . . . and I’m ashamed of myself for doing it, because none of this is the fault of these men, they’re too young . . . I find I am not ashamed after all. I enjoy the power; power of a dog bone, passive but there. I hope they get hard at the sight of us . . . . They will suffer” (31).
Despite being under copious amounts of control, having to obey the strict rules of society, there are small hints of rebellion in the mind of the characters. Though sexual stimulus (porn) is banned (“they have no outlets now except themselves, and that’s a sacrilege” (31)), we still able to see into a lustful, rebellious mind. Though the government has began to view women’s sexualness as dangerous and cover them head to toe, the main character still has a sexual drive, even if she can not express it. She is even rebellious with people, and clings to the memories:
“In returning my pass, the one with the peach colored mustache bends his head to try to get a look at my face. I raise my head a little, to help him, and he sees my eyes and I see his, and he blushes…it’s…a small defiance of rule…but such moments are the rewards I hold out for myself” (29-30).
She even steals butter so she can smell of it later on.
“There’s a pat of butter on the side of the plate. I tear off a corner of the paper napkin, wrap the butter in it, take it to the cupboard and slip it into the toe of my right shoe, from the extra pair, as I have done before . . . . I will use the butter later tonight. It would not do, this evening, to smell of butter” (78).
“I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will. . . . There were limits, but my body was nevertheless lithe, single, solid, one with me. . . .Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I’m a cloud, congealed around a central object. . . . Every month there is a moon, gigantic, round, heavy, an omen. It transits, pauses, continues on and passes out of sight, and I see despair coming towards me like famine. To feel that empty, again, again. I listen to my heart, wave upon wave, salty and red, continuing on and on, marking time” (88).
Her body used to belong to her and was used for pleasure, but not it only exists to make children for someone else. The moon and salty red wave signifies her period which she does not want because it means she is not yet pregnant, her only goal in life.
"The read gloves are lying on the bed. I pick them up, pull them onto my hands, finger by finger . . . The skirt is ankle-length, full, gathered to a flat yoke that extends over the breasts, the sleeves are full. The white wings are prescribed issue; they keep us from seeing, but also from being seen" (8).
"What if I were to come at night, when he's on duty alone . . . and permit him beyond my white wings? What if I were to peel off my red shroud and show myself to him, to them, by the uncertain light of the lanterns?" (21).
The clothes the Handmaid's have to wear are meant to conceal them physically, but also serve as a symbol for the spiritual concealment they endure; they have no freedom in any way. When Offred encounters the Guardian, she day dreams of shedding the outfit, liberating herself sexually, another aspect that is repressed in these women. This not only gives readers a sense of how women are viewed in the society of the novel, but gives us an inside look at Offred's desire for freedom.
"Aunt Lydia said it was best not to speak unless they asked you a direct question. Try to think of it from their point of view she said, her hands clasped and wrung together, her nervous pleading smile. It isn't easy for them." (18)
"I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off." (39)
These passages are about Offred not having control over her life and wanting to have that. She is told not to speak and to have pity for those that abuse her, which isn't right. She is powerless in this really. In a passage she thinks she has power, but from this society she doesn't. She's in the minority of those that can bare children, and because of that she is treated as kind of an object of storage (I guess) for the children that their society needs. This society must know what they're doing is wrong since those who wear red aren't allowed near objects that they could use to terminate the fetus they carry or themselves (ex. no hangers). They know that if it was their CHOICE they would try and do so.
(If this doesn't make much sense I still have slight fever brain- I've had a low grade fever off and on since Sunday night.)
I like that you highlight these two passages. I think the second quotation really speaks to the importance of storytelling and literacy as a way to articulate one's experience in a world where women often are not in control...Be sure to bring this up in class!
10. Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood 3-2-16 - “As long as we do this, butter our skin to keep it soft, we can believe that we will some day get out, that we will be touched again, in love or desire. We have ceremonies of our own, private ones” (96 -97). - “It’s an event, a small defiance of rule, so small as to be undetectable, but such moments are the rewards I hold out for myself, like the candy I hoarded, as a child, at the back of a drawer. Such moments are possibilities, tiny peepholes” (21).
The complete darkness – and it is a somewhat hidden darkness (more on this after) – that surrounds the narrator in this book is interesting to me. I’ve read dystopian novels before, but the darkness in this novel feels more realistic. The fact that she has to look for these “moments.” These small things that we do not and would not consider ‘luxuries’ by any stretch.
I think a lot of The Hunger Games, probably because it’s another dystopia, which I felt very drawn into. I think it was the first dystopia where I realized the extent of the restrictions and what it would be like to live in a society like that. Is Atwood saying that in some ways we are?
The fact that she says that she “chooses” this. Of course that makes the reader think, “Who would choose this?” But what if the other option was death? I think she is trying to justify – maybe that’s not the right word – her job, her role in the society. She has no escape.
"We still had our bodies. That was our fantasy." (4)
"Where I am now is not a prison but a privilege." (8)
Though the novel takes place in a distopian society, and though our current plight as women is not as scary as the plight experienced by the characters in the novel, the themes are still very relevant to contemporary women. The novel was published in the 80's and I imagine women felt similarly. The line about being in control of bodies seems to reference Roe Vs. Wade. The other quote I chose I also felt directly referenced contemporary women because it describes how women are expected to view life. We are taught at a very young age not to complain and to count our blessings.
"We learned to whisper almost without sound. In the semidarkness we could stretch out our arms, when the Aunts weren't looking, and touch each other's hands across space. We learned to lipread, our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, watching each other's mouths. In this way, we exchanged names, from bed to bed: Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June."
"Or I would help Rita make the bread, sinking my hands into that soft resistant warmth which is so much like flesh. I hunger to touch something, other than cloth or wood. I hunger to commit the act of touch."
These quotes are both early instances of touching, but specifically concerning Offred's desire to make physical contact with other people and being forbidden to do so. It further highlights the ways in which her privileges have been taken away, beyond her clothing, the white room with shatterproof glass, and the ways she is treated as property. Beyond being objectified, she (and the other handmaids) are deprived of physical contact as if to desensitize them from being human.
"Yes, ma'm, I said again, forgetting. They used to have dolls, for little girls, that would talk if you pulled a string at the back; I thought I was sounding like that, voice of a monotone, voice of a doll. She probably longed to slap my face. They can hit us, there's Scriptural precedent. But not with any implement. Only with their hands" (16).
"Serena Joy lets go of my hands. "You can get up now," she says. "Get up and get out." She's supposed to have me rest, for ten minutes, with my feet on a pillow to improve the chances. This is meant to be a time of silent meditation for her, but she's not in the mood for that. There is loathing in her voice, as if the touch of my flesh sickens and contaminates her. I untangle myself from her body, stand up; the juice of the Commander runs down my legs" (95).
I'm interested in the dynamics between Serena Joy and Offred. How Serena Joy has the power above her, but Offred in a way is more powerful.
"I also know better than to say yes. Modesty is invisibility, said Aunt Lydia. Never forget it. To be seen - to be seen - is to be - her voice trembled - penetrated. What you must be, girls, is impenetrable. She called us girls" (28).
ReplyDelete"The summer dresses are unpacked and hanging in the closet, two of them, pure cotton, which is better than synthetics like the cheaper ones, though even so, when it's muggy, in July and August, you sweat inside them. No worry about sunburn though, said Aunt Lydia. The spectacles women used to make of themselves. Oiling themselves like roast meat on a spit, and bare backs and shoulders, on the street, in public, and legs, not even stockings on them, no wonder those things used to happen. Things, the word she used for whatever it stood for was too distasteful or filthy or horrible to pass her lips. A successful life for her was one that avoided things, excluded things. Such things do not happen to nice women. And not good for the complexion, not at all, wrinkle you up like a dried apple. But we weren't supposed to care about our complexions anymore, she'd forgotten that" (55).
Do not be seen, says Aunt Lydia, you are not supposed to be beautiful, you are not supposed to be bare, you are invisible. What a horrific world. I will dress how I please! Anyway. To be invisible is to be impenetrable, and since women are supposed to be pure in this world, and untouched except by the Commander, that means they should never, ever be seen! The Angels wear wings to hide their faces, for the most part. They are to be bare for no one except the Commander, who, along with the Angel, stays clothed for the "fucking." Even then, they are not to be totally seen. She keeps her eyes closed, even if his are open, but his face is tilted toward her torso anyway. They do not look at each other, never should.
Also, no oiling, no taking care of your appearance, you are not supposed to be pretty. You are a shell: only your insides matter. Only your healthy ovaries are of any consequence. To abort a baby is to commit a terrible crime - sounds familiar. Only this book looks like what the future will be (what will we do if Trump wins the election? lose all rights to our ovaries, most likely). In this book, reminiscent of life, it's seen as a woman's fault if she in assaulted. The women here are even made to feel guilty, to be outright told: THIS IS YOUR FAULT. Don't be beautiful, don't show your body, be invisible. Do not be penetrated.
You react as powerfully to these moments as I do, Jade. Atwood was clearly reacting to some of the same discourse we're negotiating back in the 80s when she wrote this.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete“Aunt Lydia said it was best not to speak unless they asked you a direct question. Try to think of it from their point of view she said, her hands clasped and wrung together, her nervous pleading smile. It isn't easy for them” (14).
“Now we walk along the same street, in red pairs, and no man shouts obscenities at us, speaks to us, touches us. No one whistles. There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it” (24)
“You are a transitional generation, said Aunt Lydia. It is the hardest for you. We know the sacrifices you are being expected to make. It is hard when men revile you. For the ones who come after you, it will be easier. They will accept their duties with willing hearts.
She did not say: Because they will have no memories, of any other way.
She said: Because they won't want things they can't have.” (117).
I think passivity and confinement and freedom play a prominent role in this novel. The handmaids are constantly being told that their oppressive, patriarchal society is better than the world that they, those who lived through the Pre-Gilead times, used to know. And it’s interesting that Aunt Lydia is the one whose voice is constantly reminding them that things are better this way and that they should just accept their role. It seems to suggest that passivity often leads to oppression, which I could be interpreting wrong because it could also be suggesting that oppression leads to passivity since it’s easier to control victims when they are passive. Passivity also seems to be a form of freedom since being active leads to cruel punish and possibly death and being passive seems to be the only way to live in this world. i also couldn’t stop thinking about Edna from The Awakening because that novel and this novel suggest that women are tied down because of their bodies and their ability to give birth. In The Handmaid’s Tale, the women are confined because of their bodies but there is strange kind of freedom with that because if they get pregnant then they are rewarded by not being sent to death, but if they fail to get pregnant then they are forced to give birth to children that they do not want by men that they don’t care for or love.
Good connection to The Awakening, Tramel. And I think the relationship between power and passivity is recursive and mutually constituting...
Delete“Women were not protected then.
ReplyDeleteI remember the rules, rules that were never spelled out but that every woman knew: Don’t open your door to a stranger, even if he says he is the police. Make him slide his ID under the door. Don’t stop on the road to help a motorist pretending to be in trouble. Keep the locks on and keep going…Now we walk along the same street, in red pairs, and no man shouts obscenities at us, speaks to us, touches us. No one whistles.
There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.” (24)
“We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of the print. It gave us more freedom.
We lived in the gaps between the stories.” (57)
The idea of freedom in both of these passages is emphasized a lot throughout the story and it’s interesting that in a land where there is no freedom at all they still find a way to call not having any rights a type of freedom. Since they live in such a controlled society where everyone has to follow extremely strict rules and not step outside of their roles the definition of what their freedom is seems very significant. They call the freedom they had before having a freedom to, which meant they could do what they wanted essentially and they had the right to choice. They now have freedom from which is having freedom from being catcalled or fearing random men on the street. The whole sense of having any freedom now is false and just seems to be used as a way to justify the rights that were taken from them.
Good analysis. It's also interesting that women's bodies have to be controlled so that they have the "freedom" from men acting in misogynistic ways...
Delete"It isn't running away they're afraid of. We wouldn't get far. It's those other escapes, thats ones you can open in yourself, given a cutting edge"
ReplyDeleteThis is haunting. This quote speaks for itself. They are so bound to this life style that wasn't even chosen for them. The wives, commanders, aunts, guardians, and angles want to keep the handmaids locked up, locked up even from themselves. They wanted to keep them trapped from any form of escape weather its running away or suicide. This quote is dehumanizing in a way. The people in control had so much fear of escape that even escape from oneself was against the law.
Freedom was not a privilege, it was not a luxury. freedom was just an ideal and image of the past. Women had no freedom, not even from whom they were. They were seen as mere object that could produce. When does it come to a point where these women just dont break the law any way? There is no punishment if you are dead. But I guess the punishment in this story is life and living with knowing that you are never really allowed freedom. What is it worth in the end knowing you are free or living with knowing you are trapped?
This passage really stood out to me, too, Cat, especially since I've been pondering Edna's suicide and whether it's "escape" or not since we read that novel...
Delete"Give me children, or else I die. Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? Behold my maid Bilhah. She shall bear fruit upon my knees, that I may also have children by her." (88)
ReplyDeleteThe women in this novel are stripped of their freedoms, forced to either be wives, birthers, or maids for the rest of their lives - roles that have typically been "assigned" to women throughout history. These roles make them trapped, either sentenced to death or forced to live for the benefit of men. This novel seems to take place in a dystopian society, but sadly it is not too different from patriarchal societies all over the globe today.
Yes. As we'll discuss today, Atwood views this as "speculative fiction" because she believes that, taken to its logical end, misogyny could reshape society in this way...
Delete"Where I am is not a prison but a privilege, as Aunt Lydia said" (p. 8).
ReplyDelete"It's an event, a small defiance of rule, so small as to be undetectable, but such moments are the rewards I hold out for myself, like the candy I hoarded, as a child, at the back of a drawer. Such moments are possibilities, tiny peepholes" (p. 21).
"There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it" (p. 24).
Throughout the book, there is a striking lack of quotations during conversations. Each time Offred is reiterating the lessons of Aunt Lydia, rather than being Aunt Lydia's own words, the text is seamlessly added into Offred's thoughts. However, the struggle between accepting the rigid authority and following one's own inclinations as a social creature is constantly being waged for Offred. Although her training has made her accustomed to this oppressive way of life and she attempts to follow it as best she can, her desire to be an individual repeatedly shows itself.
Additionally, the idea of freedom to vs freedom from should not condone the types of behavior being practiced by the government. While Aunt Lydia claims that the government is protecting women from rape and violence by other citizens, they are not protecting people from getting executed by their own government. In a society which provides freedom from, only the essentials can be provided but not assured - for example, freedom from starvation is ensured, however, freedom from being murdered is not a given (as displayed with the Martha who was shot down).
Excellent note about how everything is filtered through Offred's limited worldview; please bring this up in class so we can discuss!
Delete"As we walk away I know they're watching, these two men who aren't yet permitted to touch women." (22)
ReplyDelete"The spectacles women used to make of themselves. Oiling themselves like roast meat on a spit, and bare backs and shoulders, on the street, in public, and legs, not even stockings on them, no wonder those things used to happen. Things, the word she used when whatever it stood for was too distasteful or filthy or horrible to pass her lips. A successful life for her was one that avoided things, excluded things. Such things do not happen to nice women." (55)
This second quote in particular stood out to me as I was reading, and I reread it a few times over, fully realizing how though this novel is set in somewhat of a dystopian society, it very closely mirrors certain aspects of our own society, which is actually terrifying. This book blames women and their bodies for the "things" that happen to them, rather than placing the appropriate blame on men for lacking any sort of self-control and violating another person's body. This made me think of the super-cliche "what was she wearing," which is often asked at the mention of rape, thus placing the blame on women and suggesting that wearing revealing clothing implies that women are "asking for it." This idea has always baffled and angered me; blaming the victim is never okay. Nobody "asks for it."
I connected the second quote with the first one because of the implication that at some point, men are entitled to a woman's body, that touching a woman at will is both a right and a right of passage. Together, these quotes suggest that a woman has very little ownership to and rights over her own body, and that men can do with them what they please if they do not take appropriate precautions. This is an issue that obviously needs to be addressed in the society in this book, but is also frighteningly one that needs to be addressed and taken far more seriously in our own.
I too made the connection between the first passage and the fact that it so very much echoes the "she was asking for it" dogma perpetrated by our patriarchal society. Fix the victims, right? Not the problem itself. Encouraging such discourse is a great way to maintain the status quo.
Delete“Now we walk along the same street, in red pairs, and no man shouts obscenities at us, speaks to us, touches us. No one whistles. There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it.” (pg 24)
ReplyDelete“Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary.” (pg 33)
These two quotes caught my eyes as I was reading, and brought to mind catcalling (or rather, the first one brought it to mind, and then the second one really drove it home). It’s something that I used to find normal, and sometimes flattering, simply because it was really the only time anyone complimented me. At the time, I didn’t realize that I was being harassed, not complimented. From the beginning of the novel, we’re presented with women whose roles in life are clearly defined. However, throughout history, where you could be a maid, and have children, or a cook and have children, the women in The Handmaid’s Tale are not given that choice: their lives, not truly their own, are predetermined, and their roles are constricting. Their communication, even between their own sex, is restricted, and frowned upon. The ways in which Atwood communicates the marginalization of women’s bodies and lives in reality often hits a little too close to home.
I agree that there are clear alignments between our reality and the alternate reality that Atwood presents us.
DeleteWomen were not protected then. I remember the rules, rules that were never spelled out but that every woman knew: Don’t open your door to a stranger, even if he says he is the police. Make him slide his ID under the door. Don’t stop on the road to help a motorist pretending to be in trouble. Keep the locks on and keep going…Now we walk along the same street, in red pairs, and no man shouts obscenities at us, speaks to us, touches us. No one whistles (24).
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the text I got a sense that women were not able to do half the things men could and even when women were allowed to do things they were being watched closely. Being watched by their oppressors. Till this day in places like the Middle East women are still stripped from doing things that other women from different countries can do.
Give me children, or else I die. Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? Behold my maid Bilhah. She shall bear fruit upon my knees, that I may also have children by her (88).
What I got out the text is that women cant live their life how they want to, it must be through someone else views. For example, with kids being forced to marry a guy because of his status or wealth, when it actuality they would rather marry someone as broke as them but still feel happy and at peace.
Good connections to contemporary discourse, Dermar. I think the passage from the Bible that you quote here might be important to bring up and dissect a bit...
Delete"...and the tulips are opening their cups, spilling out color. The tulips are red, a darker crimson towrds the stem, as if they have been cut and are beginning to heal there." (12)
ReplyDelete"The future is in your hands, she resumed. he held her own hands out to us, the ancient gesture that was both an offering and an invitation, to come forward, into an embrace, an acceptance. In your hands, she said, looking down at her own hands if they had given her the idea. But there was nothing in them. They were empty. It was our hands that were supposed to be full, of the future; which could be held but not seen." (47)
So flower symbolism is huge in this novel. Every other page it seems has a reference to flowers: white daffodils, blue forget-me-nots, yellow sunflowers, and espeically the red tulips. This makes sense, flowers are often seen as symbolic for female sexaulity, spring as an "awakening" for sexuality. The handmaids, it seems are supposed to be these tulips, for they have been "cut" from their enivornment and are beginning to "heal", adjust to their new lives and surroundings. The imagery Aunt Lydia's open hands and the open tulips reminded me of eachother. The open tulips are full of life, like the Handmaids are supposed to be (supposedly bearing new life), unlike Aunt Lydias hands which are empty, representing the barren present.
Nice close reading, Jill.
Delete"My nakedness is strange to me already. Did I really wear bathing suits, at the beach? I did, without thought, among men, without caring that my legs, my arms, my thighs and back were on display, could be seen. Shameful, immodest. I avoid looking down at my body, not so much because it's shameful or immodest but because I don't want to see it. I don't want to look at something that determines me so completely." (63)
ReplyDelete"Can I be blamed for wanting a real body, to put my arms around? Without it I too am disembodied. I can stroke myself, under the dry white sheets, in the dark, but I too am dry and white, hard, granular; it's like running my hand over a plateful of dried rice; it's like snow. I am like a room where things once happened and now nothing does, except the pollen of the weeds that grow up outside the window, blowing in as dust across the floor." (104)
These two quotes caught my eye when I was reading, mostly because of how detached Offred is from her own body. She describes herself as having to sort of detach her mind from her body many times throughout the novel, mostly so that she can keep on going with her life. Sort of going with the theme that others have posted about before me concerning catcalling and women "asking for it", these quotes sort of show the point that women, handmaids especially, though they do remember a time before, they often do not look on it that highly. In some ways, they see a 'benefit' or good side to this new life, but for the most part they are trying everything they can to disassociate themselves with their realities; Offred dreams of her daughter and Luke, and this is how she keeps herself going (it seems) throughout the novel.
I think you're right on with the idea that disassociation is a defense mechanism. It might be in their best interests to buy into the ideology, after all...at least mentally...
Delete“As we walk away I know they’re watching, these two men who aren’t yet permitted to touch women. They touch with their eyes instead and I move my hips a little, feeling the full red skirt sway around me . . . and I’m ashamed of myself for doing it, because none of this is the fault of these men, they’re too young . . . I find I am not ashamed after all. I enjoy the power; power of a dog bone, passive but there. I hope they get hard at the sight of us . . . . They will suffer” (31).
ReplyDeleteDespite being under copious amounts of control, having to obey the strict rules of society, there are small hints of rebellion in the mind of the characters. Though sexual stimulus (porn) is banned (“they have no outlets now except themselves, and that’s a sacrilege” (31)), we still able to see into a lustful, rebellious mind. Though the government has began to view women’s sexualness as dangerous and cover them head to toe, the main character still has a sexual drive, even if she can not express it. She is even rebellious with people, and clings to the memories:
“In returning my pass, the one with the peach colored mustache bends his head to try to get a look at my face. I raise my head a little, to help him, and he sees my eyes and I see his, and he blushes…it’s…a small defiance of rule…but such moments are the rewards I hold out for myself” (29-30).
She even steals butter so she can smell of it later on.
“There’s a pat of butter on the side of the plate. I tear off a corner of the paper napkin, wrap the butter in it, take it to the cupboard and slip it into the toe of my right shoe, from the extra pair, as I have done before . . . . I will use the butter later tonight. It would not do, this evening, to smell of butter” (78).
“I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will. . . . There were limits, but my body was nevertheless lithe, single, solid, one with me. . . .Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I’m a cloud, congealed around a central object. . . . Every month there is a moon, gigantic, round, heavy, an omen. It transits, pauses, continues on and passes out of sight, and I see despair coming towards me like famine. To feel that empty, again, again. I listen to my heart, wave upon wave, salty and red, continuing on and on, marking time” (88).
Her body used to belong to her and was used for pleasure, but not it only exists to make children for someone else. The moon and salty red wave signifies her period which she does not want because it means she is not yet pregnant, her only goal in life.
I like that you highlight subtle forms of agency in your second bit of commentary, Natalie. The patriarchy isn't all-powerful and deterministic...
Delete"The read gloves are lying on the bed. I pick them up, pull them onto my hands, finger by finger . . . The skirt is ankle-length, full, gathered to a flat yoke that extends over the breasts, the sleeves are full. The white wings are prescribed issue; they keep us from seeing, but also from being seen" (8).
ReplyDelete"What if I were to come at night, when he's on duty alone . . . and permit him beyond my white wings? What if I were to peel off my red shroud and show myself to him, to them, by the uncertain light of the lanterns?" (21).
The clothes the Handmaid's have to wear are meant to conceal them physically, but also serve as a symbol for the spiritual concealment they endure; they have no freedom in any way. When Offred encounters the Guardian, she day dreams of shedding the outfit, liberating herself sexually, another aspect that is repressed in these women. This not only gives readers a sense of how women are viewed in the society of the novel, but gives us an inside look at Offred's desire for freedom.
Clothes are definitely significant, Paige. They don't even let them look other women in the eye...
Delete"Aunt Lydia said it was best not to speak unless they asked you a direct question. Try to think of it from their point of view she said, her hands clasped and wrung together, her nervous pleading smile. It isn't easy for them." (18)
ReplyDelete"I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off." (39)
These passages are about Offred not having control over her life and wanting to have that. She is told not to speak and to have pity for those that abuse her, which isn't right. She is powerless in this really. In a passage she thinks she has power, but from this society she doesn't. She's in the minority of those that can bare children, and because of that she is treated as kind of an object of storage (I guess) for the children that their society needs. This society must know what they're doing is wrong since those who wear red aren't allowed near objects that they could use to terminate the fetus they carry or themselves (ex. no hangers). They know that if it was their CHOICE they would try and do so.
(If this doesn't make much sense I still have slight fever brain- I've had a low grade fever off and on since Sunday night.)
I like that you highlight these two passages. I think the second quotation really speaks to the importance of storytelling and literacy as a way to articulate one's experience in a world where women often are not in control...Be sure to bring this up in class!
ReplyDelete10. Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood 3-2-16
ReplyDelete- “As long as we do this, butter our skin to keep it soft, we can believe that we will some day get out, that we will be touched again, in love or desire. We have ceremonies of our own, private ones” (96 -97).
- “It’s an event, a small defiance of rule, so small as to be undetectable, but such moments are the rewards I hold out for myself, like the candy I hoarded, as a child, at the back of a drawer. Such moments are possibilities, tiny peepholes” (21).
The complete darkness – and it is a somewhat hidden darkness (more on this after) – that surrounds the narrator in this book is interesting to me. I’ve read dystopian novels before, but the darkness in this novel feels more realistic. The fact that she has to look for these “moments.” These small things that we do not and would not consider ‘luxuries’ by any stretch.
DeleteI think a lot of The Hunger Games, probably because it’s another dystopia, which I felt very drawn into. I think it was the first dystopia where I realized the extent of the restrictions and what it would be like to live in a society like that. Is Atwood saying that in some ways we are?
The fact that she says that she “chooses” this. Of course that makes the reader think, “Who would choose this?” But what if the other option was death? I think she is trying to justify – maybe that’s not the right word – her job, her role in the society. She has no escape.
"We still had our bodies. That was our fantasy." (4)
ReplyDelete"Where I am now is not a prison but a privilege." (8)
Though the novel takes place in a distopian society, and though our current plight as women is not as scary as the plight experienced by the characters in the novel, the themes are still very relevant to contemporary women. The novel was published in the 80's and I imagine women felt similarly. The line about being in control of bodies seems to reference Roe Vs. Wade. The other quote I chose I also felt directly referenced contemporary women because it describes how women are expected to view life. We are taught at a very young age not to complain and to count our blessings.
"We learned to whisper almost without sound. In the semidarkness we could stretch out our arms, when the Aunts weren't looking, and touch each other's hands across space. We learned to lipread, our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, watching each other's mouths. In this way, we exchanged names, from bed to bed: Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June."
ReplyDelete"Or I would help Rita make the bread, sinking my hands into that soft resistant warmth which is so much like flesh. I hunger to touch something, other than cloth or wood. I hunger to commit the act of touch."
These quotes are both early instances of touching, but specifically concerning Offred's desire to make physical contact with other people and being forbidden to do so. It further highlights the ways in which her privileges have been taken away, beyond her clothing, the white room with shatterproof glass, and the ways she is treated as property. Beyond being objectified, she (and the other handmaids) are deprived of physical contact as if to desensitize them from being human.
"Yes, ma'm, I said again, forgetting. They used to have dolls, for little girls, that would talk if you pulled a string at the back; I thought I was sounding like that, voice of a monotone, voice of a doll. She probably longed to slap my face. They can hit us, there's Scriptural precedent. But not with any implement. Only with their hands" (16).
ReplyDelete"Serena Joy lets go of my hands. "You can get up now," she says. "Get up and get out." She's supposed to have me rest, for ten minutes, with my feet on a pillow to improve the chances. This is meant to be a time of silent meditation for her, but she's not in the mood for that. There is loathing in her voice, as if the touch of my flesh sickens and contaminates her. I untangle myself from her body, stand up; the juice of the Commander runs down my legs" (95).
I'm interested in the dynamics between Serena Joy and Offred. How Serena Joy has the power above her, but Offred in a way is more powerful.