Handmaid Tale Blog #5: Unpacking Quote

Ross Schonberg

Ms. Gubanich

English

May 15, 2016

Unpacking pg 275 Quote

In the book The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, we have learned more about the society that Offred has become apart of. As the story is moving forward, we see more ceremonies and rituals take place, which gives us more insight into how Offred feels about this world around her. While Offred is watching the ceremony she says, to herself, “A collective murmur goes up from us. The crimes of others are a secret language among us. Through them we show ourselves what we might be capable of, after all”(275 Atwood).

First, at the time Offred was saying this, she was at a woman’s “Salvaging” ceremony, which is basically a large-scale execution. The ceremony takes place at an old college, on top of a stage “but this stage is not the same after all, because of the three wooden posts that stand on it, with loops of rope”(273 Atwood). As Offred is in the crowd of Handmaids and Wives, Aunt Lydia is the one who is leading the ceremony. The ceremony begins and “on the stage, to the left, are those who are to be salvaged: two Handmaids, one wife”(273 Atwood) to which Offred says that it is not common for a wife to be salvaged.

The best way unpack the main quote is to break it up sentence by sentence. The first sentence in the quote is “A collective murmur goes up from us”(275 Atwood). This part of the quote doesn’t have a whole lot of deeper meaning to it other than that they have basically been “trained” to know when to be quiet and do as they are told and to watch the ceremony. Then, the second sentence in this quote is “The crimes of others are a secret language among us”(275 Atwood). Offred says that the crimes are a secret language, because everyone already knows what they are being killed for without anyone actually saying it, which was that the two handmaids could be in trouble for trying to kill their commander’s wife, and that the Wife was being hanged for killing her Handmaid, but Aunt Lydia refuses to share what they are truly being killed for since “we found that such a public account, especially when televised, is invariably followed by rash, if I may call it that, an outbreak I should say, of exactly similar crimes.”(275 Atwood). Although Offred will never know the exactly what happened, she (probably) at least understands why they happened. For the Handmaids, they probably were sick and tired of being treated poorly by the wives who looked down on them as sluts. As with the wife, whose motive probably stemmed from jealousy, not being able to have sex with the commander, thus having to have the Handmaid sleep with him, making the Wife feel useless. Lastly, for the final sentence in the quote: “through them we show ourselves what we might be capable of, after all”(275 Atwood). With this part of the quote Offred is saying that she too could commit a crime similar to these, but she doesn’t, mainly because Gilead has enforced these rules so strongly and have instilled fear into the people. This entire quote also foreshadows how the book ends. The quote has some “open-endedness” to it, like how Offred really doesn’t know what caused them to be hung. The end of the book is just like this quote, because at the end of the book Offred is taken away and we don’t ever really know why. So with both this quote and the ending of the book they leave it open for the reader to guess what happened, while also giving them some options, like how there were a few options as to why the women were hanged, and at the end of the book Offred is with Nick as she is being taken away, and he says to her “It’s all right. It’s Mayday. Go with them”(293 Atwood). This doesn’t necessarily mean that she is safe, it could be a trap to get her and take her away to be tortured or killed, but the reader will never have an actual answer, for both the quote and the ending.

In conclusion, this is a very powerful quote that says a lot about the world Offred lives in and how there isn’t always black and white in her society, much of what happens is covered in the grey area. This also shows that Offred does understand what Gilead is like and how she won’t always get answers. So, the quote certainly speaks volumes and tells a lot more than just about a simple hanging.

Handmaid Tale Blog #4: Problem with men

Ross Schonberg

Ms. Gubanich

English

May 10, 2016

Problem With Men

In the book A Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, we have learned more about the relationship between Offred (the main character) and the commander, who basically owns her. From previous parts of the story we have learned that their relationship is getting stronger and closer. As they are getting closer, the commander has begun to open up to Offred, and says to her “the problem wasn’t only with the women…. The main problem was with the men”(210 Atwood),

In this part of the story Offred and the commander have been having their little “get-togethers” for a decent amount of time and so one night when they are talking he talks This quote certainly says a lot about the roles men and women in this dystopian society and what the roles were like prior to the society. What the commander was trying to say about how “the main problem was with the men”(210 Atwood) was that, before the days of the Republic of Gilead, men were always meant to take care of and control the women. Once Gilead was created, the women were kept safe and did not need to be controlled or kept safe from any harms, because there are no harms, so basically “There was nothing for men to do”(210 Atwood). Of course the men did and still have sex to control, like how the commander talks about how “the sex was too easy”(210 Atwood) and that he could always just hire a prostitute. In the book, this quote (and the context around it) is also telling us a little bit more about the commander on an emotional level, and how he feels kind of useless, so him opening up to Offred, makes her feel kind of equal, since “Right now I’m not afraid of him. It’s hard to be afraid of a man who is sitting watching you put on hand lotion.” (210 Atwood). To add more emotional baggage on to the commander, he is always feeling guilty about the previous handmaiden that he would secretly talk to, who got caught by Sarena, his wife, and the handmaiden ended up killing herself. So from then on the commander also feels as if he needs to make sure that Offred is okay, so that she too doesn’t end up killing herself. This is very similar to a part of a paper we have read in our class, which talks about how men do not open up about how they are truly feeling, the connection between these two papers is that the commander feels that he is close enough with Offred, to the point that he can trust her with his sharing his feelings and guilt.

In conclusion, this quote speaks volume about the commander and how he feels in this society of equality. In a way it is almost understandable for him to think this way, since he is the commander of the house and even though there is less for him to do, he still needs to be the leader. So the relationship between Offred and the commander has gotten much deeper and more personal than Offred had imagined, as she is learning (and remembering) new (and old) things, and it doesn’t seem that she want’s it to stop.