There is too much to write about I don't know where to begin, so I will start kinda in the middle. One of the main scenes that stuck in my mind was Offwaren's delivery scene. This is such an awkward scene, if I had to give birth in such conditions (god forbid) I would be petrified to say the least. I mean seriously how much more awkward can you get. You are sweating like a pig and trying to push out a life form and you have an audience of people staring at you. That would be horrendous. Yet, being a handmaid and practically being raped by a number of men as you are passed around from house to house like a peace pipe, it might not be so horrible to be idolized in such a way. I hope that reality never comes to this. This particular scene also aroused many questions. One being, one of the passage states that unbabies are rushed away and never seen again, but what about the mothers of those unbabies? Are they punished for not producing a healthy/worthy child? Questions questions..
Next, the scrabble match and these secret meetings. What is going on here, and why isn't the commander questioning why Offred knows so many words? I mean if I were to be playing scrabble with a handmaid of whom is not allowed literature of any source why would she know so many more "elegant" words. I know that it was not long ago that she was living a free life, but still wouldn't you forget certain words after that amount of time being separated from literary sources? In addition, why are these meetings being held? Does the commander seek something more then what he has in Serena Joy? Well this is obvious because he says so, but what is this leading to? Will Offred come to enjoy the commander in a loving way farther then just respect? She finds the ceremonies more enjoyable, but is there more to come of her enjoyment? This also leads me to Nick. That one night in the sitting room, was so strange. I feel like it was kind of thrown out there by the author, will we see more of this as we read on? These questions don't need answers at this moment, as I am sure that they will be answered in further reading. Just throwing them out into the void.
Moreover, I have overall enjoyed this book. I like the fact that there is a darker side to things, not everything has a silver lining. Not everything needs to go the way that the perfect fairytale would like it to. Life doesn't happen this way. Therefore, it is enjoyable to find a piece of literature that doesn't offer a bright side. The gore of the wall, and the hanging people. Staring into their crooked heads under the white sheet, it adds an interesting factor. Its gory and interesting. It adds a different aspect to the book that makes you want to keep reading. The torture, the rape, the killings..Its horrible but its reality. I'm excited to see if the books ending leads to another siver lining or more simply an end short and sweet.
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Amy,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! (one of your most substantive yet--well done!).
s for the Scrabble: because it's only three years after the fall of the U.S. (and because we know that Offred was in college with Moira), I think it's safe to assume that Offred could not only read, but might actually be a killer player (go back and think about the actual words that she spells--not only do they rack up a lot of points, some of them resound to the larger themes of the novel).
More generally, I think that part of literature's function is at times to disturb us productively--in a way that will get us thinking about things we may not normally give much though to.
Your post has certainly shown this to be true!