Thursday, April 30, 2009
blog 7 the last post
blog 6
blog 5
The handmaid's tale is a very interesting story, i like the later chapters when Offred gets to be with the commander and speak to him as she would to a regular person before the society was created. I like how she and the commander can be together and talk, without anything sexual in mind. Playing scrabble, reading and conversing about past times and everything else that comes to mind. I do wonder though, why does the commander choose offred over all the other people that he could choose. i know that commanders like to be in control, but they have wives. This just proves to me that men are "sleezes" which in teenage code means perverts. They are always after something, if not a women's body. I like that Margaret Atwood uses her ideas and lets them run wild in her book.
I feel that a majority of these women are subdued into conformity and they are only pressured into conformity by fear, which i will talk about in my next blog entry.
Back to the book, i feel that as though Atwood at first seemed to make her female characters really fragile, but over time i can see that she starts to give them more masculine qualities like how Oflgen kicked the man in the head really hard. She kicked him to put him out of his misery because he was trying to save these women from the society. I thought that was a redemption quality that Atwood uses to justify that not all men are pigs. I hope that the book only gets more intense and better from here.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Blog 4
So far I have read about Offred's journey and what she has faced as her time as a handmaid. She helped with Janine's birth and she has witnessed the selfishness of the wives and what they think is theirs with no consideration to the birth mother. I also can tell now that the commander likes Offred, and I can see that he wants something more with her. Not out of lust, but more out of love. The commander possibly wants love and a relationship with Offred because he always makes her come back to play scrabble night after night. He also asks for her to kiss him-passionately. A handmaid can not be nothing more but a birth giver to the family she is sent to, therefore being more than a handmaid to Serena Joy's home would be disastrous. Handmaids, as we all know are just birth givers and of the lowest on the chain of education. Handmaids can not read, they can not be literate, which we discussed in class is the opportunity to analyze, read and write. Handmaids apparently while watching porno movies can read, since there were biblical inscriptions on the mattresses and other materials that were in the movies, as if they were meant to be seen. In the book it says that these women would see it and then gasp as if it was meant to be seen or to be interpreted. My critical reading partner, Kimberly and I have also discussed that while reading, we read questionable moments that the author brings up. We have absolutely no idea what the author is trying to portray, but we try to interpret it the best way we can, by substituting a word and adding it back into context. I like reading this book, because it is filled with ideas and thoughts of the character and not just third person omniscient, it adds to mystery and is very interesting.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
The Handmaid's Tale
In the handmaid's tale, they talk about buildings that dont have store names with words, but images. The stores do this so that women do not read or learn how to read. Offred however, already learned how to read since she had attended college before and was able to read and write. When the commander wanted to play scrabble with offred, it was a chance to seduce her, and scrabble is an illicit game because it involes a lot of contact. You have to look at the person and you also have to touch pieces, hand them over, etc. This also shows that women are vulnerable and have to do whatever a man, or a higher superior says to do.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Handmaid's Tale Blog #1
The sex ritual that they have seems really religious, before Offred was to have sex with the commander to create babies, there was a special ritual that had to happen before any sex took place. I think that the commander's wife is jealous of the handmaids because they can no longer have babies, and thats why when Offred first stepped into the commander's wife's house, she warned her right off the bat that her husband was only hers and no one elses and it shall remain that way. That shows that the commander's wife wats to have children, but the fear of losing her husband to another woman is most definitely frightening so the commander's wife is mean and strict. The marthas are people that do the housework around the house and do as they are told. They wear green, I think, I'm not sure. Handmaids wear red, and as Holleigh was talking about today, red symbolizes fertility and sin. So handmaids having sex is a sin for having it with a man not their counterpart, and they need fertility to conceive babies. The wives all wear blue.
The handmaid's tale is quite interesting, because I would not have thought that there could be a society such as this where women are set into different standards and once again, men are given more freedom. The women are more restricted to what they can and can not do. Women can not talk or make eye contact with men, they can not be lustful. The men, like the limo driver, Sam, can hit on a woman, but a woman like Offred is not allowed to respond in any way. The women have to talk a certain way, and are not allowed to communicate or gossip with other women.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
When It Changed
Katharina, Katy and their daughters are an interesting bunch. Yuki, a very curious child wonders and questions everything that she can. They are like any other average family, except that they have two mothers that are able to conceive without any insemination. Instead, they perform parthenogenensis, which is the tying of the "ovs." I suppose parthenogenensis is like knotting two ovaries together to make a baby, which I think is physically impossible.
Whileaway people are all women, I suppose that there are only women on that planet, because 6 centuries ago there was an epidemic that only affected the men. When the earth men came and tried to assert themselves to bringing men up to the planet, I thought that they had no right and it was definately degrading to the people of the Whileaway. Katy and Katharina should have shot the volitile men when they had the chance. I feel that if someone had come to my home and tried to change everything to best benefit what they think is better for the home, I would have smacked that person silly. I feel that just because women are considered more fragile and dainty people that women are subjected to taking orders from men. This story definitely proves my claim that women are considered inferior to men. However, Katy and Katharina are nothing near inferior. The scar that stretched from temple to chin on Katharina's face shows that she can withstand a blow and fight back, Katy's adventurous hiking in the woods without a weapon or driving in the night with absolute confidence shows that she is not afraid to take risks. Their daughter, Yuriko, a curious young individual questions everything and wants to know about everything. Yuriko isn't afraid to approach an object she deems interesting, which shows that she is courageous.
The Madam President, is apparently the one that makes decisions for the people of Whileaway. That is a very big and very burdensome role. These women, strong and able to find confidence and order in themselves have been capable of maintaining Whileaway for 6 centuries without men, if men from earth suddenly decide that they want to inhabit the planet, I feel that the women of Whileaway should rebel and fight back. They have a population of 30 million - with numbers like that, nothing is impossible for them. They are technologically advanced like Earth people and are capable of building empires and cities. These women don't need men from Earth to complete their way of living.