References to Literature in The Handmaid's Tale

“The pen between my fingers is sensuous, alive almost, I can feel its power, the power of the words it contains. Pen Is Envy, Aunt Lydia would say, quoting another Center motto, warning us away from such objects. And they were right, it is envy. Just holding it is envy. I envy the Commander his pen. It's one more thing I would like to steal.” (183)

            Writing, literature, and storytelling are constantly referenced throughout The Handmaid’s Tale. All these things are in fact forbidden to Offred ever since she became a handmaid. The forbidden nature of these things gives them a new light in her eyes and a new type of excitement. This is extremely evident when the commander invites her to play a game of scrabble for the first time.

“To be asked to play Scrabble, instead, as if we were an old married couple, or two children, seemed kinky in the extreme, a violation in its own way. As a request it was opaque.”

She addresses how mundane this would have been in a world before she was banned from writing. However, the act of telling stories is not always a positive one.  She considers the life that she’s currently living to be a giant story. This means that despite the allure of telling stories, there are still some that she would rather not tell, those of her own life. “I am trying not to tell stories, or at any rate not this one.” (60). Does this mean that she despises her own life? Is she telling her story not because she wants to but because she believes that she has to? There is so much depth to the writing references in the book that she makes us question the story being told to us. “When I get out of here, if I’m ever able to set this down, in any form, even in the form of one voice to another, it will be a reconstruction then too, at yet another remove. It’s impossible to say a thing exactly the way it was, because what you say can never be exact, you always have to leave something out.” (144)

Storytelling, writing, and literature are all reoccurring themes in the Handmaid’s tale, and give us another perspective to look at the book through.

Is it the End of Men?

Hana Rosin’s argument in her controversial article The End of Men starts out steadily enough, with somewhat even argument, stating viewpoints from both sides. Soon after that however, the arguments that she uses in her article take a turn for the worse. “A role reversal is under way” she says, that masculinity was the most prominent characteristic at one point in our history. She claims that “women work better than men, live longer, and learn better” than men. It’s easy to see how these generalizations have been put on women through statistical analysis of the population, but I don’t see how it’s related to a change in the views that western culture has on the relationship between men and women. Lastly, as opposed to a reversal of roles I truly believe that there’s a balancing in roles. My experiences in ASL have truly taught me about the inevitable equality between both genders. There isn’t so much a complete reversal as there is a shift towards balance that I see on a daily basis. In addition to this, her statements about how masculinity was viewed as one of the most common attributes of leaders and powerful people in history severely downplay the role of women in history. I showed my mother, who was raised in a convent, these two articles and she had one thing to say about both of them. She said, “If women could’ve become more dominant than men, they would’ve a long time ago.” Although it sounds somewhat sexist now that I type it out, what my mother actually meant was that no one of either gender truly wants to take the place of the other. It’s simply ridiculous to believe that women could play every role in society because of the innate genetic differences in our makeup. I believe that Hana Rosin’s focus on the differences in gender is a one stuck in the past. It’s the similarities between the two genders that have really allowed for social progress to be made, as we become a more balanced and equal society. The emphasis that she puts on western civilization is also inaccurate, my family lives all over the world and from first hand experience I can safely say that the role of women in modern times was brought forth by equal desire from both sexes for true equality.

Brainwashing in The Handmaid's Tale

            The Republic of Gilead is one filled with people in transition. Its citizens have been taken out of their relatively free lives and put into the republic of Gilead thanks to some disaster.

            As a direct result, these people experience a sort of sorrow that comes as a result of losing the lives that they once cherished. It is widely believed by the government and it’s officials, such as Aunt Lydia, that while the current population wishes for it’s old life back, the next generation will not know any different and be completely complacent throughout their lives.

            Brainwashing comes in many forms throughout the book and doesn’t seem to truly work on Offred. This soon changes as we go further and further into the novel. She first witnesses a loss of free will as she sees Moira in ‘the club’. Moira, a girl who once escaped the government’s captivity is now perfectly satisfied with the life she lives. “So here I am. They even give you face cream.” (261) She says to Offred, who is shocked by her acceptance of her new life.

Brainwashing takes place in many forms and it can be done indirectly. Offred’s free will is stripped away piece by piece. She simply doesn’t wish to have it anymore. The circumstances of her life only provide pain when confronted with the mindset that she held before the formation of The Republic of Gilead. After sleeping with Nick, she even says, “I would like to be without shame. I would like to be shameless. I would like to be ignorant. Then I would not know how ignorant I was.” (275) In this quote, she almost wishes that the she hadn’t resisted Gilead’s indoctrination.

            As she slowly gives in to the ever-present societal pressure, she begins to say things that shock even her, “Things are back to normal.” Without pause, she immediately says, “How can I call this normal?” (294) She goes on to describe how everything is relative and how this has essentially become normal for her.

            Time is a key part of the conditioning Gilead’s been applying to the people under it’s rule, and with the loss of any resistance on both Offred and Moira’s part as well as others who share their views, it’s finally working.

            

Religion in the Handmaid's Tale

            Religion is the foundation of Gilead’s formation. It is a republic based on religious dogma from the Old Testament skewed cover up the real wishes of the Gilead elite.

            Their use of Christianity is only a means to an end. There’s never any mention of people willingly praying, going to church, or even using the accepted greetings of their own accord. They do these things out of fear, fear that they will be thrown out of civilization or worse, tortured and killed.

            The Christianity that we know is extremely different to the one that we are currently familiar with. In Gilead it’s normal for a married man to sleep with others besides his wife. It’s normal to treat the different genders differently and to prohibit anything deemed ‘sinful’.

            My family from my mother’s side is Catholic and if I were to illustrate the morals shown in the Handmaid’s Tale they would be disgusted. Not only that, but they would claim that the religion being followed isn’t a Christian one.

            I believe anything can be interpreted in many ways, and when you pick and choose from the bible, you could end up with anything you want. The very first part of the book illustrates three quotes, one of them justifying the use of handmaids. “and she said, behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.” (Genesis) Does a simple quote from the bible make something acceptable? In The Republic of Gilead it does.

            During the women’s prayvaganza, we see the worst of this come to life. They’re using the old testament of the bible to justify inequality between the two sexes. “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.” (233) This quote tells us that woman should be in constant subjection to men. Later on we hear him say, “Notwithstanding she shall be saved by childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.” This basically tells women that their only use in life and method to salvation is childbirth.

            If these ideas of inequality and injustice were brought to the modern times we would all be disgusted by them and reject them immediately, but through gradual change, indoctrination, and force, the Republic of Gilead was able to make this a reality.

The Use of Language in The Handmaid's Tale.

In the handmaid's Tale, we see the use of language being corrupted by the Republic of Gilead. The english language has been changed and warped to suit the new society and the needs of it's elite. Now that women are no longer legally allowed to hold jobs, Gilead's system of titles that are given to men are the only way of determining any individuality. All individuality has been taken away from the women of the society as they are defined as wives, handmaids, or marthas and have their real names taken away from them. Feminists and deformed babies are deemed subhuman, known in Gilead as "unwomen" and "unbabies". Others such as blacks and jew are known through biblical terms ("Children of Ham", "Sons of Jacob). These names set them apart from the rest of society. These names are given to people in order to make their persecution a much simpler process, people are called 'unwomen' and are sent away just as those called 'rapists' or 'murderers'.
People no longer greet each other in the same way either, terms like "hello" and "goodbye" have all but been obliterated from the language and have been replaced with phrases like "praise be" and "under his eye". These new words are used to root out the disloyal from the mass population, as not using them is a sign of betrayal.
Gilead is host to a whole new set of rituals that we have never seen before, given new terms in an attempt to dissociate the rituals from what they truly are. "prayvaganzas" are necessary and a way of promoting propaganda as well as marrying arranged couples en masse. "Salvaging" is the new word for a public addressing and executing of criminals. Worst of all perhaps are "particicutions", the group slaughter of a single individual. It's a new type of ritual, one we would never see right now.
The perversion of language through the supression of freedom, literature, and certain subjects is extremely reminiscent of "newspeak" in George Orwell's 1984 which is an extreme version of this.
Together, the language changes in Gilead that we are witness to all serve the purpose of serving the will wills of the Commander's and their interpretation of the religion they follow. It's a form of policing the population, removing individuality, and cover up real meanings.