Theme - Rebellion Flashcards
• within Gilead every major character in the story engages in some kind of disobedience against the strict laws. Moira rebels most boldly disguising herself and managing to escape. Ofglens rebellion is more community minded since she works as part of an organised resistance. Though the more unexpected are the small scale rebellions from the commander and his wife. The commander, being a man has power and advantage in the regime through authority and wealth. Yet he desires a deeper emotional connection and cares enough about offred to break the law. His wife also tries to get around the strictures by setting offred up with nick to create a family. These rebellious acts from gileads privileged group add complexity to their characters and to the dystopia as a whole. Atwood intends to show that no one in the book is purely evil, and that not being so different from real-world humans.
“We yearned for the ________. How did we learn it, that talent for _____________.”
Future
Insatiability
• the novel opens with offred recalling the time she spent inside a building which we learn to be an old gymnasium. An atmosphere which holds activities that invoke the lively, happy and carefree spirit of youth. This abstract longing is explained by the fact that people of offreds age and older were alive before the United States became the republic of Gilead. Therefore remembering what the world was like before; however, their memories are vague and their nostalgia for the past turns into an unknown desire for the future. The word, “insatiability”, meaning a hunger or desire that cannot be satisfied indicates the shame associated with desire in the world of the novel. This phenomenon still exists in the world we live in today, yet is vastly exaggerated in Gilead. In this context, women’s “insatiable” desire is simply for a world in which they are free and equal.
“Waste not want _____. I am not being _________. Why do I want?”
Not
Wasted
• within this passage we see offered coming to describe the second room, which we learn is her bedroom in the commanders house. Offered notes that the rug looks like “folk art”, reflective of a cultural preference for artefacts that are handmade by women. She observes that this reflects “a return to traditional values” and the principle “waste not want”. Offreds statement that she is not being wasted highlights how women are used like tools or instruments treated with no value beyond their designated function. Once again, offred invokes the moral disdain for desire. She expresses the view that she is “not being wasted” and is strange or illogical that she should “want”. This reveals that offred has internalised the idea that women are more like objects than people and it is morally wrong for women to experience the most basic human emotions.
“Nolite te _________ ____________.”
Bastardes
Carborandorum
• offred has returned to the memory of looking around the bedroom when she first arrived at the commanders house. Recalls looking inside a cupboard and seeing engraved in a dark corner of the cupboard the phrase “nolite te bastardes carborandorum” which is Latin for “don’t let the bastards grind you down”. Offred suspects the language is Latin but cannot confirm herself as she isn’t familiar with the language. Despite her lack of understanding, the message pleases her, if only because it is a piece of secret communication which has not yet been discovered. Later in the novel, we find out that the words were written by the previous handmaid, who hanged herself. At first this seems incredibly bleak, as it suggests that the previous handmaid could not stick to her own advice and could not bare the imprisonment in the commanders house. On the other hand, there is also a note of hope within the secret message. Perhaps the previous handmaid committed suicide not as a way of giving up, but as a final act of defiance against the “bastards”. Meanwhile, offred can’t understand them, showing the power of hope and solidarity in feminine power.
“I’ve crossed no __________, I’ve given no trust, taken no ______, all is safe. It’s the _______ that terrifies me. A way out, a salvation.”
Boundaries
Risk
Choice
• offred in this passage has went for her monthly check up to the doctor and the doctor has offered to have sex with her in order to help her get pregnant, an illegal offence for which they could both be killed. Although she refuses, she is terrified not because she has done anything but because of the “choice” that is in front of her. This passage shows that offred has begun to lose faith in herself. However, in her presented isolated condition, offred is much more timid and passive, implying that resistance only becomes possible through solidarity and love. At the same time, offreds fear also emphasises just how precarious and impossible a situation she is in. She reassures herself that “all is safe” however in reality she is not safe, no matter how submissively she obeys the rules. Given these unknowable factors, it is hardly surprising that offred is so overwhelmed and terrified by the decision of whether or not to sleep with him.
“And so I step up, into _________ within; or else the _______”
Darkness
Light
• within this passage the eye has arrived at the commanders home to take offred away. Though nick has told offred that the people in the van are actually members of the resistance posing as eyes. This is somewhat supported by the fact that they refuse to tell the commander and Serena joy why they are arresting offred. The final sentence of offreds narrative describes her getting in the van unsure if she is stepping into darkness or light. Darkness in this passage symbolises suffering death and the meaningless of offreds life. Light is the antithesis of this and represents hope morality and the possibility of escape from Gilead. The final sentence leaves the reader unsure of offreds fate. This ambiguity is connected to the novels ambivalent presentation of human nature. Every major character in the narrative has the capacity to act cruel and selfishly, while also possessing at least redeeming features. Offreds unknown destiny thus emphasises the fact that people’s behaviour is difficult to predict and the fate of the world is thus equally hard to determine while the modern corruption continues to be suppressed.
