Lit log

Luke decided to be the one to solve their predicament. He told Offred he’d “take care of it”. Offred immediately knows he plans on killing the cat. She sits there as he goes to find the cat and she doesn’t move until after he’s done. “You have to create an it, where none was before. You do that first, in your head, and then you make it real.” (193) Offred justified Luke calling the cat “it” by saying that’s how he was able to go through with it. She said that making the cat an it would make it easier, that simply calling their cat it would make it really an it. I understand that Offred and Luke trying to detach themselves from their cat and trying to make this easier for them. That doesn’t mean that they were right though. Simply saying “it” instead of “her” is not enough to make that decision any easier. I know that very well because my mom tried to do the same thing. She tried to make me feel better about losing my cat by suggesting we could just get another cat the next day. That didn’t change anything. No one can detach themselves from a pet that easily or quickly. That relationship exists still, no matter how much you may try to erase it. It would take someone who never truly cared for the cat to be able to go through with killing her. Sitting there and letting it happen showed how apathetic Offred was. She could have tried to argue against it but she sat there and let Luke go through with it. Unlike her, I fought back against any comments that were made about