Mirror

“Maybe it’s just something to keep the wives busy, to give them a sense of purpose. But I envy the Commander’s wife her knitting. It’s good to have small goals that can easily be attained.” (Chp 3 pg 13)

March 2020 I was forced into isolation and changed forever at the hands of Covid. I didn’t know then how drastically my life would change or the events that followed after that. Looking back at that time, I was young fresh out of middle school and put into high school virtually with no sense of who I would become. As I battled quarantine and the ability to keep myself occupied, I envy those older than me who continued to work and provide. I had no clue as to why I felt this way then but I knew this feeling would linger. As I got older and quarantine ended, I occupied myself with sports. For the majority of my high school years, I felt the desire to find my purpose in this world. As we read The Handmaid’s Tale, I realize in some ways I connected to moments Offered would have. This moment specifically, where she talks of the Wives knitting for children. I felt this connection since I’ve always battled what I wanted to do with my life. To this day I am aware I want to be an engineer, but I overwhelm myself with the thought of that being my purpose.

“What we are supposed to feel towards these bodies is hatred and scorn. This isn’t what I feel” (Chp 6 pg 33)

Reading this quote, I thought of the time where George Floyd was unfortunately killed at the hands of the police. During this time, there was an outrage from millions of people around the world. I agreed with this outrage however the hate towards all policemen, I couldn’t find it within myself to feel this way towards them. I’ve always had good encounters with the police, and I don’t say this to dismiss their actions. From my perspective, I always see good in people who may have not been so good. I believe my reasoning for this is because of how I was raised, and my take on certain issues. This situation specifically, the police are human and as humans we make countless mistakes and those follow with consequences. However, to hate someone because of what they did is something I couldn’t bring myself to do at the time. This section of the book, Offered see the bodies of those who have gone against Gilead’s social norms. Though what they have done could have not been morally wrong, those in power made the discretion that it was and that cost their life. I believe as a reader that Offered had some sense of this understanding and that caused her to not feel hate towards them. So in my situation where social media users were in power and had an influence on how those felt at the time, I too felt like offered and didn’t have any ill feelings.

“If I thought this would never happen again I would die.” (Chp 18 pg 103)

You wake up before the sun comes up, brush your teeth and get ready for school for about 180 days out of the year. I believe most of us do this for somebody or even ourselves. In this moment of “The handmaid’s tale”, Offered talks about her love for luke and how it motivates her to keep going in gilead society. In some way we are all Offered in this moment. I related to this quote a lot, this being because I am the oldest to four little sisters. When it comes to any activity or simple things I do in my life, I remind myself that not only am I doing it for me but I have four little girls looking up to me. When I cannot motivate myself no longer I think of my sisters and the type of example I would be leading but just giving up. Offered does this alot when mentioning Moira, Luke or her daughter. She uses them as hope any moment where she feels upset. As for myself, I caught myself at times not wanting to go on with something due to my lack of motivation, so in some ways my family is my hope.