The Handmaid’s Tale: The Hierarchical Power of men and women”

This story discusses how men and women live differently from each other. The men in this story have more power than women and have control over them as well. The women in this story must follow many of the rules. The question for this story is, how does hierarchy play in the gender roles of men and women? This story is called “The Handmaid’s Tale.” This story revolves around hierarchy, power, and gender roles.

In Chapter 23 of The Handmaid’s Tale, 

Offred said, “We are for breeding purposes. (Pg136)” This talks about how women are being treated in Gilead. The women in Gilead are being treated like a breeding machine. How I feel about this is kinda disturbing because this story is all about women being used for breeding purposes and nothing else. How I feel about this part of the story is mostly weird and confusing, because why are the women being treated like they are being used, like it is no big deal? Also, why are women even part of this in the first place, and who started this whole thing?

In Chapter 28 from pages 176-177 of The Handmaid’s Tale, 

Offred was going to the corner store to buy some cigarettes, and the usual lady that she always sees is not there, but a young man at the counter. She gave him her card to let him put the number in to buy her cigarettes, and the young man said that it was invalid. Offred thought that was a mistake and told him to try again and watch his finger punching the number in, checked the number on the window, and it showed her number; it is still invalid. So she tried to call the office, but it went straight to voicemail, saying that the line is overloaded. The line was overloaded all morning, and she tried to phone the office back several times, but no one answered. One day, the director walked into the discing room and having a talk with the female workers and Offred. The director told the female workers and Offred that they were being let go because of the law, and said that they couldn’t work there anymore. How I feel about this is kinda confusing because Offred said that her card should have money in it, but her card went invalid as if she didn’t have any money inside of it, then she tried to call the office to see why her card payment didn’t go through. All she got was a recording from the office that the line is overloaded with a bunch of calls. The lines of calls were still overloaded all morning, and she tried to call them back several times, but with no luck in sight. The second thing that got me confused is that the director told the female workers and Offred that they were being let go and couldn’t work there anymore due to law reasons. That got me really confused because what kind of law doesn’t allow women to work anymore, due to the law, and their cards getting declined when buying items? The big question is what kind of law makes women unable to even go to work anymore, and their cards are being controlled by men, like unlocking them to use their cards to buy stuff and locking them so they can’t buy anything at all?