The passage I chose to focus on from The Handmaid’s Tale is from Chapter 10, where Offred reflects on her mother and her mother’s feminist activism.

The text: “My mother was a poster for Planned Parenthood. She wore a button once to a dinner party. It was a fake fetus in a bottle with the words ‘you don’t want one of these in your womb.” My mother was a true believer. I remember the way she would talk about the revolution, the way her eyes would light up. Her voice will become urgent. She was always getting into trouble, always pushing boundaries. I used to be embarrassed by her, but now I see her differently.”

As I read this kind of hit with the complexity of Offred’s feelings towards her mom. On one side of the scale, she remembers her mother‘s passion and conviction, the way she would light up a room when talking about the revolution. This light of her mother is one of her strengths and characteristics of someone unafraid to challenge societal norms and push boundaries. On the other side of the scale, Offred also mentions being embarrassed by her mother’s activism, which kind of highlights that she struggled with expectations and pressure that came with being a child of a feminist pillar in a community. This text resonates with me on a level because it highlights the different aspects of relationship in which way that we see our parents and how they can shift overtime and as Offred reflect on her mom’s actions, she begins to see her in a new light as a strong and confident individual who is willing to take risk and fight for what she believes in this perspective, change is extreme in this book, especially when the oppression the regime gives and the pressure over it lives under where women’s bodies are controlled and picked apart every single day. This also makes me think about the theme of motherhood in the book, and in Gilead, motherhood is very twisted and kind of diluted, with women being forced into having kids and stripped of their rights. However, Offred’s memories of her mother serve as a turning point, highlighting the ways motherhood can be a source of taking back the empowerment that has been taken in this world. Her mother‘s activism or traits that Offred admires serve as a source of power in her oppressed world. This also highlights the tension between people and comfort, and comfortability over mom was a believer. Someone who refused to be put into a box of the societal norms that they live in, in contrast to it, on the other hand, handmaids were forced down into a box where the regulations of Gilead were the only way. This contrast between her and her mom can highlight how feminist progress can roll back into activism and resistance. I also see my emotional response to this passage, seeing Offred’s memories with her mom and how strong she could be as a feminist as a mother, it makes me think of my mom, who chose to continue with motherhood by herself, it makes me think about the importance of preserving memories and the activists who pave the way for future generations. This also made me think about how memory plays a very large part in our lives. Offred‘s mom‘s memory serves as a source of comfort and power. Still, it also highlights the realness of the human experience in the world, where memories can be so easily distorted or forgotten about, oh, it’s memories of her. Mom is a testament of strength and determination to get out of oppression. In the text, I put it at the top. It’s a quote where imagine a fake fetus in a bottle I feel as though that’s really powerful and highlights the importance of reproductive rights, and in the context of the Gilad, the handmaids are forced to wear red robes, symbolizing the regime’s reproductive ideology, and the image of the fetus in a bottle serves as a reminder of which way women’s bodies are controlled in in the Gilead. This passage has deepened my understanding of a novel’s theme and the characters that go into it, highlighting a lot of relationships between moms and daughters and the importance of preserving memories and history so feminist progress can be moved forward instead of backwards.

God´s Plan - Drake

Book Quote ¨Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. ¨

Song Lyric: ¨Might go down a G.O.D. I go hard on Southside G¨ Drake

Drake’s God plan reflects the tension between fate and resistance that runs through The Handmaid’s Tale. The Latin phrase carved into Offred’s closet Don’t let the bastards grind you down ‘becomes her Mantra or survival. Similarly, Drake frames his entire path as both guided and personally defiant, pushing through obstacles with faith and persistence. His lyric about God’s plan resonates with Gilead’s obsession with religion and Destiny, but it takes it to another level through its perspective. The regime claims authority; however, her survival is on her own quiet resistance. While Drake’s Anthem celebrates success and blessings in the novel, it becomes ironic that God’s supposed plan is twisted into control. This mirrors Red’s resilience on memory solidarity and hope that can carry her forward, and a system that was made to break her down.

Wicked Games- The Weeknd

Book Quote: ¨When we think of the past, it’s the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like that.¨ Chapter 23

Song Lyric: ¨Bring your love, baby, I could bring my shame.¨ Offred’s longing for her past her husband, her child, and her freedom contrasts with the shame that is imposed on her body by Gilead. The Weeknd’s confession of brokenness and using love as an escape aligns with Offrend’s moments of passion with Nick. It is love as rebellion, sex as survival, and memory as the only anchor. Atwood’s quote about remembering only the “beautiful things” mirrors how Offred clings to past intimacy with Luke, yet uses Nick as a present refuge. Like the song, her sexuality becomes both freedom and burden, a wicked game she cannot fully win but cannot abandon either.

Bad Religion- Frank Ocean

Book Quote: ¨Better never means better for everyone… it always means worse for some.

Song Lyric: ¨if it brings me to my knees, it’s a bad religion.¨

Frank Ocena’s song about unrequited love directly connects to Gilead’s corrupted theology. Religion has become the justification for oppression. Frank’s refrain about kneeling to ¨bad religion¨ becomes a beautiful metaphor for the forced prayers, ceremonies, and rituals that strip women of power. It’s a cry but also a critique of faith warped into oppression. Offred recognizes the lie in the Commander’s claim that their new world is “better.” For the women, this faith is not salvation but oppression. The song’s aching tone reflects Offred’s inner conflict: faith should uplift, but in Gilead it becomes a prison disguised as holiness.

Haunted- Beyonce

Book quote: ¨we were the people who were not in the paper.¨ Chapter 10

Song Lyric: ¨ I know if I’m haunting you, you must be haunting me¨

This track captures Offred’s constant feeling of being watched by the eyes of the commander and other handmaids. However, it also speaks to how the past haunts her. Her husband, Luke, and her daughter are like ghosts in her mind, haunting her daily existence. Beyoncé’s eerie delivery captures the tension between desire and fear that rules life under Gilead. Also, Beyoncé’s lyric about mutual haunting reflects the way Offrend and the system are locked in an unbreakable relationship. She resists silently, but Gilead itself haunts her every thought. The eerie tones of the song mirror the suffocating atmosphere of the novel, where silence, whispers, and the wretched eyes define existence.

Freedom Beyonce: Book Quote: “Better never means better for everyone… It always means worse for some.”

Song Lyric: “I’ma keep runnin’ Cause a winner don’t quit on themselves.”

Beyoncé’s Freedom embodies the resilience buried within The Handmaid’s Tale. The commander justifies Gilead as a better society, yet Offred realizes that this so-called progress is built on suffering. Beyonce’s lyric, ¨Imma keep runnin’ cause a winner dont quit on themselves, ¨ resonates as a rallying cry for the handmaids who endure oppression while holding onto fragmenst og hope. Though stripped of names, voices, and rights, they resist destruction by surviving. The rhythm of the song mirrors the suppressed march of women forced into silence. Offred’s daily acts of remembering her daughter, narrating her story, and finding moments of love echo Beyoncé’s refusal to surrender. Lines like ¨im telling these tears, go and fall away¨ capture the determination to endure the pain without letting it define identity. In Gilead, grief is constant, yet persistence is a form of rebellion. Kendrick Lamar’s verse about breaking chains directly parallels the Handmaid’s reality. Though trapped in ritual and law, they dream about freedom, cutting themselves loose. Beyoncé’s repeated cry ¨freedom Freedom I can’t move cut me loose!¨ becomes an anthem of all women in Gilead, always being silenced, controlled, but not broken. It is the sound of endurance that turns into resistance.

My notebook during this quarter really did help me a lot. One way it helps I would write down anything that would come to mind for table collaboration and reading at home or in school. another way is it kept me organized and that says a lot because I’m not the most organized person when to writing or taking notes. I feel that I could use this notebook to the fullest extent is just writing what I think is important there are no wrong annotations.

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