This episode discusses the literal and figurative aspects of the novel, diving into specific characters storylines and the dynamic connections between them. Also discussed is the symbolism present throughout every chapter and the gut reactions of the hosts while reading the book, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.
Link to Podcast: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i3D4MR0Cnzv1hyFSVCOp9duuYjSkmgzL/view?usp=sharing
The scene that this image was drawn to represent takes place on pages 57-60 of One Flew Out of the Cuckoo’s Nest, where McMurphy talks to Harding about Ms. Ratched and the happenings in the Ward. Eventually, responding to McMurphy calling them chickens in the discussion, Harding describes himself and the other patients as rabbits instead, “… All of us in here are rabbits of varying ages and degrees, hippity-hopping through our Walt Disney world.” (57) Due to how close to the beginning of the book this scene was, the reader has not come to an understanding of what the characters in the ward are truly thinking and feeling, and how differently they think has not truly been demonstrated. This is one of the first scenes that gives the reader insight to what is going on within the ward patient’s minds, and as the reader it was a little unsettling to me. That scene made me feel unsure about my initial thoughts that maybe patients at the ward didn’t have much of a difference mentally.
He continues the previous quote with explaining how their rabbitness relates to them being stuck in the world and their craziness, “Oh don’t misunderstand me, we are not here because we are rabbits - we’d be rabbits wherever we were - we’re all in here because we can’t adjust to our rabbithood,” (57-58). The animalistic comparison really stood out to me, and when I read this moment in the book I had an image in my mind of a giant wolf with sharp teeth making little rabbits tremble in fear and stay stuck in place. I was inspired by both the unsettling feeling this scene left me with, as well as this imagery that was left in my mind of the wolf and rabbit, to try drawing this scene. I tried to demonstrate that through my drawing; the wolf’s jaws and teeth are depicted around a rabbit - which is what Harding describes as the relationship between Nurse Ratched and the ward patients.
The drawing was designed to look similar in a few ways to some of the art styles that are shown in the book. Some of the style similarities can be seen when comparing this image to the image at the very beginning of the book, before the title page. This image (used for inspiration) shows a man curled into himself, sitting in a room with a chair and a door in the background, and his two hands are curled around his face. The drawing is black and white, and appears to be drawn in graphite or something similar. The shapes and lines used in the drawing are very sharp and angular. There is also a dynamic between lightly and darkly shaded parts of the art piece. I tried to use these three stylistic choices in my own artwork to create a similar unsettling feeling that leaves the reader a bit confused and shocked, because that is the impact this scene had on me.
The picture itself is designed to address the abstract themes and subjects of Offred’s thoughts and imagination. The background is set as what I picture the Wall looks like, with gray brick holding up the bodies killed by the rules of Gilead.
Offred is pictured through her uniform, with the bright crimson cloth covering her head to toe, except for the white veil over her head. The cigarette in her mouth represents hope and the things she wishes for as written on page 14, “The cigarettes must have come from the black market, I thought, and this gave me hope.” (14) Behind her is a wide arrangement of flowers, which represent the comparisons she has been making through the book related to flowers and seeds. She notes them when she says, “I go out the back door, into the garden, which is large and tidy: a lawn in the middle, a willow, weeping catkins; around the edges, the flower borders, in which the daffodils are now fading and the tulips are opening their cups, spilling out color,” (12), and again, “There’s a dried flower arrangement on either end of the mantelpiece, and a vase of real daffodils on the polished marquetry end table by the sofa.” (80). When Offred notices details in the setting she often talks about the flowers.
There were many artistic choices I made about what to put up on the wall, and I really wanted the Wall to hold the things that are stuck in her mind. Those thoughts seem to be mostly taken up by Luke, her daughter, her mother, and Moira. Luke is represented on the wall through the empty noose. Offred describes her feelings about the bodies on the Wall and her uncertainty on where Luke is in the world now, and whether he is alive or dead, “These bodies on the Wall are time travelers, anachronisms. They’ve come here from the past. What I feel towards them is blankness. What I feel is that I must not feel. What I feel is partly relief because none of these men is Luke. Luke wasn’t a doctor. Isn’t.” (33) In the quote she uses the past tense “wasn’t” and then switches to the present tense “isn’t,” and this demonstrates her uncertainty on Luke’s wellbeing that continues to plague her throughout the whole book, as seen when she dreams of him, “Luke, I say. He doesn’t answer. Maybe he doesn’t hear me. It occurs to me that he may not be alive,” (74) and when she thinks about what could have happened to him, “What is left of him: his hair, the bones, the plaid wool shirt, green and black, the leather belt, the work boots.” (104).
Her daughter is represented through the picture of a girl on the wall. I attached the photo to a rope in order to symbolize that the daughter Offred knows is now “dead” as she has been transformed to fit society in the same way Offred has. This can be seen when Atwood writes Offred’s memories, “You’ve killed her, I said. She looked like an angel, solemn, compact, made of air. She was wearing a dress I’d never seen, white and down to the ground.” (39)
Offred’s mother is represented through the body with overalls hanging on the Wall. This, similar to Luke, represents her uncertainty of what happened to her mother. In a memory of Offred’s she says, “I didn’t see why she had to dress that way, in overalls, as if she were young; or to swear so much.” (180). Even with their complicated relationship, Offred still yearns to see her mother, which is seen through the quote, “I wish she were here, so I could tell her I finally know this.” (181).
The last person who seems to fill Offred’s thoughts is her best friend, Moira. Offred voices Moria through her subconscious, providing commentary on the things happening in her life through what she believes Moira would say about it, and she also quotes things Moira has said, almost as if they are rules she ought to try and live by, “You can’t help what you feel, Moira once said, but you can help how you behave.” (192)
Moira’s name is written in scrabble letters because another thing that Offred dreams of is freedom from the new Gilead and society she has been forced to conform to. Offred describes the scrabble letters, “I hold the glossy counters with their smooth edges, finger the letters. This feeling is voluptuous. This is freedom, an eyeblink of it.” (139). Overall, all of the things represented in the picture and on the wall are things out of reach for Offred in her life now, and things she wishes she could have.
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