Sounds of Gilead

Sailor Song By Gigi Perez: (https://youtu.be/1lrFsXkT_rM)

Sailor Song by Gigi Perez reflects on queer relationships in a society that isn’t accepting. The lyric, “love me like a sailor,” signifies that love is a commitment and true love endures the highs and lows of life, like a sailor enduring the rough sea. In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Gilead bans any real relationships. The government forcefully separated Offred and Luke. Luke’s whereabouts are still unknown, and Offred has become a Handmaid. Her duties aren’t easy; even so, she still loves Luke and chooses to believe that he is waiting for her. While thinking about him, she tries to believe, “they didn’t catch him or catch up with him after all, that he made it, reached the bank… It comforts me to dress him warmly” (105). She remains hopeful that he is free and comfortable, even though she is living in oppression. Her mindset is similar to how mothers love their children and constantly wish the best for them. Offred shows commitment and love towards Luke when Serena suggests she produce a child with Nick. She recalls, “One and one and one and one doesn’t equal four” (192). The mathematical equation makes sense; however, she is referring to how Luke is more valuable to her than Nick or the Commander, thus they aren’t interchangeable. Even as society has forcefully pulled Offred and Luke apart, her love for him is enduring.

Friend By Benson Boone: (https://youtu.be/GF7_KGSJjTM)

Friend by Benson Boone expresses loneliness and longing for friendship. The narrator of the song has been running alone in the world, desperately craving emotional connections and support. Boone writes, “I’ve been on my own, tryin’ to carry this alone. Only so much weight my back could take, I’m sinking like a stone.” This shows that loneliness is exhausting, and over time, it emotionally and physically erodes people down. Friendship is a support system that helps you when you feel lost or stressed. In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Offred feels alone. She often talks to Ofglen and sometimes the Commander, but she feels empty. She is constantly asking people about her friend Moira, who ran away from the Red Center. While they were both still in the center, she says, “It makes me feel safer, that Moira is here” (71). Moira was someone who understood Offred because they were friends, and that made Offred feel safe to see a familiar face. But after so much time alone, away from Moira, she began to crave an emotional bond, but she says, “There’s nobody here I can love” (103). Everyone around Offred seemed like coworkers. The Marthas made her food, and the other Handmaids were just like her. No one understood her like Moira did. Finally, when she reunited with Moira at the hotel, her response was, “I touch her arm again. Then I begin to cry” (242). This shows that Offred was broken from being alone for so long; she cried when she saw Moira again. But it also shows the depth of the bond between the two friends because crying in front of someone is a sign of vulnerability and trust. Like the narrator in the song, Offred really needed a friend, and Moira was that friend.

Simple Joys By Yanti Niels: (https://youtu.be/f2JPXjCj0Fs)

Simple Joys by Yanti Niels reflects on all the little things in life that make life better. In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, there isn’t much joy in Gilead. Women are banned from reading and playing games. The most that Offred can do is go on walks and speak quietly with Ofglen. When the Commander secretly asked Offred to play Scrabble, the readers can see her light up with happiness like a child. She states, “The feeling is voluptuous. This is freedom, an eyeblink of it… What a luxury. The counters are like candies, made of peppermint, cool like that” (139). This moment shows that Offred was having fun playing Scrabble. The words “voluptuous,” “freedom,” “luxury,” and “candies” have very positive and happy connotations. Similarly, these are all things that aren’t present in Gilead, showing that she is enjoying Scrabble a lot, but also that when society oppresses and restricts certain freedoms, the small things we never batted an eye at before turn into joys. While the song reminds us to appreciate the small things in life, the novel warns us of a future where the things we take for granted become forbidden.

Numb By Linkin Park: (https://youtu.be/kXYiU_JCYtU)

In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Janine was turned into a common hatred by the other women in the Red Center. While in the Red Center, she testified, “she was gang-raped at fourteen and had an abortion… She seemed almost proud of it” (71). Janine recounts the horrors of her past life, which should be taken with sympathy. However, in Gilead, abortion is illegalized and having an abortion became one of the worst crimes a woman could commit. In her moment of vulnerability, rather than receiving caring words, the other women chanted, “Her fault, her fault, her fault” (72). Janine initially believed that she had done the right thing, but now feels ashamed of her actions. Similarly, the song Numb by Linkin Park refers to the feeling of being constantly reminded of your mistakes, that you become numb. You start to accept the negativity. That was the whole point of the testifying activity: to emotionally break women down and rebuild them according to Gilead’s laws and values, such as anti-abortion. Like Janine, the other women in the Red Center were also constantly judged by each other and had grown to accept the judgment as reality. They’ve grown numb.

I’m Gonna Be an Engineer By Peggy Seeger: (https://youtu.be/m1gf7JENZHI)

I’m Gonna Be an Engineer, by Peggy Seeger, released in 1979, represents the stereotypical role of women in society and the massive pay gap between men and women. In the song, the narrator wanted to be an engineer, but everyone around her pushed her towards stereotypically feminine roles, such as obeying her husband, managing the house, and having kids. On the other hand, her husband went to school and became an engineer. Later in her life, she does become an engineer, but her boss refuses to pay her equally. In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Gilead is much worse than 1979 America. The expectation for women in society is to be vessels for babies. Offred explains, “I’m a cloud, congealed around a central object” (73-74). Women aren’t seen as people in Gilead. They are a “national resource” (65). They are nothing more than their reproductive organs, the “central object.” Women aren’t just discouraged from education. They are entirely banned from reading and writing. They are forced into stereotypical feminine duties by the government, while men are allowed greater freedom and knowledge, similar to how the narrator’s husband from the song was able to pursue an education in engineering. But she was told to stay home and be a wife. Both the song and the novel show the societal oppression of women in different time periods.

In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, I was intrigued by the stark difference between the past and present societal laws and gender roles as Offred reflects on her memories while shopping on page 24. She recalls, “Women were not protected then” (24). I found myself agreeing with this statement. Offred’s past is similar to our present. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that there can be so much more the government can do to protect its citizens. In a class discussion on gender roles, Ada wrote, “I was sixteen, and I was trapped between him and the wall.” Even as children, women are subjected to sexual harassment, and they are forced to endure it because society has normalized such behavior silently. In today’s world, society suffers from the bystander effect because it doesn’t harm others if they don’t stand up.

Instead, the responsibility is pushed onto the victim. As Offred mentioned, “I remember the rules, rules that were never spelled out but that every woman knew” (24). Then she goes on to list rules that women must follow to keep themselves safe, some of which sound like basic rights, such as “Don’t go into a laundromat, by yourself, at night” (24). This moment made me pause and think about the podcasts of men talking about rape and blaming it on the victim for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, it really shouldn’t be that way; people shouldn’t have to worry about the time of day or location, unless it’s about to rain.

The rule, “keep the locks on and keep going” (24), resonated with me. I remember one day, late on the MFL, this guy in a shaggy black shirt came in on 15th street. He was high and had a knife. Throughout the entire ride, he banged on the back of the chair with the knife. Most of the time, these behaviors are out of our control, and we just have to stay away and keep moving in the opposite direction. Similarly, Aunt Lydia mentioned that in the past, people had the “freedom to” (24). In America, people are given the freedom of expression, which is great. However, there have to be limits on freedom of expression set by the government and acknowledged by the people, which don’t exist. This leads to the normalization of certain negative behaviors and arguments that certain acts of harassment are actually a form of freedom of expression. In today’s society, people are given the freedom to harm others and not be penalized for it.

On the other hand, Gilead has “freedom from” (24), which I feel ambivalent about. On the one hand, there are government regulations that prevent and punish sexual harassment. In the text, Offred states, “Now we walk along the same street, in red pairs, and no man shouts obscenities at us” (24). This system protects women from situations that we see today. They can go outside without the fear that a man will shout at them or harass them. However, this new system works by controlling and oppressing people through fear. This can be seen with the dead bodies hanging from the wall. Offred describes the bodies, “The two others have purple placards hung around their necks: Gender Treachery” (43). By hanging the bodies in public, the government is warning the citizens that they would end up dead if they tried gender treachery or even interacting with the opposite gender. To further discourage the interaction of men and women, the government assigns them gender roles. The women reproduce, cook, buy groceries, and if you were the commander’s wife, you would manage all the female servants. The men worked as guardians, angels, and the commander, who is a man, is in charge of them.

Instead of allowing their citizens to choose their partners, civil roles are assigned to males and females, such as the handmaid and the commander. The role of the handmaid is to have the commander’s and his wife’s baby, nothing more. However, even in a society oppressed of romance and love, there are still “flowering of secret lusts” (136) that happen in the shadows. In a society that is void of love, people start to crave it, as shown by these two examples. The first is when Offred realizes, “It’s lack of love we die from. There’s nobody here I can love, all the people I could love are dead or elsewhere” (103). I find this statement true; everyone needs a sense of love and belonging. It’s a major part of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In Offred’s case, love and intimacy are taken away from the process of reproduction. There is no emotional bond between her and the commander, and everything is taken as a job. To everyone around her, she is just a “national resource” (65). We can better see this in the second example, after the Commander receives a kiss from Offred. He says, “As if you meant it” (140). He also craved intimacy and love, which he couldn’t achieve in a society that prevents people from forming relationships. He tries in secret with Offred; however, she isn’t allowed to show intimacy, as it’s illegal.

The final line, when Aunt Lydia says, “Don’t underrate it” (24), puzzled me. How can someone support a society that strips away all human needs and rights in exchange for freedom from sexual harassment? In certain ways, Gilead is better than the past. Women are protected in public. However, they are protected as objects for reproduction, not as people. There is a trade-off between safety and freedom that is shown in this section of the text, which, Atwood warns us that if not balanced properly, can lead to societies like Gilead or a worse version of our society.

Welcome to the historic ROG a virtual city. Plague by several earthquakes, a hurricane, and volume 1 of Berserk.

Welcome to the historic ROG a virtual city. Plague by several earthquakes, a hurricane, and volume 1 of Berserk.