As someone who struggles with both mental health and memory loss, Offred has been very relatable to me as a character. In Margret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale”, The main character Offred is suffering as a handmaid in this new dystopian society following the collapse of the government in America. She’s forced to be a womb and a maid. Forced to lose her past life and ultimately lose herself. It becomes very easy for her to lose herself more and more as the story progresses. The more she remembers, the more trauma is revealed in the past and she then stops herself in the midst of the memories to remind herself why she forgot those memories. My past as a human being has not been as bad as Offred’s but it wasn’t all too normal either. Being in the situations I was at the age I was caused me to lose myself and put on a persona of compliance. This caused me to lose myself in the end which also contributed to my loss in memory. I don’t want to recall when in the past I’ve been hurt so I cut those memories out to make the suffering less of a pain.

On page 30 of the book, the reader is hit with a strong poetic line that uncovers a lot about Ofrred’s character and her thinking pattern. This could lead the reader to wonder about how reliable the past Offred explains is true later in the story. “When we think of the past it’s the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like that.” Atwood seems to have portrayed Offred as this person who has a mindset of reconstructing* memories in order to fit her image of who this person she should be. It sounds like a survival instinct to blend in, in almost every way, so that you won’t die. Blending in so much that you become who you’re pretending to be. For as long as I can remember, I knew I wasn’t the gender I was assigned at birth, and it bothered me, but the household I grew up in had very negative opinions on transgender people. This led me to hide myself for a very long time, trying to fit in so much so I wouldn’t be suspected of someone who wants to be a different gender and to hide the thought that I would slip up about it. This caused me to lose who I actually was under all the pretending. The additional abuse and built-up negative memories I would have also slipped away. Why think about the bad things if they won’t get fixed? Was a thought I had frequently. I had it so much that I started forgetting my problems completely. There was never any use in thinking about things that couldn’t be helped, which led to the loss of most of my childhood memories.

The society that Offred resides in has a steady plan of internalizing misogyny in women into making them hate themselves, their bodies, and their beauty for “protection”. On page 72 were show an example of how internalized misogyny is practiced in Gilead and how it influences the handmaids into feeling about themselves. This caused them to blame themselves for countless acts of harassment and assault. “But whose fault was it? Aunt Helena says, holding up one plump finger. Her Fault, her fault, her fault, we chant in unison. Who Led them on? Aunt Helena beams, pleased with us. She did. She did. She did.” This section of the story shows the reader how the confessions go in Gilead. Janine is talking about a time she got raped and Aunt Helena responds by creating a growing chant within the crowd of women saying it was her fault and she led him on. In the society we live in today it is hard to be a woman. Being blockaded with standards to meet and men to please because our safety literally bets on how happy a man is. And, in this world, we are blamed for what happens to us in assault and harassment. If anything happens related to that the female is seen as getting what was coming to her because she was revealing. When I first came out as trans in school I was being sexually harassed multiple times by someone I thought of as a friend. When I went to tell a close friend of mine about it they responded with “Well this is what happens when you want to be a girl, you asked for it”. I immediately began hating who I was. I wasn’t allowed to feel comfortable in my skin. If I got hurt it was my fault. This is why I relate to Offred as a character and enjoy Atwood’s writing on this character in the story “The Handmaid’s Tale”.

My visual representation portrays the mass amount of symbolism in my school in the form of one big symbol. The water below and the cross-like hanging position represent the place Gilead is in while Offred is telling the story. In the show, it shows they’re in the same place where Obama made his speech. The eye above represents the influence the Eyes have on Gilead as a whole, they cause them war as well as paranoia within Gilead that their own peers may be spies from the eyes. Some say the eyes work with Gilead. The cross-like hanging position also represents the Religious influence on the world of Gilead. As we go within the story we are shown multiple times how religion is the cause of this country. The Handmaid wrapped in all the chains signifies the amount of control men have over them and even though this society was built to “Protect “ women, it does not give them basic human rights. Similar to just keeping someone in a box, as Offred said on page 165 “ A rat in a maze is free as long as it stays in the maze.” This was a reference to how she wasn’t able to travel outside of the walls and that she could go anywhere as long as she stayed within the border. She is also taught forced misogyny which we find out at the confession ceremonies in chapter 13 page 72. They are told to express the times they have been assaulted and then blame it on them. “ But whose fault was it? Aunt Helena says, holding up one plump finger. Her fault, her fault, her fault, we chant in unison, Who led them on, Aunt Helena beams, pleased with us. She did. She did. She DId. “ Atwood expresses the mass self-misogyny in the society we live in today and how that is the reason most women are brainwashed to love this life of just doing the cooking, cleaning, and bearing just like in this book, they use religion to justify their protection. They’re only used for breeding and caretaking and that’s exactly how the world is. The signs behind the handmaid represent the things Gilead actually stands for. Connecting to the freedom to and freedom from, the freedom they have in Gilead is from the hostility and abuse of men but that takes away their freedom to dress the way they want, act the way they want, and do the things they want. Even in this society of Gilead, we can see that the men have not been fully restricted for their abuse, mainly sexual abuse. There are still loopholes men go into such as the doctors who decide to touch women and use their infertility as an excuse to have sex with them. As well as the commander and his emotional connections with the handmaids and stealing and giving them things just for his pleasure and amusement since he’s lonely. The women don’t really have the freedom to or from anything at all.

The Commander in the Handmaid’s Tale has evolved and has become a bigger character as the story has progressed. When we first got introduced to his character, it seemed like he wouldn’t ever be present in Offred’s life other than the days of the Ceremony and an occasional encounter. He was made to appear unreachable to Offred because he’s at the top of the social hierarchy in Gilead. He then asked Offred to meet him 1-on-1, and it quickly made him seem less powerful and intimidating than he was before. However, this made me question what his motives were. Before their actual meeting, I thought he had harmful intentions, maybe something sexual or some sort of bad news. Instead, he asked Offred to play Scrabble. “I’d like you to play a game of Scrabble with me,” he says. I hold myself absolutely rigid”. From this moment I was convinced that the commander simply missed normal interactions instead of the controlled conversations people have in Gilead. I thought that maybe he missed some sort of romance when he asked Offred to kiss him. We explored various thoughts in class about what his true intentions could’ve been. In the discussion of chapters 21-26, some said the Commander found pleasure in showing off his power to Offred, others said he wanted to give Offred a little bit of power and normalcy. I thought he simply felt lonely and wanted to escape the boundaries and rules of Gilead.

My opinions on the Commander didn’t change until the day he took Offred to the club. All of their meetings before this had seemed harmless, even though they were dangerous for both since they were breaking the rules. Despite this, the Commander’s true intentions weren’t clear. But at this point, I felt like if he had any bad intentions, they would’ve been shown already. All he had done so far with these meetings was give Offred a form of escape from her strict routine and entertainment by letting her read books, and magazines, and play Scrabble.

When the Commander explained what the Latin saying was to Offred, and she found out that the girl from before had also been in this situation with the Commander, I then thought that he had this whole thing planned just so that the handmaids wouldn’t try and find a way out such as killing themselves. “If my life is bearable, maybe what they’re doing is all right after all.”(187). While this seemed like it was completely for the benefit of the Commander, I still found that it was a good thing for the Handmaid’s as well.

It wasn’t until chapters 36 and 37 when the Commander took Offred out to the club that his character took a complete turn and some of his thoughts were revealed. “Nature demands variety, for men. It stands to reason, it’s part of the procreational strategy, It’s Nature’s plan.”(237) When I read this I was surprised to see that what seemed to be like a character in Gilead that didn’t believe in the beliefs of Gilead, only didn’t believe them for his own messed up sexist ideas. He showed his admiration for the club and suggested working there as an alternative. “You might even prefer it yourself, to what you’ve got.”(238). What really made an impact on me while reading this was that I believed he thought the complete opposite of this, and he ended up being the embodiment of everything Gilead stood for. Gilead tries to make it seem like this way is better than what they had before. Women are “safer” and more respected but men are the only ones who actually benefit from Gilead. Even after seeing all this, Offred ignored it. “I remind myself that he is not an unkind man; that, under other circumstances, I even like him.” (254). I think the Commander’s role in this book and how he’s perceived by the readers really says a lot about our society. What the Commander believes can be seen a lot in what men in real life believe. As a woman, I feel mad that I didn’t think anything necessarily bad of him until he made it completely clear what his beliefs were. How Offred reacted to this also shows just how much women are susceptible to these things.

The chapters containing the secret club left me very confused, particularly chapter 38 where Moira was talking about her escape attempt. The only thing I could think about when reading this section was the eyes’ involvement with it. There is no way they dont know the club exists. Let’s establish that first. Throughout the book various characters are scared the rooms in the houses are bugged, if the eyes have a reach like that, there is a very small chance they don’t know about the club. During chapter 38 on page 243, when Moira and Offred are talking in the bathroom they say, “I look up at the ceiling. ‘Is it bugged?’ …. ‘Probably,’ says Moira.” The people working there assume the eyes know everything about everything all the time.

Why don’t the eyes shut it down? They seem to spend more time and energy busting smaller crimes in the gilead like a single x-handmade Moira escaping. They go through all that energy for a single person and yet there is a club with countless people breaking the rules and they don’t shut it down. This is one of those situations where the eyes could shut it down but then their whole system falls apart. all the commanders are protected because of their numbers. Maybe the eyes can afford to replace that many commanders at once. If they busted all the commanders word would spread and the act of rebellion the club symbolized might give people in the Red Center hope.

Another possibility is that the eyes let it exist so that all the trouble making and rule breaking happens in a more confined hidden away place. If the club is abolished all the rule breaking might spread to other places less hidden from the general public. Later in the chapter when Moira is talking about how she was captured something just seemed off. She said “I won’t go into what happened after that. I’d rather not talk about it. All I can say is that they didn’t leave any marks.” (248) This just doesn’t seem like Moira’s character at all. In the beginning of the book she is portrayed to be the brave reckless one, escaping, threatening to kill one of the Aunts. And now all a sudden she doesn’t want to talk about what the eyes did to her after she got caught. It seems like there wasn’t physical pain, but maybe more of a psychological torture or conditioning. Something that would alter her character into not wanting to speak on it. Possibly this is related to the earlier quote about the room being bugged.

My running theory is she told Offred too much and the eyes came back and took her. The chapter ends with a very ominous “I never saw her again.”(250) so possibly that was connected. But why did the eyes let her come back to gilead in the first place? They caught her trying to escape and they just let her come back to the club. And she seemed content at the club. Like she was done running. That doesn’t seem like her. The eyes sent her back to work at the club, so it’s confirmed that they knew about it, they just didn’t want her at the red center. The eyes seem to be weirdly human. They gave Moira a choice of what she wanted to do after she directly broke the law. Overall the chapter was very confusing to me, there’s so much mystery around the eyes and what their intent is.

The novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” shuffles a lot with the idea of religion and what that looks like for the main character. In close reading #4, it was brought to my attention that Offred deeply struggles with her religious identity. On page 195, chapter 30, Offred states, “I feel as if I’m talking to a wall. I wish you’d answer. I feel so alone”. To the readers, this reveals that, on the one hand, Offred does acknowledge that she is talking to God. Still, then, on the other hand, Offred is struggling with having faith in the fact that God is listening to her, but because she’s not getting answers to her prayers, her faith is fading. Furthermore, Even though Offred struggles with how strong her faith is, she doesn’t deny that God is a creator because, On page 195, chapter 30, Offred states, “You might even provide a heaven for them. We need you for that. Hell we can make for ourselves.” to the readers this shows that Offred is saying that Heaven is the peace that God created. Hell is what people create hence Gilead and its creation. In her eyes, Gilead is almost the representation of “hell.” The society is very dystopian, and the individual’s freedom and rights have been stripped away from them, which causes them to experience a lot of brainwashing and manipulation. This further proves that Gilead is similar to hell metaphorically, and this pushes characters such as Offred to focus on religion to cope with the loss of identity.

This piece of artwork that I created represents the moment when Offred was praying/talking to God in her room, sitting at the window. This moment is significant because I felt that the author intended to show not only Offred’s struggle but also how people in the real world may battle with having faith. The struggle of talking to God through prayer, asking him questions for guidance and clarity, and being unable to get a direct answer. I choose to create this sense in this way because not only do I believe that this is a vulnerable moment for Offred, but I also believe that this is a vulnerable moment for all people struggling with faith. This scene, among many others, indicates that religion is a significant symbol throughout the novel, and the characters experience it in many ways. The artwork represents her journey and struggles to live in this new society, and she views religion as a safety net to fall back on when there are tough times. Before this scene, the readers didn’t consider Offred a religious believer. This signifies character development and explicitly represents Gilead and how it changes people. What is being portrayed in my scene is God up in the clouds looking down at Offred while she’s praying. We don’t see God’s appearance, so he is just the clouds. Offred is sitting in her room, sitting on the window, getting a full view of her room in a gaze, asking god why she can’t see him or at least get a direct answer from her prayers.

My art piece represents multiple themes that are present in The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, religion, memory and individuality. In Gilead there is a popular chain of stores called Soul Scrolls, where you can pay to have your prayers read aloud by a machine, as many times as you want and pay for. “There are five different types of prayers: for health, wealth, a death, a birth, a sin.” (167). This commercialization of religion is exactly what Gilead represents, they even control what types of prayers people can make! Control is the reason I drew Offred is praying, even though she is not religious. Along those same lines, a halo floats above Offred head but half of it is broken off. The halo represents religion and its connection to the government. The right side of the halo (Gilead side) is still intact and shining showing how religion and state are in sync. The idea of control is why I decided to include the eye on the side of the machine, showing how the Eyes keep this control in check, always watching, even during sacred moment like prayer.

Memory is another integral part of The Handmaid’s Tale. This is why I chose to draw the old lingerie store that Offred remembers on the left side of her. Offred’s memory of the before times gets worse and worse throughout the book. Most of her memories are vivid in the beginning, she even can selectively think about the before times in her free time. “But the night is my time out. Where should I go? Somewhere good. Moira, sitting on the edge of my bed, legs crossed, ankle on knee, in her purple overalls, one dangly earring, the gold fingernail she wore to be eccentric, a cigarette between her stubby yellow-ended fingers.” (37). However towards the end of the book she talks about being erased as time passes, “Time has not stood still. It has washed over me, washed me away, as if I’m nothing more than a woman of sand, left by a careless child too near the water. I have been obliterated for her. I am only a shadow now…” (228). I portrayed this memory loss and the passing of time by drawing the world around Offred falling apart and crumbling down, giving her less and less of a foundation to stand on and stay strong with.

Isolation and individuality play a big role in the portrayal of Offred. Her description of how she prays shows this, “I pray where I am, sitting by the window, looking out through the curtain at the empty garden. I don’t even close my eyes. Out there or inside my head, it’s an equal darkness. Or light.” (194) I represented this quote by drawing Offred in the middle of everything, the only thing colored in, praying. Her individuality shows throughout the book but especially when she prays, where she only sits with her thoughts. In my drawing, she is also a lot smaller than all of the other buildings to show how individual her character is in the book. Without the three themes I highlighted in my piece the world of Gilead would not have come to life like it did in The Handmaid’s Tale.

A thousand Years, Christina Perri -https://youtu.be/rtOvBOTyX00?si=cM8AaH-xLmfTAEsW

My playlist is about the main character’s development in The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred’s love life. Throughout the story, Offred talks about the man she mentions quite frequently from her past named Luke who is her last lover. Even while she is in a situation where she continues to think about him and their history together, this made me think of the song, the particular line that stood out to me was
“I have died every day waiting for you Darling, don’t be afraid I have loved you for a thousand years I’ll love you for a thousand more”
and the connection that I made with the book was in chapter 9 page 52, “I wanted to feel Luke lying beside me. I have them, these attacks of the past, like faintness, wave sweeping over my head.” How I made this connection is because she isn’t with him she misses him and in this particular moment she is cherishing the moment that she was spending with him when she was in the hotel room. So though that memory was old it was still emotions embedded within that which made me feel as though it connected to that particular song.

When We Were Young, Adele- https://youtu.be/Xpc8mAJ_2nM?si=1UCAmqgFKxpOqVP1

As the book continues offred starts to share her attention with other men like Nick, in which she tries to convince herself that that Luke would be okay with it if he were here. On page 99 in chapter 17 I noticed that in their interaction I noticed that she was trying to convince herself that it was okay for their relationship and gaslighted herself into thinking that he would approve, “Luke, you’d know, you’d understand. It’s you here, in another body.” I connected it to the song by Adele When We Were Young and she says one line states, “You still look like a movie You still sound like a song My God, this reminds me, of when we were young.” I chose this song for this scene because she is trying to imagine that her ex-lover is within another and that gives the reader the assumption that she is trying to fill that hole that she lost with Luke trying to reassure herself that she wasn’t cheating on her first love. The history that she has with him does not compare to whatever relationships that she has somewhat created with other people.

It’s a man world, James Brown- https://youtu.be/H77fRz1rybs?si=kSmsDPNtzeF2wPh1

People like the commander who is stuck in his old way of thinking believe that women’s only purpose is to serve men and have their children, but the reader sees this as cruel and unfair the commander doesn’t see anything wrong with this “ the problem was only with the women, he says. The main problem was with the men. There was nothing for them anymore.” This was page 210 and in this scene, Offred was starting to get comfortable with the commander and she wondered what were Gilead’s original intentions when they implemented this new rule. This reminded me of this particular song, “You see, man made the cars to take us over the road Man made the train to carry the heavy load Man-made electric light to take us out of the dark Man made the boat for the water like Noah made the ark

This is a man’s, man’s, man’s world But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl” How I connected it to the book is that Gilead wouldn’t be able to run or sustain itself and eventually die out if it weren’t for women. They need them to procreate and without them, every man would eventually die out. Proving the reader’s point that though the men are running their world they can’t survive without the assets of a depending on woman.

Titanium, David Guetta- https://youtu.be/JRfuAukYTKg?si=lUJtjZ20ICskd3p8

Because Offred has no other choice but to be a handmaid but her willingness to adapt and survive is what is making her pull through like the song, “I’m bulletproof, nothing to lose Fire away, fire away

You shoot me down, but I won’t fall I am titanium” I referred to this part of this song because in the book she continues to rise against the odds rather than doing as she is told. Rather than acting rebellious like the other character Moira, she showers her spirit in private.

Pink, Just Like Fire-https://youtu.be/5Nrv5teMc9Y?si=73F-TaZrKagcIcPV

Which brings me to my last song, “ Just like fire, burning up the way If I can light the world up for just one day” I like his song when referring to this particular part of the book when she constantly fakes how she feels towards the commander. All while Trying to move in closer and get to know the commander, she’s getting comfortable causing the reader to question if it’s just more than a friendship there or if is it potentially love blossoming that she is afraid to explore or admit.

The relationships between women in Gilead are complex and have layers. We see how these women interact with each other and how they perceive each other through Offred’s perspective. The complexity of these relationships is a product of how Gilead society views women. In a world where they pick and choose the value of each woman based on their title and fertility, friendship has become a luxury and a form of rebellion. We can see different versions of this in Offred’s relationships with Serena Joy, Ofglen, and Moira.

When we take a look at Serena Joy and Offred’s relationship, it’s clear that society has set them up to dislike each other and their resentment towards each other stems from jealousy. Even though Gilead claims that they are one through the Ceremony, they are two women being forced into an arrangement that neither woman would choose to be in. For Serena, a younger and youthful woman is having sex with her husband right in front of her, and for Offred, Serena is a woman who is living the comfortable life as a Wife that she doesn’t get to live. Offred initially liked Serena Joy. “I was disappointed. I wanted then, to turn her into an older sister, a motherly figure, someone who would understand and protect me.” (pg.16) We see that Offred craves that female friendship from Serena Joy and she held onto the hope that Serena would’ve been different if they met outside their circumstances. Offred’s hate for Serena grows the more she lives in the regime of Gilead, therefore having that initial hope diminished.

Ofglen is a handmaid Offred is paired with when going to the market. At first, Offred was very critical of her and clearly did not trust her. She looked down on her in many ways and always thought of her in a negative light. Friendship in Gilead society is restricted and almost non-existent because everyone is anxious about who they can trust. They had to speak in very restricted ways that caused them both to perceive each other as a true believer. Once they both look each other in the eye, they both realize that they are non-believers. “‘I thought you were a true believer,’ Ofglen says. ‘I thought you were,’ I say. ‘You were always so stinking pious.’ ‘So were you,’ I reply. I want to laugh, shout, hug her. ‘You can join us,’ she says.” (pg.168) Once they don’t follow the rules of Gilead, we see another glimpse of connection when Offred states that she wants to hug Ofglen. Offred is invited to be a part of something bigger than herself and is offered a new friendship that is exciting and hopeful. These friendships have formed groups of unbelievers that push back against the ideologies of Gilead and break through the walls men in power have put up to isolate the handmaids.

Lastly, Moira is Offred’s oldest friend from “Before”. They are like sisters and they understand each other on a deeper level. Moira to Offred is someone she looks up to and values because unlike Offred, Moira makes bold choices and refuses to follow the rules. She managed to escape from the Training Center and where she ended up was both a mystery and something the handmaids had faith in. When Offred finally meets Moira again, it was during a night out with the Commander. “‘It’s all right,’ she says, to me and to the other women. ‘I know her.’ The others smile now, and Moira hugs me. My arms go around her, the wires popping up her breasts dig into my chest. We kiss each other, on the cheek, then on the other. Then we stand back. ‘Godawful,’ she says. She grins at me. ‘You look like the Whore of Babylon.’ ‘Isn’t that what I’m supposed to look like?’ I say. ‘You something the cat dragged in.’” (pg.242) Offred and Moira have these gleeful moments that almost feel normal and find joy in each other in the midst of this oppressive society. These moments make everything seem better, showing how female friendships are a source of strength during an oppressive time. This shows how much these women need each other in their lives to relate to, talk to, and laugh with. They find connection in a world that wants women to be as disconnected as possible. Old, new, and possible friendships represent hope in dark times and keeping these friendships alive is one of the biggest forms of rebellion.

Preface: I chose these songs in particular because they portray elements of Gilead. They are somber, nearly wordless, and somewhat mysterious save for 1 song. I believe these overarching themes dutifully portray Gilead as a society that silences its dissenters, glorifies its atrocities, and makes itself inescapable to those it holds captive. Melancholy is everywhere and hope is running thin.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6bQ4DvKU7H88wbLcJQFvco?si=RxIJ1-Q7R9C9ABN64VEIow

我昨晚夢見你了 (Translation: I dreamed of you last night)

I chose this song because it reminds me of the melancholy that seems to pierce the minds of all Gilead’s residents. The collective emotions of people from all walks of life. You can see this in specifics like with Serena Joy knitting scarves for the angels in her sitting room. Or when Offred gets into a bath and thinks of her loved ones. In the song there is this sense of melancholy created by the rain, and the other notes as well create a dark atmosphere, almost reminiscent of the image of Offred staring at the bodies on the wall. pg.31 “Now we turn our backs on the church and there is the thing we’ve in truth come to see: the Wall.”

Rain (From “Halo 3:ODST”)

This song has a very deep meaning, one that synergizes with Offred’s situation as a handmaid and as a person. The meaning of this song is hope, hope even though you are by yourself and on your own, hope even though the whole world may be against you, and hope as you search for a way out of the hell you jumped feet first into. The closest image I can think of to this meaning in the book is the pillow that says “Faith” on Offred’s window. It is a preservation of hope even through the dark shadow of Gilead’s oppression. Pg.110 “I get out of bed, go to the window, kneel on the window seat, the hard little cushion, FAITH, and look out. There is nothing to be seen.”

Opening (from “Jin Roh”)

This song is not melancholic nor does it inspire the feeling of oppression. Instead it is militaristic and very proud. It sounds of victory, and imagery of a proud fascist society. Think of “Triumph of the Will” (yes the nazi propaganda film). It synergizes well with the imagery that Gilead provides of itself. The matching uniforms, military force, the examples made of those who would go against it, even the secret police or “Eyes” as the book calls them. This imagery is present at the women’s prayvaganza. Pg.218 “This commander ascends the steps to the podium, which is draped with a red cloth embroidered with a large white-winged eye. He gazes over the room, and our soft voices die.”

Your Home

This song is very somber. It’s cold and warm at the same time. It has tones of machinery whirring in the background and that same sense of melancholy that is everywhere in Gilead. The imagery most reminiscent of this music is when Offred is describing the egg. The commentary on its simple perfection really synergizes with this song. Pg.110 “The egg is glowing now, as if it had an energy of its own. To look at the egg gives me intense pleasure.”

Corridors of Time

I find that this song sort of seems exotic. The melancholy in the main chords of this song pervades throughout the song but it is undercut by the other parts in some areas. This feels most like how I felt when Offred was describing the commander’s room. Mostly how many things that Offred sees that were “supposed to have been destroyed”. Pg.137 “Books, books, and books, right out in plain view, no locks, no boxes. No wonder we can’t come in here. It’s an oasis of the forbidden.”