Dirty Hairy - ”Demon Days”, Gorillaz
In “The Handmaid’s Tale” is a reflection on how a group or person can be affected by large changing norms. Offred the main character is subject to these and typically has conflict with her cognition which makes her see. One major part is her relationship with the Commander of the Handmaid’s. A song that can relate to this is called Dirty Hairy which is about war and the effects of it. The reason I’m connecting it to a part is when the feature of Bootie Brown which he says “Maybe to him, I’m just a pawn, So he can advance, All I want to do is dance.” This is one of the easier parallels. Offred feels like a pawn in a big chess game being a force Handmaid to the Commander. I think this can also be seen as something a little bigger. Maybe we can say that the commander is also a chess piece in this game.

All Alone - “Demon Days”, Gorillaz
We all have the feeling of being by ourselves, in “The Handmaid’s Tale” this is more apparent. For example, Offred describes to the reader how in this “new world” that there is no one she can really turn to. A job with no emotion or an environment with no feeling. In this “All Alone” This is brought up to the listener with the repeated saying of “All Alone” and the end when Martina Topley-Bird says “Close your eyes and see, When there ain’t no light, All you’ll ever be, Come on save the night, Because I don’t believe, When the morning comes, It doesn’t seem to say, An awful lot to me”. I think this can be related to Offred because both pieces tell the individual on how a character doesn’t change for the next day. They instead reflect on how the world views them as the same without help or change.

November Has Come - “Demon Days”, Gorillaz
“November Has Come” is a track that is talking about not losing your train of thought because you will forget if you’re not focused. Many Moments of Offred journey’s depict the chores which Damon Albern sings “Something Has started Today, Where did it go, Want you want it to be, Well you know November has come, When its gone away”. From other moments of the story we don’t get to see Offred experience the joy of speaking her thoughts to others in the book but only to the readers. Most of the connection we get can be confusing but, when we see stuff that caters to her past then we get deep moments. Sadly, like the lyrics in “NHC” see loses them or tends to not reflect on that same event as it never is mentioned to another character or thing in the book but us. Then she forgets and makes the reader wonder “Where did it go?”

Don’t Get Lost In Heaven - “Demon Days”, Gorillaz
I feel like for this song its name is more fitting to the Christian vibe that is set in Gilead. The song is the telling of someone ascending to the Gates of heaven and there is a choir that repeats the chat “Don’t get lost in heaven” and “You’ll make a big mistake if you fall over the edge of the clouds. It reminded me of the part when Offred in “The Handmaid’s Tale” explains to the reader how the systems of Gilead are. To a test of this Offred even says that “Where I am is not a prison, but a privilege. (pg 8)” which, in the contexts from the state of the book to the middle , see that her “privileged life” is really not what it seems. Similar to how Offred is feeling “Heaven” can be seen as something that is relatable. Paradise is a prison when you can not leave.

Demon Days - “Demon Days”, Gorillaz
“Demon Days” is the last song on the album with the same name and is the aftermath of the previous song “Don’t Get Lost In Heaven”. The opening of the song is darker with static from an electric guitar which Alburn (Playing the character in the band 2D) singing about the dark days of his life but also how you should love yourself instead of changing for others. After this at the two-minute mark the song switches slowly into a clam and tropical rhythm with singing chores. The chores, talk about the Demon Days but how you should walk away from everything and start a new day. I think this really models how the Handmaids feel and everyone else who had to change their personalities to fit Gilead. This makes you reflect on the mental strain on the minds of everyone in the story. Most of the people are subject to this in some way shape or form. For example, Offred says “Like other things now thought must be rationed” (pg 8) and “Sanity is valuable possession” (pg 109).

“The word colonization, it has the same root as the word colon; it means to digest. Colonization is the process of digestion of one culture by another.” -Winona LaDuke

When it comes to the world of religion, Christianity stands out as a problem child, and a child with a loaded gun at that. It is a religion that holds more power and influence than any other religion by a great deal, and with exceptionalistic views and controversial ideologies, it has had an undeniable impact on the course of history. However, there is not a history it roots itself more deeply in than the history of America. America has danced upon the line between a free democracy and a theocracy since its birth. And while the Founding Fathers implied through the constitution that a distinct separation between the church and state was necessary for their envisioned nation to function properly, America has always been a very Christian nation, through the people and the government. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a testament to the effects of the mixture between Church and State, and what better inspiration to base such a book on than America herself. Of the countless literary elements Atwood has perfected and seamlessly woven together into this story, what often stands out the most is the level of worldbuilding. It is so cruel and despicable that Atwood was forced to remind her audience that “I wasn’t putting anything into it that humans had not already done somewhere at some time.” And while there are a great number of historical instances that serve as her muses, none are more prominent than the ties between early American history and Christianity. As the French and British colonized the land that would one day be taken and transformed into America, they encountered the peoples indigenous to the region. And instead of possessing no religion at all, the natives had many religions that were integral to their very way of life. Now this posed a problem to the missionary colonists whose belief was that their purpose was to show the native peoples the way of Christianity in order to “save their souls” and surely, having seen the path to God, they would convert. Once they saw the light, their meaningless lives would be filled with purpose, they thought. This was not the case. The European colonists and their western traditions wreaked havoc on the relationship between Native Americans and Christian missionaries. Between the genocide, mistreatment of the land, and general usurping, indigenous people developed a reasonably severe distrust towards Europeans. The missionaries saw only one option, and that was taking advantage of the single group of targets most mentally and physically vulnerable: the children. The boarding schools were established, commissioned by a government that was, against the Founding Fathers wishes, completely composed of Christians and run through Christian ideologies at the time. Here, the connections between history and Atwood’s writing begin to make themselves obvious. The first step the boarding school project took was the forceful separation of families. Indoctrination does not work if your subject has a voice to tell them anything else. Both Gilead and America utilized government agents to abduct children and split families, seen in Handmaid’s Tale as the separation between Offred and her daughter. Both of them become victims to indoctrination and while Offred is only mildly affected and resists it to some degree, the same cannot be confirmed for her young daughter who she is shown pictures of holding hands with another woman, presumably her new mother. In real life however, the parents of the children were not given the reassurance that they were safe. Even if the early American government told them such a thing, it would have been a terrible lie for that certainly was not the case. Once the individual is isolated, the next step is to erase their culture and identity. “My name isn’t Offred,” the Offred notes, “I have another name which nobody uses now because it is forbidden.” Like the non-Gileadean civilians during the upheaval of America, the Native American children were given English names, often religious names, and were forbidden from using their old ones, as well as any other words from their native languages. Gilead is not too dissimilar to the Native American Boarding Schools; they’re both based on negative reinforcement training. The Aunts carry cattle prods in the book but not to defend against intruders. Aunt Lydia confidently states they are free from such threats, there’s no reason to fear them, especially not in the presence of the Angels and Guardians. It is clear that they are the Handmaids. The children of the boarding schools were hit, abused, isolated, starved, and even sexually assaulted. They were given such punishments whenever they even showed a fraction of their original cultural identity. Some converted to Christianity, many simply hid their true selves, none believed. “I thought you were a true believer,” Ofglen says to Offred, surprised, “I thought you were.” Both women still cling to their past lives but bury them deep, not out of newfound faith, but fear. The life they lived was proof enough to them that the God Gilead worshiped was not real, not for them. Religion is different for each person. A lantern for dark times, a deep scar from a bitter lie, a fundamental set of truths to live by, or a path to salvation and promise for tomorrow. What you believe is and should be up to you. But Atwood warns us that religion is a dangerous thing and that such beliefs should not be a source of leadership, lest others be smothered by your ignorance for their own beliefs. The word colonization means for one culture to consume another. But the days of conquering are over. It’s time to start building instead.

GNARLS BARKLEY- WHOS GONNA SAVE MY SOUL

Listening to this song reminded me of how Offred thinks about Moira and her blind faith that she is alive. Who’s Gonna Save My Soul, was originally written as an expression of Gnarls Barkley’s reaction to James Brown dying months after he invited them to perform with him. CeeLo Green and Danger Mouse (the band’s two members) had put so much hope in James Brown that they were distraught and lost after he died. Offred and the other handmaids used Moira as an object of their fantasy and wonder to keep them going. On page 133, Offred explains, “Nevertheless Moira was our fantasy. We hugged her to us, she was with us in secret, a giggle;” Offred and her fellow handmaids blindly putting their hope into Moira makes me fear what will happen if she is revealed to have died. The line “I may be just a little selfish, All I have is the memory, Yet I never start to wonder, Was it possible you were hurting worse than me, Still my hunger turns to greed, ‘Cause what about what I need, An’ oh who’s gonna save my soul now.” reveals the song’s narrator using this person to fill their void of hope, no matter what situation they might be in. Offred describes this feeling too by saying that she and the handmaids were just starting to feel comfortable with no hope and nowhere to go but latching on to Moira’s story filled that emptiness.

WISH YOU WERE HERE - LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS

When listening to Wish You Were Here, I immediately found a correlation between the emotions shown in The Handmaid’s Tale and this song. Lee Fields sings this song to convey a feeling of longing for someone who is no longer with him, especially playing on the theme of not taking something for granted. Offred’s storytelling relates to this heavily. An obvious connection between the two is the chorus and title of the song, Wish You Were Here. Offred frequently dreams about Luke, the before times, and when they were happy together and raising a child and wishing he was with her and holding her again. This goes so far for her to imagine Luke and her daughter as if they were with her. “From time to time I can see their faces, against the dark, flickering like the images of saints, in old foreign cathedrals, in the light of drafty candles…I can conjure them but they are mirages only, they don’t last.” (103-104). This feeling of deep longing and emptiness is also explained through the lyrics, “Miss you again, over again, Love will not die, Walkin’ the road, I see you at night, I know you’re right by my side.” These lyrics describe the exact feeling I think Offred is portraying through the quote I picked, missing someone so much everything you see reminds you of them and holding them with you in your heart.

RETTE MICH - NENA

The song Rette Mich by Nena is about the loneliness of being alone at night and the longing you have for someone to come “save you.” The song title itself translates to “Save Me.” On page 96, Offred is bored in her room and longs for the before times. “I want Luke here so badly. I want to be held and told my name. I want to be valued, in ways that I am not;” Offred’s longing for Luke increases when she is lonely and bored. Similar to this, Nena sings, “Es wird Nacht, Und die Einsamkeit erwacht, Ruf mich an, komm her, sei bei mir, Rette mich.” This all roughly translates to “Night is coming, And loneliness awakens, Call me, Come here be with me, Save me.” This illustrates how Offred is feeling at the moment, even describing her need for Luke to hold her and comfort her.

IT’S A MAN’S WORLD - JAMES BROWN

It’s a Man’s World by James Brown is filled with themes and lines about men being the main providers for a family. There are also many mentions of women being important and essential to the family, however their importance seems to be only to support the man in his endeavors. This idea is reciprocated in The Handmaid’s Tale by the structure of Gilead, a male-dominated society that is religion based, specifically enforcing the idea that a woman’s only role is to bear children and help in the kitchen (be a “traditional wife”). One person who personifies this idea of women only being there to support men is Serena Joy. On page 45, referring to her, it says, “Her speeches were about the sanctity of the home, about the how women should stay home.” Similar to this James Brown sings, “You know that man makes money, to buy from other men, This is a man’s world, But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing, not one little thing, without a woman or a girl.” His lyrics explain a similar thing to Serena Joy’s speeches, women should stay home and men should essentially rule society.

BEDS ARE BURNING - MIDNIGHT OIL

This song, Beds Are Burning, by Midnight Oil is about the indigenous Australian people and liberating them from being treated as if they were worse. This song connects directly to The Handmaid’s Tale because of the oppression women are facing in Gilead. The chorus of the song is “How can we dance while the beds are burning, How can we sleep while the world is turning.” I imagine this is exactly how Offred feels about the wives and how they agree with the oppression of women. “The Commander’s Wife looks down at the baby as if it’s a bouquet of flowers: something she’s won, a tribute.” (126). This quote describes how Offred perceives the Wives as perpetrators of the system of Gilead.

This image outlines the use of fear in government and society. This scene takes place while the handmaid and Olglen are walking back from collecting groceries. They decided to take the long way back at home just to peer upon the wall. It is almost as if they are drawn to the scene. The handmaid thinks “I know as well as she does what she’s really after” (30) in response to Olglen wanting to see the church which is next to where the bodies hang from the wall. Why would someone want to see an image they fear? Perhaps to remind herself of her adherence to her role as a handmaid in the new society.

I wanted to have the only color in the piece be the red in the handmaid’s attire. The way they are described in the book gives the feeling of everything around them being dull and less interesting compared to the handmaids so I wanted to convey that in my piece. The red also draws the spectators eye first before the bodies hanging on the wall. My intent was for the viewer to look at the handmaid’s first and follow their gaze to the people up on the walll.

This scene is significant to me because it shows how people, especially governments use and or abuse fear. In the context of the book, fear is used to control people. If you act out of line, you will be strung up on the wall. America is very similar and only less extreme. If you act out of line, you can go to jail or you will pay a fine. Some of the world still follows the handmaid’s tales methods. It’s fear that is the backbone to any governments control over their people. This made me think about whether fear is essential for a country to function. The unfortunate truth is that it is. Without the fear of consequence there would be no societal order. The majority if not all humans possess some extent of greed. The fact of the matter is, we all want something, whether it be an item, a comfortable life, or even a comfortable life for our children. If someone such as a loved one is hurt and needs help, needs something, an item or a cure people break the law today to help them. In today’s world we see people despite possibilities of jail or a fine breaking the law to help or provide for someone they love. The love they feel outweighs the consequences for their actions. This was a driving factor for Luke, the handmaid, and their baby girl. They forged documents, disregarding the fear and tried to flee the country because of love for their freedom and child. Now think if everyone acted like this, society would be chaos. With no fear of breaking the law people would no longer need to weigh the risks and rewards of taking what they want. people would no longer need something as powerful as love to justify breaking the law. With no government, no fear of the consequences for breaking law, what is stopping people from taking what they want? Morality? Sure this could be enough for a small handful of people, but not the masses.

This brings up the question of if humans are inherently evil or not. This can be traced to experiments now outlawed such as The stanford prison experiment and Milgram experiment. The Milgram experiment demonstrated that regular humans would knowingly administer lethal doses of electricity to another person when instructed to do so by an authority figure. If people were inherently good, they would take matters into their own hands and stop delivering lethal shocks of electricity to the screaming recipient. If people were inherently good then the use of fear in government would be needed. How much fear is too much? In the handmaid’s tale, there is the very direct and extensive abuse of fear by the government. You see people disregarding their old life and conforming to a drastically different regime and lifestyle purely because of fear. In America there is the debate of if the death penalty should still be allowed, which ultimately boils down to if the government should be allowed to threaten with that level of fear. Unfortunately the world we live in isn’t so different from the handmaids, its governed all by fear.

This artwork represents the relationship between the Handmaids and the Commander in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Just like with a shepherd and his sheep, the Commander both controls and cares for the Handmaids. Like a shepherd used his sheep for their wool, the Commander uses the Handmaids for their ability to conceive. Shepherds must watch over their herd, like the Commander watches over his Household. Throughout the book, the Handmaid’s are controlled in everything they do, who they can talk to, where they go. Etc. They are simultaneously manipulated, through indoctrination and punishment. In chapter 13, the narrator even compares herself to a farm animal, saying, “I wait, washed, brushed, fed, like a prize pig.” (69) She and her fellow Handmaids are treated like animals, to serve a singular purpose. This idea is significant because Gilead relies so heavily on its power structure to function the way it does. The Handmaids are at the very bottom of the pyramid, while the Commander sits at the top. The Handmaids are powerless, like animals in a farm, and have no choice but to follow the commands they are given. The Handmaids are treated as less than human beings, as simply baby machines.

The book also contains a lot of Biblical references and imagery that I wanted to emphasize in my artwork. Sheep and shepherds are a common metaphor in the Bible, typically with God as the shepherd and his “children” as the sheep. Because Gilead is a very religious based society, I wanted to extend this metaphor through my artwork. I chose to have all the sheep looking at the Commander to reference the scene where the Household is listening to him read the Bible. At this moment, the narrator thinks, “we’re all watching him. It’s the one thing we can really do, and it is not for nothing: if he were to falter, fail, or die, what would become of us?” (88) This relates back to the sheep and shepherd metaphor because the Handmaids must rely on the Commander, he is their leader. I wanted my artwork to explore the line between control and care. The Handmaids must be devoted to their Commander, but not by choice, more because they see it as their duty. The Handmaid’s identities exist only as an extension of the Commander. The narrator asks “what would become of us?” because she cannot separate her existence from his. Even their names are linked to their respective Commander. The narrator’s name is “Offred” because her Commander’s name is Fred. Her identity can only be “of” him. Overall, I was very intrigued and unsettled by this relationship while reading, so I wanted to analyze it in my Lit Log.

The inspiration for this artwork comes from the various women on this planet, whether transgender or born female. In my opinion, everyone is important. I think that we all have a purpose other than reproduction. The many hues of the ladies in my artworks symbolize how varied we are yet so similar. We may appear to be similar on the exterior, but it is not who we are on the inside, and what frequently divides us may also bring us together. The holding hands symbolize our solidarity and the necessity to keep together and fight for our rights. They are within the uterus because some men depict us as nothing more than that, but in truth, we are powerful individuals who have worked hard to be where we are today. Only for today’s culture to dismiss us for being who we are and because of our gender.

History does not give any reassurance of what can be done for women; it constantly prioritizes males and children, with women always being the second priority. A good example is on page 46 of Chapter 8 when it says about the commander’s wife, “She doesn’t make speeches anymore. She has become speechless. She stays in her home.” The narrator notices how defeated the commander’s wife appears in comparison to how she appears on television, which leads the reader to wonder if the commander doesn’t care or if it’s a lack of attention. Over time, the notion of what a woman is has faded, and expectations have taken its place.

Woman, as she calls herself: “An adult female human being.” That is the Google definition of the word, but that is not what it genuinely implies. In recent years, the formerly proud title has become a derogatory slur. People expect women to fulfill these roles of the “ideal” women, the kind that cooks, cleans, stays at home to take care of the kids, does everything that a man says… the list can go on and on. In Gilead, it’s no better it’s worse In The Handmaid’s Tale it was ingrained into their head that they have no opinion, respect those above them, and would mean nothing if it were not your ability to have children. “Each month I watch for blood, fearfully, because when it comes, it means failure,” says one character in Chapter 13 on page 73. “I have yet again failed to meet the expectations of others.” I was disturbed after reading this since the narrator hopes she doesn’t have her period every month so she isn’t deemed a “failure.” These Gilead males give the idea to women that they have no authority and solely exist to serve them. Making the reader believe that women have no actual worth. This reminds me of a phrase I saw the other day in an article: “You are worth nothing in human terms.” This phrase was taken from one of the anti-pornography literature that connected with what I was saying. The author was pro-woman and believed that pornography was a tool for males to sexualize and abuse women.

The moral of this artwork is that we can be anything we want to be because we are no longer locked in the old way of thinking and are instead moving ahead to a brighter future in which men and women should be treated equally.

Aidan simas- The World In Which We Live

“There are three new bodies on the Wall. One is a priest, still wearing the black cassock. That’s been put on him, for the trial, even though they gave up wearing those years ago, when the sect wars first began; cassocks made them too conspicuous. The two others have purple placards hung around their necks: Gender treachery. Caught together, they must have been, but where? A barracks, a shower? It’s hard to say. The snowman with the red smile is gone.”

This section from the first page of chapter 8 (pg 43) gave me a lot to think about, on a personal level and about the book. The oppressive society in the handmaid’s tale is some sort of religious organization, heavily patriarchal, and very traditional in the way they want society to be. The brutality they put on display as examples of what happens to those who disobey the strict rules they have set is nothing short of what’s expected of a society like Gilead. As someone who values the humanity I see in those around me it seems like the most terrible thing to dehumanize everyone in a society in the name of order. In the way of oppressive societies this is a largely successful one. The goal of reproduction seems to have a clear path and the fact that they’ve become the dominant force seems like they got a lot done in less than 3 years. As a society it’s far from perfect however much “freedom from” they offer. They still need to convince others with brutality to follow them. This is the flaw of regimes. As soon as the people who follow are not fearful they refuse to be governed and end up crumbling. The sins of our current society don’t ever compare to how bad things could be. But how bad they really are is nothing to scoff at either. Gilead was a reaction to something, a harsh one but still valid. If we are to believe that our society is rampant with crime and run by satan worshiping pedophiles, Gilead would only be the natural reaction of those who wanted change.

As someone in this world who is a staunch believer in freedom to rather than freedom from and someone who enjoys every aspect of humanity observing Gilead as some sort of polar opposite to my own views is sort of eye opening. I relate certain aspects to my life though. Hiding things about myself is part of my life as is making mutually beneficial “alliances” with other people. My relationship needs to be hidden from certain people as it’s not a heterosexual relationship. I need to be sure to do favors for people and make others feel good around me so they might help me when I need favors in turn. I’d like to think there are no similarities between my life and the life of Offred but that would be wrong entirely. In fact there is little we don’t have in common. Specifically the wall.

The wall represents an example of those who violated the rules of society. I have this in the form of social media and in the form of the News channel. These mediums both display examples of those who violated the rules of my society and were ridiculed, imprisoned, or worse. The wall has bodies and hooks where social media has people who are “canceled” and those who have been killed or otherwise for their transgressions as well as a healthy dose of propaganda on the side. Another similarity to the Handmaid’s tale in my own life is how much the state spies on us. The government has access to any bit of information they need all they need to do is know it exists. This is less easy even for Gilead who is more controlling over its population. The only thing stopping the government from turning itself into a totalitarian regime is itself and the system of checks and balances. Not to mention international tensions being on the rise, the future uncertain. I don’t know if or when I will be able to be myself in my own society but I know I will defend my right to my individuality and my humanity to my dying breath. How Gilead gives me perspective on the world in which we live is this: We aren’t that far from being unrecognizable from what we are currently. That is all I have to say.

One part of The Handmaid’s Tale that really stuck out to me was when we were learning about how Offred thinks about her daughter. She starts off saying “she fades, I cant keep her here with me, she’s gone now. Maybe I do think of her as a ghost, the ghost of a dead girl,”. Reading this surprised me at first, because I had believed that she kept hope that Luke was alive somewhere, but with her daughter she’s given up all hope that she would be alive. Part of me felt like she kept hope of Luke being alive as a coping mechanism to get through the horrible situation she is in, but she didn’t think of her daughter as alive. I wonder if subconsciously she is trying to save her daughter from being in her situation, and bringing her into her reality. While I thought the thought of Luke gave her hope, the wound of being separated from her daughter is still so fresh.

Later in the story she says “ ..and think about a girl who did not die when she was five; who still exists, I hope, though not for me. Do I exist for her? Am I a picture somewhere, in the dark at the back of her mind.” . This part was really interesting to me because when she asks the question about whether she exists to her daughter it made me feel genuine sadness for her. I don’t know what it’s like to be a mother, but judging off my mom, and other mothers, the pain of having to abandon your child must be unbearable. I think that she understands that she can make it through this, so the hard part is not being there for the one she cares for most. The pain of unintentionally abandoning your child must be one of the worst feelings a human can feel.

Another thing relating to family to me that isn't obviously about family is when offred was talking about playing scrabble with the commander. The quote that stuck out to me was “To be asked to play scrabble, instead, as if wwe were an old married couple, or two children, seemed kinky in the extreme, a violation in its own way.”. To me this moment also felt uncomfortable because it's a weird power dynamic where she cant say no. In my personal life I've always seen boardgames and other activities of that manner as a bonding experience. As a kid I have memories of playing board games with my uncles and how special that was to me. I remember sitting around my uncles dining room table, past my bedtime, with my uncles all yelling over each other, and laughing, so board games have a sweet aftertaste when I think about them. From what I understand other people's families also have some sort of game nights, so I've always seen it as a safe spot of sorts. The fact that the commander has so much power over her, and could have her killed at the snap of his fingers, it's a cold and serious activity, with a lot to lose. Playing with my family, things get heated, but there's nothing to lose and the stakes are low. When the game ends everyone continues talking, but in this situation the game ends and she's still in her own personal hell. Something that's interesting to me is how scrabble almost feels more intimate then the monthly sex that they had. Board games in my life have always been a family thing, but Offred already has a family that she was separated from, so the commander making her play scrabble seems like another way to show her the power he holds over her.  

While I'm writing about how this book makes me feel and it puts into perspective the system that Gilead has that breaks down every human aspect of the handmaids. They take away consent, free speech, self expression, and their families. Gilead takes women and robs them of their humanity. Self expression is so big in our daily lives, that I didn't realize how hard it would be to lose all of that and my family. Gilead's system seems specifically tailored to dehumanize women, so that men won't feel bad about treating them however they want. I leave this personal reflection feeling less disgusted by specific incidents, but instead the systematic dehumanization of the handmaids.  

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the narrator described a scene when the Commander was reading to a group of women and all eyes were on him. “To be a man, watched by women.”, she said on page 87, as she went on questioning what was going on through his mind as he was being observed so closely by women. As a woman in the real world, this is an image that’s strange and a little uncomfortable to try and visualize. When I thought about this quote, the first image that popped up in my head was a painting done by Waldemar von Kazak called “Daily Portrait of a Woman”. It shows a group of pigs looking at a woman sitting in the subway. When I first saw this artwork, I felt a bit uncomfortable and the absence of the woman’s face made me feel like I was the one being watched. I wanted to portray this in my drawing.

While it’s the complete opposite situation, I still thought about feelings of awkwardness, fear, and uncomfortability. Offred also thought about similar feelings when trying to decipher what the Commander might’ve been feeling in that situation. “To have them thinking, He can’t do it, he won’t do, he’ll have to do, this last as if he were a garment, out of style and shoddy, which must nevertheless be put on because there’s nothing else available.” (page 87). She compared him to a garment, an object, which is never really a comparison one makes to a man. She’s putting him in her shoes. However, there’s still a very clear power dynamic between the Commander and the women that makes it hard to really understand what is going on through the Commander’s head. The Commander holds all the power over everyone else in the household. He’s looked up to, so it’s hard to think of him as feeling scared of being watched because that would mean that the women hold power over him, and that’s not the case in Gilead. In the real world, women are often observed by men in a way that belittles women and creates many negative emotions, which makes Waldemar von Kazak’s painting feel so familiar.

I have a clear understanding of what being watched by men feels like. I know the sort of feelings it creates, but what does it mean when it’s a man that’s being watched? I couldn’t draw a face for him because I don’t know what he’s truly feeling, but I wanted to see if the women I drew created a different feeling than the feeling I got from seeing the pigs in Waldemar von Kazak’s painting. I also chose to only use the color red because red is a harsh and intimidating color. Gilead is plain and colorless, and still, the Handmaids wear this color that sticks out and catches attention. Trying to visualize what the Commander could actually see, the color red and the faces of the women were the two things that were clear in my head so these were the things I chose to show in my drawing.

                 Patience - Guns N’ Roses 

I feel like this song is the embodiment of Offred’s heart and soul as she looks out and wonders for Luke’s well being. But then there is the ever longing thought of if she can barely live like this not even knowing or having any attachment to the commander or Serena Joy. But with patience we as both the reader and her as the main protagonist have to have patience as she builds up her resistance for her chance at power. On pg 122. She touches on this with her words being “I want everything back, the way it was. But there is no point to it, this is what I want.” She is alone in her new life as she has been rewired and made to think differently in this society that is meant to only keep her down. In the song “Patience” they get the message across that you merely need to have patience even in the hard times. The harmonious melody and soulful lyrics of “Patience” evoke the feelings of nostalgia, longing, and hope. The three feelings that race her mind in the book with her having many flashbacks such as her escaping, her life before being handmaid and Luke. Longing represents the everlasting effect she causes as she looks for something bigger and better than Gilead and it’s important because doesn’t communicate these desires at all. It’s unsimple as she meant concealing and can’t get these feelings off as she puts on a fake smile. But then there is hope instilled in her as she feels this as if dim light is flickering the dark waiting to be turned on. With her seemingly getting on the Commander’s good side as they play, scrabble and indulge in meetings more often than not creating the hope that one by one Gilead can be freed from the shackles of men. But first there must be patience as she perceives it coming as she deals with these emotions head on.

               Helmet - Steve Lacy 

Steve lacy creates the heartbreak anthem as he is expressing his frustration and dissatisfaction in a relationship that isn’t fulfilling them. “But who can remember pain, once it’s over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind. “Being used as an animal in the story she wants to let go of her life in Gilead as she is stuck there without a choice. They realize they need to be true to themselves and let go of their partner. Despite the rewiring efforts to change her, she often remembers and comes to the realization that she will never get over him as she is presented with a new lover. In the song we get to see Steve Lacy go back and forth with these thoughts as he sings “You just gotta let me go as I’m tryna let go of you.” This verse is a representation of the emotions felt as it’s just her vs her fighting a mental battle as she tries to mix the old with the new.

              La Vida Es Fria - Josh Joshua  

Les via es Fria is the perfect song to fit the whole identity of Offred and her search for why the world is so cold. In her world Luke was still her lover and her child was still in her arms as it looked upon the sky but in this new world there’s no more Luke and there’s no more her baby as her life has been Stripped Away and she’s been rewired. With the song la Vida is Fria we get a longing lover still searching for the answers to why the world is so cold but as no one wants to work it out he is left stuck still yearning for love that is gone. As in the chapters that go on and on and on about her flashbacks and her Nostalgia trips the memories relay of her being happy and as her life in Gilead progresses she still wants something that is going and that’s something that makes her whole. In the song Jason Joshua sings “La vida es fria, Her heart is turned to stone, Nobody wants to stay together, Nobody wants to make it better.” As he sings these lyrics we can compare what life is like in Gilead to the lyrics in “La Vida Es Fria.” In Chapter 23 we see Maybe none of this is about control. Maybe it isn’t really about who can own whom, who can do what to whom and get away with it, even as far as death. All the more as she recognizes the years of pain she has endured she still knows of the situation she is currently living in and that’s what makes her Fria to.

                  Somebody To Love - Queen

This song is quite the build up as a damaged, depressed and ultimately longing for love Freddie Mercury is leaving his sorrows. With the change of seasons and the book heading into the spring we will get with it spring weather. Cloudy, Rainy and most importantly the sun. For instance, Freddie finds himself experiencing dread when he wakes up in the morning and indeed can barely stand beholding his own image in the mirror just as Offred can’t either. With that triple threat we get Offred’s coming out party as she wallows from the depressed rains and eventually into the loving arms of the commander as she looks to create a power struggle. With her planting her seeds in the love triangle between herself, Serena Joy and the Commander it’s not like they’re going to get along better. So this is how Offred is embodied through the song ‘Somebody to Love” as it says,” They say I’m going crazy. They say I got a lot of water in my brain. I have no common sense. (He’s got.) I got nobody left.” As Offred is always in her own mind she’s in the Maze of Gilead as she doesn’t have any control over her own focus. As in chapter the seasons changing is touched on perfectly described as it reads “I once had a garden. I can remember the smell of the turned earth, the plump shapes of bulbs held in the hands, fullness, the dry rustle of seeds through the fingers.” We get this glimpse of her control being lost. Evans, she doesn’t have her original lover she still wants someone who is looking for love as she is not her own “self,”

               Wolves/Frank’s Track - Kanye West 

In this song, Kanye explores the complexities of human relationships and the raw emotions that come with them. “The Republic Of Gilead ” dapple with politics & godly traditions being the driving force for its success. As the melodic tune about love and loss makes the listener question what makes emotional attachment so important for a lover? Just as the Handmaid’s Tale brings up love and loss constantly as characters have scars of fear, hope, and love. A quote about the times being in love is expressed through this quote as it reads,”We thought we had such problems. How did we know we were happy?”As Offred and Kanye West don’t get to reminisce on what certain moments could have been or would have been as they look to the past to get something that is never coming back. Lines such as “Lost and found out” and “Cause I know God’s got us in for a greater plan” speak to a sense of resilience and hope in the face of adversity. Donda was Knaye’s Mother, and losing her was devastating to him as he was never the same and he can’t seem to forget the pain nor the loss of his mother.