Chapter twenty two starts off with a short paragraph, where Offred is explaining how she is feeling after the Birth, however the way she speaks, in short, breathless sentences makes it sound more like it is Offred who has given birth to the child rather than Ofwarren. As I mentioned last time, this reflects the ideology that the Handmaids are all one body, carrying out one purpose. The shortness of the paragraph also suggests that it is something important that she neither has the energy, or wants to talk about and therefore sums it up quickly.
The format of the rest of this chapter is rather clever, because it is Offred talking about another handmaid and she is retelling a story that has been passed onto her. She narrates the story in third person which makes this element stand out against the rest of the narrative because you have first and third person narrative juxtaposed together. This emphasizes the importance of this story to the readers. It is only once, Offred reveals this to the reader, this she becomes to act more bravely and starts to break the rules more frequently. This could be representing the empowerment of knowledge. By physically telling the story of Moira's defiance, she has come to believe it more definitely, to the point that she feels that she can do it also, that she also has the ability and the power to do such things. This also shows us clearly the reason that the handmaids conversations with each other are so restricted; because of the powerful effect that this information can have.
The other thing that really stands out to me in this chapter; short though it is, is the way that Moira swaps her clothes with the aunt, this is not what surprised me though, what surprised me is the reaction that everybody has. No one begs to differ that Moira is an Aunt merely because she is wearing the Aunts uniform. Here we see all to clearly that in Gilead, what you wear defines who you are. You are judged by the colour of you're dress. This is something that we as a reader can relate to because we live in a world where, although we are encouraged not to judge people by what brands and labels they wear, we still subconsciously do it. We make assumptions based on what we see people wearing, just as the Guardian assumed that Moira was an Aunt based on the dress she was wearing.
"This is a reconstruction" is the opening statement of chapter twenty three. I find this most fascinating because although Offred is talking about her story; and this suggests that she is writing this after Gilead and she is no longer a handmaid, I believe that is is also Atwood referring to the entire world this the story is set in. Gilead is a reconstruction of society, constructing it how they believe it should be run. Also they have reconstructed many religious values, which also have been rebuilt to suit the needs of Gilead and the people that are in charge. So I feel quite unnerved at the thought that somebody has taken a strong, thriving society (as we know it) and they have rebuilt/reconstructed it to fit with their ideas and their regime.
I love chapter twenty three, I really do love it. I think it is brilliant how Atwood creates this terrible suspense as Offred is summoned to the commanders office for reasons we know not. I know personally, I began to feel scared for Offred because I thought his intentions were to rape her or force her to carry out some equally degrading activity. I felt that the poor girl had been through enough and I really felt like she didn't need this, however when she enters his office and asks her to play SCRABBLE! I physically started laughing out loud because it just didn't seem real at the time; that the commander should summon his Handmaid in the cover of night to attend to him in his office... to play scrabble of all things. It almost adds an element of comic relief to the story. It seems so trivial to us, scrabble isn't something that we would normally get excited over, but for Offred it is sweet,sweet honey, after all words and literature are forbidden to her, so this opportunity to play word games is absolutely unbelievable. It has added something to her life now that she can actually look forward to however it also raises the question: Is this to good to be true?
The whole scenario in the commanders office is very much separated from the rest of Gileadean life. Even the Commander himself is completely different once he is in this room with Offred, even the way that he speaks to her. I found myself quite taken aback when he said hello to her because this is not to required greeting, it is something of the time before. However Offred explains to the reader that she had difficulty remembering the correct response to Hello. This shows us that despite her defiance, the ways of Gilead have finally managed to make some impression on her, pushing out old memories that used to seem so trivial and causing her to automatically think that there is a correct response to everything. As well as breaking the laws of reading and literature, I also believe that the Commander is breaking the laws of education in Gilead, re-tutoring her in the ways of the time before Gilead; almost as if he feels sorry for her and he is trying to help her hold onto herself in this society so set on separating itself from the rest of the world.
I think the words that Atwood has chosen for the Commander and Offred to play during the game are very clever and if you look closely at them, you can see the hidden meaning:
Larynx: The part of the throat that causes you to create voice, Offred's voice is silenced in Gilead
Valance: A piece of material draped over another, could in this instance the dress that Offred is forced to wear.
Quince: A fruit - Fruit of the womb, children, fertility
Zygote: The beginning stages of an embryo, Offred has still yet to concieve
Limp: Could be a pun aimed at the commander and his manhood, considering he has still to get her pregnant
Gorge: Offred is gorging on words which she wouldn't normally have access to while she has the opportunity too. Gorge is also a chasm which could represent the distance between her and the commander and/or how Gilead has left Offred feeling inside.
Finally for this chapter, in his office the Commander even has the audacity and the self felt empowerment to ask Offred to kiss him, which she has already explain in chapter sixteen: "Kissing is forbidden between us".
It shows us a little bit about who the commander thinks he is, Untouchable and that he cannot be punished because his is too high up in the chain of command. However, even though he feels like this, he doesn't flaunt it, he keeps it to himself and pleasures himself with his own illegal secret.
Chapter twenty four is such a contrast to the previous chapter, she has just had one of the best nights of her new life and yet, the night time section; chapter fourteen, is so feminist centralized. we hear her recalling things that Aunt Lydia said about 'Men are sex machines' and she also thinks of her mother who, by know, we know always was an active feminist. Almost as if now she is trying to convince herself that it is too good to be true and that she shouldn't get too comfortable with him.
But something has change, now, tonight. Circumstances have changed.
I really like how Atwood has used this sentence, because it marks turning point in the entire book, which Offred does not yet know about. This works well because we know that there are somethings which she isn't telling us, either because she doesn't know or doesn't want to experience that pain anymore than she has to, and now it is almost the opposite, she is revealing something that she doesn't know she knows yet.
Atwood has juxtaposed different emotions and atmospheres really well, after you hear Offred contemplating humanity and how easy it is to reinvent it, thinking about makeup and clothing and the apparently dire effects it had, and then all of a sudden, it switched into this crazed hysteria, that is so great it causes Offred to collapse. I think this direct juxtaposition works incredibly well to express the certain effects of just how drastic hysteria can really be. I also think that Atwood's choice of the word Hysteria is really interesting, coming from the same origins as the word Hysterectomy which applies only to women and the removal of the uterus and the womb, which of course, Offred would be useless without, so this word could represent that some important part of her has been taken from her; personality, name etc...
'Red all over the cupboard' is a sentence in this chapter which has really grabbed my attention and really made me think. This could literally mean the red of her dress but then it also makes you wonder if she is bleeding in someway, a sign that maybe she has failed to get pregnant again. But also I feel that maybe Atwood has used it as a metaphor, linking it to the phrase 'seeing red' which means that someone is really angry, furious even. The idea that you are so angry that you begin to see everything in a red tint, because of the hate and the frustration and the anger that you are feeling. I feel that this is a metaphor for how Offred is feeling at this point, that the whole event with the Commander has gone beyond puzzling her and has actually made her feel angry about it.
Chapter twenty five has a great mix of different themes and thoughts and snippets of memories, as if Offred is struggling to focus on one particular thing for too long with out being distracted or forcing herself to think about something less painful. Initially she talks about when Cora discovered her in the cupboard, however after only a couple of pages, she skips ahead missing out entire months which we hear nothing about. This backs up the idea of the unreliable narrator; the idea that Offred is hiding things from the reader, whether it is because she wishes not to share or because she is unable to share for fear of punishment we do not know, however it does make us wonder about whether we are hearing the whole truth. Also during the section that Offred skips ahead to, she describes how out of everything that Serena Joy has, the only things that she really genuinely coverts is the shears that she uses in the garden, this links back to previously in the novel when Offred expresses an interest in stealing something from the house but it also suggests that maybe she is beginning to think about ending her own life; equally it could be that she just wants ownership of something that would give her power. It reminds me of a part in The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, where Gus always holds a cigarette between his teeth yet never lighting it, the idea being that you have control over the killing thing and whether or not it has the power to kill you. If you don't light the cigarette, it can't cause lung cancer. It could be a similar situation, Offred wants the shears not to end her own life with them but just to know that she has the power to do that if the need ever arose or she ever wished to do so.
Chapter twenty five also plays host to the third meeting of Offred and the commander. All in all, these meeting with the commander, reveal to us the journey that Offred is going on and how she is becoming more and more adventurous and brave. On this third meeting she asks the Commander for some hand cream (a forbidden substance). I suppose to us it would be like asking you're legal guardian or boss for drugs or something equally and illegal.
She also takes the step as to explain to the reader, the arrangement that she has with the Commander. This suggests that she is beginning to trust the reader and to feel more comfortable with the people she is speaking to. This backs up the idea addressed in earlier posts, that Offred is an unreliable narrator. It confirms that she has been hiding parts of the truth from us as she is only now beginning to reveal these to us.
'The Commander and I have and arrangement. Its not the first such arrangement in history, though the shape it's taken is not the usual one." I find this quote fascinating as it hints to the realization that Offred comes to at the end of the chapter. It is as if she is looking back in hindsight at what happened and is trying to warn her previous self that she is growing too comfortable with the commander and that "for him, I must remember, that I am only a whim". I feel that the first quote leads up nicely to this latter one, letting the reader see something that our narrator didn't see themselves at the time. "It's not the first such arrangement in history".
Finally, the way Atwood repeats the use of listing devices when describing the scrabble game helps to emphisise how the ritualistic and orderly way in which these meetings flow. Everyone appears to be the same however the difference in the way that Offred describes them changes, showing us that her attitudes towards the Commander and his arrangement have changed and are changing.
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