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Amelia Radziszewska Public Feed

Escaping Gilead with Song

Posted by Amelia Radziszewska in College English · Kirby · C Band on Monday, October 13, 2025 at 4:07 pm

When reading Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, there are many central themes. One of the themes that I have picked up the most on is escapism, attempting to push down the feelings of wanting to get out and being unhappy with the current state of the world. Offred experiences this a lot, even thought the aunts try to sway her the other way, trying to convince her that she is safe and better off in this world. She finds herself trying to justify her life, and trying to be appreciative but she can’t help but want to get out.

Be Quiet and Drive Far Away- Deftones- Offred slowly starts to notice that the world in which she lives is irregular; therefore, she attempts to adjust to this new normal. The aunts tell her she needs to adjust, like when in the book it says, “Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after some time it will.” This quote shows that in Gilead, they attempt to make the scenario seem normal. After all of this, Offred still longs to get away. This song expresses a longing to escape from one’s current life. Offred also experiences similar feelings. She is having trouble adjusting to this new normalcy and thinks about her life before, and longs to go back similar time to the song.

Exit Music For a Film- Radiohead- This song encapsulates a plan to escape, and, similar to the last one, shows the longing for escape. This theme is central throughout the whole book, wanting to escape the current system. Offred soon starts to acknowledge that she will have to forget her past life and loses all hope in escaping the world in which she lives now. She says, “Time’s a trap and I’m caught in it. I must forget my secret name and all ways back.” This presents a very important plot point in the story, in which she officially gives up her past life, and turns to acceptance in the life in which she lives now, similar to the song.

Back to the Old House- The Smiths- To add onto my previous point, Offred soon moves to accept her current situation and says she cannot go back to the world she once lived in. In the song, it says, “I would rather not go back to the old house. There are too many bad memories, too many memories.” This is very reflective of Offred’s mental state as well, trying to cope by saying her son had died, trying to recall bad memories from the life she lived before, to attempt to comfort herself that she is in a better place right now. She tries to tell herself that she is safer in Gilead than she ever was in the real world, even though she knows it’s not true. She thinks that thinking like this will ease the pain of reality.

Mask Off- Future- In the beginning of the story, Offred says, “In the night is when I can be myself.” This is similar to the lyrics of this song because the artist talks about how he is tired of faking things, and he wants his metaphorical mask to come off. Similar to this, Offred describes how in the night she is unchained by everyone around her, that she can be herself no matter what others want her to do. However she is still restricted to a certain extent, she can be free to think what she wants and to move how she wants during the night time. Therefore her figurative mask comes off and she can rid herself of the appearance she has to uphold with everyone else (commanders, aunts, angels, etc.) Her mask comes off during the night, therefore letting her be herself.

Rosemary-Deftones- “Our minds set free to roam.” This is a good song that can tie all of the story together, because throughout the story we are shown that the only freedom which the handmaids have is mental freedom. Even though the aunts tell them things to try to infiltrate their thinking, the handmaids are all ultimately responsible for what they think. This is why Offred enjoys the night time so much, because she has the freedom to think whatever she wants, without anyone trying to tell her what else to think. Therefore this song, about your mind roaming to other places while your body is in one place, is accurate to describe the situation in which the handmaids are in.

https://youtu.be/dAW8CoH_lN0?si=rEo-pzAzVFvcJQq2 https://youtu.be/Bf01riuiJWA?si=maxzt5zeOkpadOnv https://youtu.be/laXY5e5JaV0?si=pt7M4-gJ4isVEkm7 https://youtu.be/aWb8z-KhZdo?si=zHA3W_Pw53xBdLm7 https://youtu.be/fZcAQ0kuw1s?si=pKK4wNsisyGduE6_

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Q2 Notebook

Posted by Amelia Radziszewska in English 1 · Giknis · A Band on Tuesday, January 17, 2023 at 8:09 pm

My notebook was a helpful tool over the course of the 2nd quarter because I really focused on what quality over quantity meant. I took notes of what I thought would be useful to me in the future rather than putting everything in my notebook. In the future, I plan on continuing to use this method because I have found that it works well for me.

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Q2 Benchmark

Posted by Amelia Radziszewska in Algebra 1 · Atkins · C Band on Tuesday, January 17, 2023 at 2:11 pm

I created a snowflake with my desmos graph. I plotted the points and through trial and error i ended up with my ending product. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rZo2lNGcJpO0sj4lbWkV4RwquG2QwVP3t9-4G3NKtQI/edit

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Notebook Quarter 1

Posted by Amelia Radziszewska in English 1 · Giknis · A Band on Thursday, November 10, 2022 at 6:50 pm

My notebook helped me play a big role in learning about various things such as storytelling elements and helping me understand other things. While I didn’t start off the year using these note-taking tools, I slowly became more open to them and I started to use them more often. I feel that I could do a better job highlighting essential details in my notebook and that I could highly improve on class discussion notes as this year has been my first year trying them. Link to video HERE!!

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Finding The Puzzle Piece

Posted by Amelia Radziszewska in English 1 · Giknis · A Band on Sunday, October 23, 2022 at 4:39 pm

In my story, I decided to incorporate the essential questions by explaining what it feels like to feel alone in the world until you actually find the one person you consider your home (in this case, your twin). “Far From The Tree” inspired this story because while reading it, I saw how meeting each other largely impacted the sibling’s characters, so I decided to incorporate that into my own story.

finding the puzzle piece
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Amelia's Articles

Posted by Amelia Radziszewska in English 1 · Giknis · A Band on Monday, September 12, 2022 at 8:09 pm

My name is Amelia. This is my first project at SLA, i’m so sorry about the brightness! Hope you enjoy.

Me Magazine
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