The story of the father and son is complicated, yet simple. Their relationship is stranded, yet as close as it can be. This is all because of the dad’s actions. He consistently put his son first, trying to protect him from the outside world, but the son sees through it. On their journey, the son finds out what the harsh reality of the post-apocalyptic world they live in is, and the reality of who his father is. They encountered a lot of danger throughout their journey. There were several times they had to run away from danger as a result of the people coming to take their stuff. The dad told his son, “Dont look back there. Look at me. If you call out you’re dead.” (pg. 63) as when you stop to assess the situation, that’s when you’ll get caught. This was the first moment of reality for the son, as before that, his dad had successfully kept him in a bubble. The pressure of living in this world was immense. The constant looking over their shoulders to make sure no one was following them or hiding from loot seekers so they didn’t take their stuff was getting to the father. “If you’re on the lookout all the time does that mean you’re scared all the time? Well, I suppose you have to be scared enough to be on the lookout in the first place. – Do you always expect it? Papa? I do.” (pg. 151) This was the first real look into the mindset of the father outside of thinking about his son. It’s the first thing he shared with his son that opened to door to the real world, and it made me wonder; if he’s so scared of letting his son in on the truth about society, why tell him this? It made me realize that the dad was trying to teach his son how to live on his own but in a P.G. kind of way.
When a man tries to steal everything they own, the father catches him in the act. He puts a gun in the man’s face and tells him to strip, giving them everything he had on him. The son realizes that the dad wanted to do more than just take back what was theirs. He begged his dad to just let the man go, but the dad let his anger win (at least I think he killed him). The son is devastated, unwilling to speak to his father about anything. This is when the son came to a conclusion about the kind of man his father was. He realized that his dad had become a victim of society and that he wanted to be nothing like his father. Throughout their journey, the father had been sick. He was constantly coughing and taking breaks to catch his breath, and eventually, it came to a head. The father knew he was dying, and the son didn’t know what to do. He was overwhelmed with emotions, and couldn’t imagine his dad leaving him. “He slept close to his father that night and held him but when he woke up in the morning his father was cold and stiff.” (pg. 281) The son stayed by his father for days but finally decided to venture up the road. He ran into a man on the road and when they went back to where his father laid to rest, the man from the road told the boy he needed to keep moving. The son wanted to bring his father with him, but the man told him how unrealistic that was. He said his final goodbyes and off he went. These moments shaped the way the son views the world because of the son’s connection to the events. Everything the dad was doing was for his son, and the son knew that which I think is part of the reason he was so upset with a lot of the things his father did. He was protected from the bad things in the world for so long that when he encountered them, he didn’t know how to handle them. He looked up to his dad when the book started, and at the end, he couldn’t have wanted to be more different.

It was late at night, maybe nine or ten o’clock, and I was sitting at my desk. I was a good student, doing my reading when chapter 16 came along. I remembered Ms. Giknis telling us that there were disturbing moments in the book, but I figured she just had to say that because there were small moments that could make people minorly uncomfortable. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The chapter starts off with an announcement of a ceremony “The Ceremony goes as usual.” and I didn’t think anything of it. I began to read further and it started to describe the scene of where everything was about to go down. I was confused, not really sure what to expect. Offred and Serena Joy were getting in position for something. I closed my eyes. I realized where I had gotten in the book, and though I like to consider myself mentally tough, reading about nonconsensual sex was a first, and hopefully the last. As they began to describe further details, I began feeling anxious. For some reason, it felt like the book had come to life and I was reading a description of someone I knew, someone real. I took a sip of water, and stared blankly at the book. I had always known rape was a real thing, it just had never hit me what it’s really like. I’ve always tried to not worry about that kind of stuff, having a gut feeling that it might change me reading some of this stuff, and it did. I continued reading again, prepared for what I was about to read, when things took another turn. Offred became vastly uncomfortable, as her description of the situation was anything but normal. “Serena Joy grips my hands as if it is she, not I, who’s being fucked — He is preoccupied, like a man humming to himself in the showing without knowing he’s humming” It brought out a different emotion in me, a sense of awkwardness that just made me more uncomfortable. It made me think about the way people treat women as a whole because the way I looked at it, I think the Commander would expect Offred to be uncomfortable because she’s been forced to have sex with him, but I don’t think he’d expect her to feel awkward. During the ceremony, Offred begins to question herself and the situation. “If he were better looking would I enjoy this more?” My discomfort was slowly dissipating, but I definitely still felt like I went through something, even though all I did was read a few pages. As it finishes, the discomfort spikes, but then it goes back to this grey area. He did what he did, and then just cleaned up and walked out. Serena treated Offred like a dog. “Get up and get out.” This didn’t follow procedure, as Offred is supposed to have time after it, but clearly the ceremony affected her. I realized there’s multiple perspectives to the ceremony. Offred, the one who is being forced into a situation all because of her ability to get pregnant, and Serena Joy, who didn’t ask for her position either. She basically has to help her husband cheat on her, creating a baby that isn’t hers but if Offred conceives one, she has to treat the baby like it is hers. The situation they are in is hurting multiple parties, which made it even harder to read the end of the chapter. I learned that even though any situation I’m in will never be like this, that there are multiple parties involved in things that may not seem they hurt many. I also learned that, though reading this chapter was difficult, I need to read things like it a lot more. It gave me a lot of insight as to what the reality is of terrible scenarios and I know people say “The truth can hurt”, but I think it will only make me more knowledgable.

In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, there are numerous historical connections and parallels to the past. There is a saying, “History repeats itself” and Atwood believes that is what will happen in a post-apocalyptic world. In the book, there are references to the bible, like on page sixty-one. “Give me children, or else I die.” This is part of the verse Genesis 30:1. “And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.” The idea of what the commander is doing, keeping women held hostage and forcing them to have sex with him to reproduce, comes indirectly from the bible. Throughout history, women have been forced to abide by a number of rules: Not having marital property rights, not being allowed to vote, and not being able to earn an equal wage. Those were a few more notable ones among the long list of rules women had to follow. Women historically were forced into nurturing roles, like teaching and child care, most of all, solely committed to being a wife and mother. This connects to the main theme of The Handmaid’s Tale, as in a parallel to a world reset, the first actions of life in this new world are similar compared to when this world was first established. Women historically have never had a voice. This is shown in THT through their living situation and the stories that Offred tells. They’re always being watched in Gilead, the same way they were in real life. If women were to step out of line, they would be punished. THT also has a lot of polar opposites to the bible. Proverbs 31:30-31 Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates. This reference to the bible is one of many instances where women are praised, whereas, in Gilead, women are punished for having the ability to reproduce. In the bible, it does say women should reproduce, but based on the scripture Proverbs 31:20-31, it should be done in a nurturing and loving way. The tale also carries a sense of indoctrination. The book paints a picture of religious extremism, like the ceremony, quoting of the bible, and the imbalance of rights based on gender and fertility. Gilead uses a lot of terminology straight out of the bible. The rituals, as in the living arrangements for handmaids and the ceremony strip the individuality away from the handmaids. They all become the same, as they serve the same purpose. Offred believes she became more than that to the Commander, but then she finds out that he has done what he’s done for her for other girls. The pattern of ‘every handmaid is the same’ repeats itself. It seems to be the driver for the controlling aspect of the handmaids. By forcing them into these religious practices, it forces them to all be in line and abide by rules, but it also makes the people in charge abide by rules. They have to follow traditions even though they are the ones who came up with it, which is why it is recurring. THT also has a lot of similarities to the Holocaust. The women held captive for these practices fit a specific theme, they can all get pregnant, which is exactly what the holocaust did, the only difference was they killed the Jewish people, whereas in Gilead they are giving birth to new lives. The Handmaid’s Tale makes a lot of connections to history, particularly religious practices. They let the bible decide how they treated the women, but in many instances chose to come up with their own rules.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CGuBF92THvEBm2oHVHAeCAODq81fuc7RB4SUfi7YCTA/edit?usp=sharing