The narrator in the handmaid’s tale is constantly jumping from thought to thought in her mind. Chapter 11 starts off by narrating how the bathroom is a luxury and the only place she ever has privacy. The following paragraph she starts to narrate about her daughter. The narrator thinks about her daughter by saying “She fades, I can’t keep her here with me, she’s gone now. Maybe I do think of others as a ghost, the ghost of a dead girl, a little girl who died when she was five”(64). On the surface level the readers can see the narrator has a constant thought about her being “dead”.

The narrator thinking about her child being dead is more comforting thought as cruel as it sounds. In the new society that has been created, although women are not constantly being threatened there is still a big issue with their society. Society, although it claims to keep women safe, has full control over what happens to women if they don’t comply and that’s what keeps women in line.

Throughout this chapter I think the narrator would prefer her daughter to be dead because of how young she was when they separated. The relationship between her daughter and her, the child still heavily relies on the mom in my opinion. In her mind a small child couldn’t possibly survive the world without a guide from at least one parent. In the narrator’s mind I strongly believe she fears for her child’s life more than her own.

If I were to live in this society and if I had a child to keep myself sane I would honestly gaslight myself into thinking my child died. I don’t agree with the system and to put a child through that. To keep myself sane I would pray that my child was dead. I wouldn’t want my child to live in a society where she wouldn’t have control over her own autonomy. Even in modern day; I wouldn’t have a child. There are so many risks that if I put a child out in the world with so many issues, I just wouldn’t want to bring it upon them.

Growing up I feel like my mother would move the world if she really had too for my sister and me. I grew up with women surrounding me and we were taught that we should be loyal to our families. I feel like I have a different take on why the narrators would rather believe her daughter to be dead than alive. It would be so much easier to believe her daughter was dead than to want her to be alive. I believe a mother would do anything for their child to be safe and sound. My example of believing that is by the strong independent woman that raised me growing up. This includes my mom, aunt and grandma. My grandmother most of all being an example of a woman of family and having a deep love of owning her own restaurant at the moment. She can be so busy but will always try her best to make time for the family. She has sacrificed to get us to stand on this ground today.

The Handmaid’s Tale has a new form of hierarchy. A new system. In this hierarchy there are men and women separated. And in these smaller categories, there is also hierarchy. Wives, Aunts, Marthas, Handmaids, Econwives, and Unwomen. This ranking system is most based on the ability to produce babies and moral values including before the new system was implemented. The way the system goes, it seems very much based on religious values and it’s being pushed on the whole community. We don’t know how far the system spans in the world but it seems like something not too limited. This notion of religious beliefs and such a vastly different government being forced upon citizens just doesn’t sit right. Another thing that was noted was that for each class of woman, there were different dress colors. Blue for wives (like representing the virgin mary and innocence), Aunts would wear light brown dresses, Martha’s wear green, Handmaids wear red, econwives wear green and blue striped dresses. This is similar to uniforms for school, and as a student I would hate a uniform. Uniforms are to make everyone less individual and uniform. Personally I don’t agree with this because I think self expression through clothing is really important and something I value a lot. I also like to see other people use it as an expression as well. When you think about their strategies to keep order in their system in order, you think of the wall. Or that’s what I thought of. It’s a tactic they use to scare people into submission. That seems to be a theme. Scaring people into submission to their roles. It’s very toxic and I kind of wonder how sustainable it is. How long it will last. The obsession with the wall is representative of values that the higher ups deem wrong. And the consequences that come with not following the ideas of the more powerful. It’s a very strict society where emotions are devalued and therefore people also become dehumanized as emotions are a huge part of humanity. The hierarchy seems to also value “purity” in the eyes of god. For example Serena Joy became a wife because she proved in her old life before the new regime, that she was pure and hadn’t sinned. This bringing in of religion is not new to the world. Like when christianity was being pushed upon people in the past, a similar thing is happening in this book. Also, in the Handmaid’s Tale, there are soul scrolls and lots of mention of prayer. The mention of these are interesting to me because it’s very private, while usually people are scared because they feel constantly watched and spied on. The uncomfort level for women has increased. The Hierarchy of Giead also reveals that the structure of it itself puts women against each other and creates a very quiet, but very judgemental society. Increase in gossip as well because of the lack of communication lines. This environment is women versus women is the most toxic way. Meaning that women are being re taught to hate on other women and criticize them and in turn themselves. They are put down a lot. Our protagonist even seems to have some internalized misogyny instilled in her. Perhaps she was a little like this before gilead, but I think it has definitely increased the more time she spends in gilead. But because she is so much less powerful than many other ranks, she is more easily manipulated. She is put in a position where she feels unsafe to others, and where she is “less than”. Like when the commander takes her to Jezabels, she literally can’t say no. She was put into a position where she could not say no to protect her own life. I don’t think there should be any way she should have been put into a situation she can’t say no in.

Playlist: hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have- but I have it by Lana Del Rey Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve by Taylor Swift Asking For It by Hole O Children by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Femme Fatale by The Velvet Underground, Nico

hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have- but I have it by Lana Del Rey I connected this song to The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood because the song talks about the desperation a woman has for hope in her life, even knowing that it’s not a logical thing to have in her life. “Smiling for miles in pink dresses and high heels on white yachts,” from Lana Del Ray’s song reminded me of when the Japanese tourists visited Gilead, and the way she felt about how they were dressed. Offred talks about how she remembered what it was like to not have to worry about how she was dressed, and envied the female tourists for their freedom to dress however they wished. We also see a part of her that was consumed by the ideals of Gilead, and how she judged those women for the recklessness in their apparel. As she and Ofglen see the tourist they are “Fascinated, but also repelled.” (28) Gilead’s ideals come into play as she now sees them as “Underdressed. It has taken so little time to change our minds about things like this.” (28)

Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve by Taylor Swift I connected this song to The Handmaid’s Tale because this song is about a past relationship that is highly regretted, calling him a “ghost” from her past. Offred often refers to her daughter as a ghost as a way to cope with the fact that she is no longer with her. She describes the way she thinks about her daughter as “this contradictory way of believing seems to me, right now, the only way I can believe anything. (106)” This quote reminds me of the lyrics “All I used to do was pray, Would’ve, could’ve, should’ve. If you’d never looked my way, I would’ve stayed on my knees, and I damn sure never would’ve danced with the devil.” This scene and these lyrics are comparable because it shows Offred’s way of believing her daughter was either safe or dead, and how she wishes she could’ve protected her.

Asking For It by Hole I connected this song to The Handmaid’s Tale because this song is about society’s norm of always placing the blame on women whenever they are the victim of something. There is quite a clear side by side similarity between this song and the book, the song’s chorus being “Was she asking for it? Was she asking nice? If she was asking for it, did she ask you twice?”, and in chapter 13 when Janine is testifying in the Red Center about how she was gang raped at fourteen and the Aunts made all the girls chant at her “Her fault. Her fault. Her fault.”(72) These lyrics and this scene in the book are comparable because they show how society is very quick to judge a woman for what she could have done to “deserve” her assault, and the deep rooted misogyny in these beliefs.

O Children by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds I connected this song to The Handmaid’s Tale because it reminded me of Offred’s description of the beginning of Gilead, and how she tried to leave the country with her family. The lyrics, “They are knocking now upon your door. They measure the room, they know the score.”, reminds me of the security checkpoints Gilead had in place at the borders of the country. The lyrics “We’re all weeping now, weeping because, there ain’t nothing we can do to protect you,” reminds of the scene in chapter 12 where Offred is having flashbacks of her daughter, and later describes how she sees her. “She fades. I can’t keep her here with me, she’s gone now. Maybe I do think of her as a ghost, the ghost of a dead girl, a little girl who died when she was five.”(64) These lyrics and this scene are comparable because it shows how Offred likes to think of her daughter as dead to help her cope with the fact that she doesn’t know where she is and she is unable to protect her.

Femme Fatale by The Velvet Underground, Nico I connected this song to The Handmaid’s Tale because this song is about the stereotype society has created for a “seductive woman” that will use her sexuality to “torment” men. The lyrics “It’s not hard to realize, just look into her false colored eyes. She builds you up to just put you down, what a clown.” reminded me of the scene in chapter 10 where Offed is recalling the way Aunt Lydia talked about the way women dressed during the summer. She describes them as “spectacles.” She says, “Oiling themselves like roast meat on a spit, and bare backs and shoulders, on the street, in public, and legs, not even stockings on them, no wonder these things used to happen.” These lyrics and this scene are comparable because it shows how society viewed women as objects, and everything they did was in effort to get attention or to gain sexual attraction from others.

This piece of art I have created represents the scene where Offred and the Commander are playing Scrabble in the commander’s office. I thought drawing this scene would be significant due to the meaning behind the act that is occurring between Offred and the Commander. In Gilead, reading and writing are forbidden territory for a woman. Offred is able to play Scrabble due to the Commander inviting Offred to play Scrabble with him. This of course is against the rules. Which is why this is the main scene where questions start rising because we as readers, aren’t sure why the commander is bending the rules, especially bending the rules for a handmaid. While reading chapter 23 and going into depth while reading, I tried picturing the scene between Offred and the commander playing Scrabble. Each time I pictured it, the artwork that I had created showed what I imagined. I pictured the commander’s office as an elegant room with a fireplace and antique candles. Due to the era of the book and the status the Commander holds. As well as Offred and the Commander playing Scrabble. A quote that resonated with the scene, where Offred and the Commander are alone is; “So why does he want to see me, at night, alone? If I´m caught, it´s to Serena´s tender mercies I´ll be delivered. He isn´t supposed to meddle in such household discipline, that´s women´s business. After that, reclassification. I could become an un-women. But to refuse to see him, could be worse. There´s no doubt about who holds the real power ̈. This quote was found on page 136 and it expresses and shows how Offred had no choice but to accept the Commander’s invitation to play Scrabble. In Gilead, there is no way out. You either follow the rules or you don´t which can end up badly for one. Offred understands who has power and what territory belongs to one. Offred understands that Serena is in control of what goes on and should be going on within her home. But the power the Commander holds is anything that is not part of the house or the needs of the house. That is why Offred is afraid to get caught. She does not want to be sent to the colonies because she knows she´ll suffer if she is sent and forced there. The relationship between Offred and the Commander is quite interesting. The type of relationship they have is not only physical tension but the need to learn as clearly shown with Offred and the commander playing Scrabble. Offred knows that even though Serena holds power in the house she knows that she cannot deny the commander. As a reader, I start questioning; who has the power? Is it mutual or does the man continue to hold power due to how Gilead is shaped? If Offred was ever to be caught by Serena, could the commander have a say in whether Offred is either sent to the colonies or remains owned by the commander? This would stir up situations depending on who´s word counts and who´s doesn´t.

I wanted to talk about this specific section of chapter 19. Some of the rest of the chapter was interesting, but this one grasped my attention. What was interesting to me was the comparison of her dreams to her reality. And what she thinks about to try and make amends/ cope with what she is going through. Something that I also thought about was how we as people go through these same motions, to try to avoid or make better of our situation. Whether consciously or subconsciously we create this false reality, that eventually might turn into a delusion because of how much we try to convince ourselves that what we are thinking is true. Just to feel a sense of placement in our reality. If you make assumptions you leave immense room for imagination. That in itself can be detrimental. This mostly applied to my life when I was younger and still does. I was always a young and independent child. I was always put in positions to make myself as such, from riding septa alone at around the age of 6 to driving and having cars since I was 12. I encountered obstacles that many children my age weren’t thinking about. And with this independence came a lot of burden and responsibility. And it took a lot out of me from a young age. But I could never really grasp that because I thought it just came with growing up. But as I did get older I realized that it wasn’t and that I was going through things. Nevertheless, I still couldn’t understand it. And nevertheless, I still dont. It reached a point where it became my “identity” and I was “meant” to go through these struggles to build and shape who I was. “Maybe the life I think I’m living is a paranoid delusion” (pg.109), when I was younger I would’ve never formatted it this way and I still wouldn’t. But I would always say why me? Why can’t and or what can I do to create a better life? It was a constant battle between my mind and the reality that I continued to exist in. I would say to myself that it would get better trying to configure a different outcome of my situation, knowing that I had no control or power. And came up with dreams and aspirations that to a kid were in a metaphoric sense tangible. But in its reality was what it was, just a dream. “Sanity is a valuable possession”. The thing I like most about this quote is the direct connection to the text previous to it. They complement each other in just the correct way. And it makes sense, to be forced into a position that isn’t beneficial to your life and that brings nothing but hardship and tribulations deserves a space of comfort. And sanity is just the comfort that is needed. Without that, you’ll eventually lose yourself or the values in which you live. And you’ll just be a soul without life essentially. I was being complacent in a place that you aren’t content with. Struggling every day to create this persona of the person who you wish to be. This form of “sanity” I can also relate to. Not saying that I am crazy but just to have a word or phrase to describe your comfort has always been a good place to fall back on when you feel as though your reality is falling apart. My form of “sanity” was poetry. I always liked to think I was good with words, but I still somewhat do. So to me, poetry came naturally, mixing it with my emotions just added an extra component. It became my outlet for whatever was going on in my head and the things that I would create inside it. The symbolization of this section is profound in a sense, mostly because of the deep connections it can have to people and the text being in its authentic and original form. The things you can dissect from such a small amount of words or just comparing it to your life is what makes this section so divert. Also, the diversity that this text demonstrates is a prime example of the reflection and comparison of the creative mind and the realization of reality.

Chain Gang - Sam Cooke

This song would be in the opening showing the Handmaid’s and Martha’s. The scene would go back and forth between the Martha’s doing their various tasks like cleaning, cooking, and doing various tasks and the Handmaid’s having sex with the commanders during the ceremony. The continuous background “huh, hah, huh, hah” sound will represent the labor they are doing throughout the day. In the chorus Cooke repeats “That’s the sound of the men working on the chain gang”. That line is essential to why I chose it because the irony highlights the fact that this labor is being done by women. The “chain gang” represents that they are trapped in their “reduced circumstances” and not doing this labor by choice.

Freedom (feat. Kendrick Lamar) - Beyonce

This song is all about Moira. But it isn’t just Moira’s experience, it is what she represents for the other Handmaids. The chorus makes a very noticeable connection to Moira as she escaped her post in an attempt to get out of Gilead to start a new life, or maybe return to some sense of her old life. This scene can start with Offred dreaming. Dreaming of Moira tying up Aunt Elizabeth and walking out of the center. This scene would be before Moira tells Offred what actually happened. Instead of the scene being what actually happened to Moira, it would be Offred dreaming of Moira pulling off this great escape that she hopes he can mimic. The main part that separates this song from moira’s true story is the “Ima keep on runnin’ ‘cause a winner don’t quit on themselves”. Moira quit. Or maybe not. She realized her circumstances and chose the best, realistic option.

“”Moira” I say. “You don’t mean that.” She is frightening me now, because what I hear in her voice is indifference, a lack of volition” pg. 249

This is why it’s a dream. Deep down Offred likely can’t even imagine what it would really be like to escape. So her mind keeps running away. Away from becoming content.

That’s What I Want - Lil Nas X

When becoming a Handmaid, Offred lost a lot of things from her old life, including love. Offred often remembers her husband fondly, rarely mentioning the rough parts of their relationship. Song lyrics: “These days are way too lonely” This scene will be another night scene where Offred is wanting to be held. Wanting to feel like someone valued her and her body, not just her womb.

“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” pg. 97

Those feelings are the essence of this song. The opening line “Need a boy who can cuddle with me all night” is exactly what Offred wanted when thinking of Luke before Nick walked in the room. Those feelings of being wanted were so strong to Offred that she almost took a huge risk and had sex with Nick. Song lyrics” I want someone to love me”

Enjoy Yourself (feat. KAROL G) - Pop Smoke

In this scene, the Commander takes Offred to Jezebel’s for the first time. This scene starts off very intimate with the two of them in the Commander’s room back at the house. We watch Offred change clothes into her costume and metaphorically, subtly hints at Offred letting some of the Gilead principles that have plagued her for so long leave her body with her clothes. She puts on makeup, which she hasn’t done in a while.

“For a moment I think I won’t be able to do any of this, and my first time with the eyeliner leaves me with a smudged black lid” pg. 231

This song serves both as a love song from the Commander to Offred, but also a moment where Offred can be free. Song lyrics: “They say, fly girls have more fun, So what? So you should enjoy yourself”. The lyrics represent the Commander bringing Offred out and showing her off, and even though Offred knows this is what she’s doing, she doesn’t take this time for granted and has a drink before ducking off to meet Moira. Song lyrics: “You don’t gotta put your cup down, drink freely, and holla at me if you need me, baby you should enjoy yourself”

UUHH - Teezo Touchdown

For this scene there isn’t much to it. We know how long the sexual tension between Nick and Offred has been building. We also know how much Offred has been longing for passionate, intimate sex. Holding nothing back, Teezo Touchdown’s vocals on “UUHH” perfectly capture these emotions during what would be Nick and Offred’s sex scene. I’m not going to describe a made up sex scene in details but here are some of the lyrics: “You know what’s on my mind, I know what’s on your mind”, “I know that you’re nervous, I’m kinda nervous too”, “First I’m gonna Uh, then I’m gonna uh-uh, uh-uh, and that’s gon’ make you uh-uh-uh”. You get the gist.

Track your own intellectual and emotional experience through a close reading of a particular section. You are encouraged to tackle sections that you have found confusing, uncomfortable, or intriguing. You can write this in first person, citing specific examples from this selection as well as other parts of the novel that connect these ideas. Your selected text can be as short as one sentence or paragraph, and should not be from one of the sections we’ve used as an all-class close reading.

Chapter 33 page 217: “I just want to go home, Janine said. She began to cry. Jesus God, Moria said. Thats enough. She’ll be here in one minute, I promise you. So put your goddamn clothes on and shut up. Janine kept whimping but she also stood up and started to dress. She does that agains and i’m not here, Moria said to me, you just have to slap her like that. You cant let her go slipping over the edge. That stuff is catching. She must have already been planning,then, how she was going to get out.”

While reading this whole part of chapter 33, I started to get disturbed towards the end of it. I think I picked this part of the passage becuase it made me feel the most uncomfortable. This really goes into deep of the fear the women in this world must have for the men. Also it reveals a new way of thinking and intereperating the book. How the women have to treat eachother to keep going. To try to keep each other safe. This is just one of many times that you can see this cleary in this part of the book. The part where the author says, “She’ll be here in one minute, I promise you. So put your goddamn clothes on and shut up,” gives a chilling but well advised directivie. Its strict but with purpose. Theres a clear reason why Moria said this. Not to be mean but to help out. Unfortunately, moria lets janine get hit anyway. In this world however the women dont have much say. I also want to focus on how much abuse and tramua you would have to go throughin order to be okay with all the oppresion to your own gender. Towards the end of this, Moria sees it as you didnt do what you should have done now you need to face your consequences. A twisted vision on how women are treated. This makes me also think that maybe a situation or situations like this have happened similar to maria, and that is why she is more okay with it. Moria’s comment, “She does that again, and I’m not here, you just have to slap her like that,” showcases the brutal measures taken to stifle emotions in this dystopian world. Physical violence is employed to suppress any outward signs of sadness, further emphasizing the society’s cruelty and the inescapable sorrow that engulfs its inhabitants.

Even going back a little bit in the paragraph before that made me feel uncomfortable, a feeling that this book has made me feel many times throughout my reading. Page 216 reads, “They wont send you to the infirmary, so dont even think about it. Moria said, They wont mess around with trying to cure you.s They wont even bother to ship you to the colnies.” Moria’s statement, “They won’t send you to the infirmary, so don’t even think about it,” immediately introduces an air of hopelessness. In the world of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the government’s primary concern is maintaining control and enforcing strict gender roles. The welfare of the individual, especially of a Handmaid, is of little consequence. This complete disregard for the physical and emotional well-being of the Handmaids is a source of profound sadness. It reflects a society where suffering is normalized, and the value of human life has been diminished to the point where any attempts at “curing” or helping the afflicted are futile. The amount of human degrading in this part was crazy to me when I first read as well. She says wont even bother shipping you to the colonies like she isnt enough. Moria acts like she is so damage that she isnt even good enough to a place where the dehumane women every single day. A place where the treat women like they are not humans and usual are sent there to die.

In our last reading, the ¨underground club¨ like scene stood out to me more than anything else has so far. It was action packed, and arguably the most significant part of the book.

The craziness of this scene started off before the party with Offred and the commander alone. The commander ¨gifted¨ what sounded like a lingerie costume type of piece to Offred. Of course, as if getting this piece wasn’t already a big enough shock with it´s illegality in Gilead, Offred noted that this piece also appeared to be used.

Once Offred and the Commander were ready, Nick would chauffeur them past ¨checkpoints¨ to the location of the party, and Offred would need to duck down along the way. Offred noted that Nick seemed familiar with the route to take and the time to return. Her suspicion of this being a routine event for the Commander, with other women who potentially even wore her same outfit, was clear.

Once at the hotel lobby, Offred and the commander walked into a fancy party, cautious of not drawing attention. For Offred, this should have been an all time highlight! The first taste of fun since she lived outside of Guilead! But it wasn’t ; her already uncomfortable night was somehow worsened.

Offred described sitting down on a couch for the first part of the party. Around her, similarly dressed party goers in costumes lingered. But who were they? At first this seemed unclear to Offred. But soon later, the commander would go up to a group of men to, as Offred described, both show off to the men by pointing her out and show off to her by showing his many friends.

With this, the people at the party became more clear: they seemed to be women, and other powerful figures of Guilead. It seemed like Offred immediately understood what this meant. She had been living in this awful society for so long, valued solely for her reproductive use and literally named after the commander (Of-fred). Yet with all of this, the people of power in Gilead were hypocrites?! Blatantly breaking many of Guilead´s rules together in a party setting?! As I read this, I couldn’t imagine many things that would have been more demeaning to Offred. As if things weren’t already bad enough. Because of the obvious significance, choosing this to create an art piece was a no brainer. For my piece, I used a platform called ¨Dall-e¨ to make an AI generated image. In generating the image, I described ¨a hotel lobby party with fancy women and commanders lingering, with a couch at the front where a woman and man sit¨. I was pleased with how the image included everything, but what I like most is the blurriness. In Offred’s description of the scene, it seemed crazy, secretive and mysterious. The level of the blurriness did a perfect job of portraying all the knowns (Offred gave us) of the scene like the fancy outfits, couch and lobby - yet making it unclear: open to interpretation.

This scene in the handmaid's tale is when Offred and Serena Joy have an unlikely interaction where Serena who has been more known to be a rule follower, takes a photo of Offred's child from the old world and shows it to Offred in an act of kindness. But really It’s just to push her own agenda. She now is the holder of information that Offred wants, but during this interaction, Offred has feelings and thoughts about learning this information. She reflects on the meaning of being a mother. She says “But she exists in her white dress. She grows and lives. Isn’t that a good thing? A blessing? Still, I can’t bear it, to have been erased like that. Bette she’d brought me nothing”(228). This is contradictory to before in the book when she asked for knowledge from the commander. But now she is regretting gaining this knowledge. So that begs the question, What is knowledge? A blessing or a curse? Does it depend on the situation? And why does this pain her more than help her. Before this, she thought that asking for knowledge was getting answers and also power. And as humans it makes sense because curiosity is a very human trait. But what does knowledge bring with it? Darkness? Offred seems to think that knowing too much can kill you. 
The longer the book goes on, her view of knowledge grows and changes according to how it makes her feel. In many ways knowledge is useful and brings a lot of benefits the majority of the time. But in contrast to that, information can hurt people mentally. Like Offred, people will want to know things (especially when it relates to them directly), and sometimes it will hurt, but really it’s dependent on multiple factors. Like who the person is, how they take the information (like interpret it), and what the information is to them. 
Knowledge makes it so you can’t imagine as much information. For example in the picture above, she learns that her daughter is still alive and thriving, but the catch is that she’s experiencing life without Offred who wished to be a part of it. Now that Offred knows this she can’t imagine that her daughter escaped, or died. It doesn’t give her the closure she so wanted from the photo. Now her imagination is more limited and she can’t indulge in those same fantasies. 

In chapter thirty-six of The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred is taken on a “date” to an underground club called “Jezebel’s” with the Commander. Throughout this scene, the reader is made to feel uncomfortable.

From the beginning of the situation, we sense something strange about the Commander that night. “‘Tonight I have a little surprise for you,’ he says. He laughs;” (pg 229) Offred describes it as a “snigger.” We as readers, like Offred, aren’t yet sure what he finds funny or why he emphasized little in his proposal. Offred also says he wishes to diminish things, like her, when talking about something. By definition, “diminish” means to make someone or something seem less valuable. The Commander wants to continue to feel powerful and the only way to do that is to make others seem less. To get ready for the club, the Commander does Offred’s makeup with old products and makes her wear a big cloak that we are led to believe belongs to Serena Joy. Offred decides to do it herself and finds it difficult to do so. “For a moment I think I won’t remember how to do any of this,” The entire scene focuses on Offred getting back into the habit of something she did before it was forbidden for her.

“He slips around my waist a tag, purple on an elastic band, like the tags for airport luggage. ‘If anyone asks you, say you’re an evening rental,’ he says.” (pg 233) We as readers are able to understand, without context, that women of Gilead can be rented for the night for whatever the men so please.

When they get to Jezebel’s, Offred sees women and men lounging around. As stated, the women are dressed in “festive gear”, “olden-days lingerie”, bikinis, and cheerleader uniforms while the men are in work clothes. From the description of the extravagant clothes and make-up the women wear, which contrasts the average clothes the men wear, we know Jezebel’s is a risque club. The dissimilarity between the women working at the club and Offred could symbolize the two truths to Gilead. On one hand, it prides their women on modesty and tradition. It also oppresses women; as seen with Offred wearing a bulky cloak that doesn’t belong to her. On the other hand, men are lusting after women in little clothing; wanting something that is not seen as “Holy.”

The Commander shows off Offred. “The Commander does the talking for me, to this man and to the others who follow him. He doesn’t say much about me, he doesn’t need to. He says I’m new, and they look at me and dismiss me and confer together about other things. My disguise performs its function.” (pg 236) We see the men not care much about the women who are evening rentals. This tells us that Jezebel’s is a club meant for relaxing without the rules of Gilead applying to women so they may objectify them however they want.