The Powerful Life Of Offred In The Handmaid's Tale

In the recent book our class has been reading, The Handmaid’s tale, it follows

the life of Offred, a young Handmaid who is forced to do her job well; bear a child for the

current family she is with. As we watch her life through her words, we see that gets

conflicted quite a bit, even see the world in a harsher way. The readers also get

flashbacks of what Offred use to be before the country that was the United states gets

over taken and turned into Gilead. The new land is now harsh. Every woman gives a role

that they must stick by, no matter what they think. They are now tools and no longer

people unless one has money or power. But like stated, we are seeing the world from

Offred’s eyes and how she feels about it. She tells us sort of
like she's telling a makeup

story. But she does this token a grip on the reality she doesn't believe in.

As the novel draws out, we already know that this is Offred. Atwood wrote this

book to make it seem as if Offred was sitting in front of the reader, explaining what was

going on.
It even sounds like as if a friend of yours is telling you their story. It isn't straight

to the point, there are point outs of minor details that you shouldn't even realize. Atwood

must have also put in Offred’s flashbacks to show the reader that she did have a peaceful

life before this. One where she was free and had her family. Then the war began and

destroyed it all. Now she’s placed as a Handmaid to serve for this family.

When the Handmaids in training, they have aunts. Those are the women who

trained them. One woman who trained Offred was Aunt Lydia. She takes these women

and turns them into submissive workers. She believes that it is a perfect and holy world

that the ladies must live in. She is seen as quite manipulative, having the girls believe that

they were in the wrong. In Chapter 13, Janine is testifying to a rape that happens to her

before she is taken to the Red Center. As she testify, the Aunt has her stop and asks the

group who’s fault it had been. In all naturally, if it was today’s society, we would say it is

the guy’s fault since she was just walking. But here, the girls immediately say it’s her fault.

What’s even more is that they chant that it’s her fault and even to to lengths to call her
a

cry baby. The reason being so? Because God was teaching her a lesson. After having

everything taken from them, The Aunts use this as a method to say, “there is not other

way than what I’m telling you know.” The women are now much easier to force

information and lies to, because they will believe anything at this point. Especially if it

sounds holy, using God as a method in a Holy-based society. The world is so

manipulated that they even say that the raping was God’s way of punishing her for

something. Even worse is that, they will continue to mock and tease them until the person

eventually crumbles and submits. “This week Janine doesn’t wait for us to jeer at her. ‘It

was my fault’, she says. ‘It was my own fault. I led them on. I deserved the pain.” (Chapter

13)

However, in Offred’s case, she used words to help her get through this new life.

In her room, she finds a Latin phrase. “Nolite te bastardes carborundorum”. Without

knowing what the word meant, she is still given some type of hope that the last

Handmaiden left it there to encourage her in some way. But this word does give her

courage. She is given a reason to live and work hard. A little pick me up. She continues

with this mantra in her mind so the day doesn't seem so bad. Once she figures out the

translation, however, “Don't let the bastards grind you down”, it looses merit. It wasn't

really a message handed for her. And especially after hearing that Moria, the person she

had looked up and the most determined person she knew, had been reduced to a

prostitute, she couldn't even believe the statement anymore. It gave no merit.