Blog post

I think since the book started, the one main character i didn't pay attention to the most was the commander's wife. Now, I'm wondering about what she thinks by all this. I mean, she must be bored as hell sitting at her garden or doing nothing every day. How does she relaly feel about all this stuff? I mean, was her and her husband a happy couple before this whole thing? Does she love him? I would think that she needs to love him in order for her to feel jealousy and hatred for Offred. And I feel that she does hate Offred. Why else would she want to help Offred get pregnant? Also, this whole story have been told in the view point of Offred, a woman, someone who's not supposed to know a lot in this book. What I want to see was the big picture, the whole thing happening with society. Who control the commanders? Who control the aunts? How are people everywhere reacting to the situation? What "work" do the commanders actually do? How are the politics in this new world? Also, I wonder what is going on with the resistance? I mean, they obviously had quite a number of people, if so does it only consist of women? If there are men in the resistance, then how are they fighting against the system? This society seems really boring, and as we can see, Offred thought of suicides a few times, what keeps all the other handmaids from killing themselves because of boredom? I mean, what were their lives before? To have everything taken away from them, they must have been suffering the same way that Offred is, maybe worse. They might not live close to interesting people like the Commander or Ofglen. I could already see this system and society coming to an end very soon. People who aren't happy aren't going to be productive. All they are doing is work and no play, they will overturn this system due to growing discontent among the people

Blog Post # 4

Well, I thought the way that the people staged that coup was pretty good. I mean, aside from the fact that they gunned down the congress and everything, which sounded impossible, but how they gradually changed everything to fit their purpose. But what I wonder about is how they came to grab that power. I mean, if right now, something was to happen to the leaders of the United States, people would riot for sure. It wouldn't be peaceful. Also, they would have to put someone up as the face of their side, like a spokeperson who would stand for their government. Where is that person now? What is he doing in his position? I'm assuming that the person is a man because a woman doesn't have any power in the United States at that time. Also, how did the other countries react to what happened in the United States? Wouldn't have they tried to take advantage of the United States due to the unstability? Also, I'm sure that this kind of thing could never happen to us in real life. The main reason is the abolishment of money, the big corporations have power and they will always have power because they have a lot of money, and they will never allow that one aspect that gives them power to go away. Also, I'm sure that everything is government owned in the book, so the big corporations would fight that. Also, how come there is no resistance to this new system? I'm sure everyone is unhappy, because that's how it seems. The young Guardians can't get a wife till they are old, the commanders' wives are unhappy, most of the women are unhappy, how can they live like that?

Blog # 3

I think the commander is a very weird guy. He must be like 20 years older than her but he wants her to kiss him like she meant it. He is old enough to be her father. Another thing I'm wondering about is why are the handmaids stripped of their names? What is so shameful about keeping their old names? With their new names Offred are spelled like "of fred" and same thing with ofwarren and ofglen. Did they make up the names to refer to these women as properties? Often you hear people say that the current culture is wrong and shameful because it depicts women as properties but not as much as in this story. How could they say that they are giving the women freedom when they are counted as objects. Also, the commander is very weird, why does he want to play scrabble with her? If he wanted the kiss he should have asked for it, and if he wanted to play scrabble, he could have asked his men to play with him, less risk that way. Even if someone found out about the kiss, I don't think it would have been more troublesome for him than if they found out he let her play scrabble. The narrator mentions one of the Aunt always tell her to manipulate the men and lead them by the nose. How does that make them better than before? Stringing men along will lead to something disasterous. How can a woman not be a slut but at the same time using sexuality to manipulate men? Also, I don't understand what is their reason for doing this. If they want to repopulate, shouldn't they need to do their ceremony more than once per month? And if they want to repopulate why not let every single men get married, that way, there is a lot more chance. Why would they think that older men are more fit to reproduce than younger men?

Blog # 1

I think that the society described in the story is disgusting. People have no freedom, they are forced to do everything society tells them to do. They can't say no and run away either. It's almost like being in jail. I find it appalling how the narrator's daughter was taken away from her and she was sent away to be breeder for someone else. No one had a choice in the matter, even the commander had to follow the routine and have sex with the girl, regardless if he likes it or not. In school, the narrator was always taught that the society was created so that she could be protected, the rules were there so that she couldn't get raped, but she gets raped EVERY month, by the same person, and it's LEGAL for him to rape her. The story sounds like such a backwards society, one that was created in the past, hundred of years ago, and doesn't seem like it would be in the United States. What I'm wondering about is what made the government create these new rules and laws and this whole new society. Why didn't the rest of the world stop the US from doing this. Also, this seems like such a boring society, if you are at a high position, you get to live better than other people, but if you are not, you live like a slave. Also, it seems that the standard of living lowered too, because not even the commanders get to eat meat everyday, which seems odd. In our current society, everyone can eat meat every single day, and in that backwards society in the story, it sounds like the common people rarely gets meat. It all sounds really communistic too without any currency or anything. The tokens are like another way of saying food stamps. And what is with those aunts that teach them at the schools, they are more like witches with their beating and tortures and stuff.

BLOG # ?

The story was confusing at first, but it got clearer later. I thought the idea of the story is really interesting. The plan to intergrate men into their society will never work. The women have been living that way for as long as they remember, since thirty centuries ago, they have been accustomed to their way of life. They have been given a mating partner that is natural to them. Now, for these men to come and take that away from them is not right. I agree, that it is unnatural from our point of view, but to them, that's the way it has been. They have been living that way for thirty centuries, which are almost as long as we have had civilizations. If someone alien come from another planet forces us to mate with them, I don't think we would have been happy. I think if men did come to Whileaway, the result would be disasterous. Eithere there will be a war between Whileaway and Earth, or the people of Whileaway will become slaves to the men who come. In the end, Whileaway won't be there anymore, it will be destroyed and the way of life of the people living on Whileaway will also be destroyed.