Freedom and Power in The Handmaid's Tale

This will be a series of blog posts about power and freedom in The Handmaid's Tale

Part 1: The pen is mightier than the sword

Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. Don't let the basterds grind you down.

I start with this quote because I believe it illustrates the issue of power and freedom. Offred finds it scribbled into the wall in her closet, and learns that an earlier handmaid put it there. As she writes it down for the Commander, to have him translate it, she comments on the power of the pen. The power of the words inside the pen. Earlier in the book, when describing the transition of the US to Gilead, she comments on how, after the catastrophe, one of the first things to happen in the newspapers are censored. These, traditionally are seen of sources of power. Immediatley, the government is censoring words, knowing their power. Even earlier, we understand, through government news that there is a war going on. Offred quickly elaborates that she does not trust these news sources.

Further, we have Offred's desire to receive a message from Luke. She says that "any day now there may be a message from him" and that she "must endure, keep myself safe for later," (115-116). She later elaborates that it's this message, "which may never arrive, that keeps me alive" (116). Clearly words hold a great power for Offred. Even words that do not yet exist, or may never exist, have more power than all that Gilead is trying to do to her. 

We, as readers, often see Offred contemplate words when she needs to calm down. She goes through all the meanings of the word "job". Most interesting of all, she keeps coming back to the meaning of "job" that young kids or dogs did. The ones that you were supposed to berate them for. I find it interesting that in her contemplation of the word "job" she comes across the excretion of fecal matter as the main definition. Perhaps these two meanings are closely related, and have something to do with the brainwashing going on in Gilead. Earlier, she can't believe she ever had a job, yet, we know that this would've been normal in the pre-Gilead time period. Another example of this is her musings on the word "Chair" and how it can mean both the head of something, as well as be part of charity. These random word associations, I believe to be quite informative about her state of mind, and the state of the world. It is also interesting that these are what calm her down.

Now, to the quote listed on top of the blog post "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum". Where these words are written, I believe is very significant.  Offred often sees her closet as the safe place, her closet, away from anyone in Gilead. Clearly the earlier Handmaid had seen this too, and had managed to etch these words into the wall. What is, perhaps, the most incredible of all though, is that the Commander laughs when he sees them. Offred has found these words, and treasured these words as the last handmaid had, but the Commander brushes them off as a childhood joke. I think that shows the power of words as resources. The one with few words finds any words to be precious, whereas the one who has many, finds few to be precious. Perhaps, the meaning of the Latin is irrelevant, and the significance of the words is their existence and the fact that one handmaid had the power to break the oppressive system and carve the words into the wall.

To be continued next week. 

If Men Could Menstruate and Why I want a Wife

Firstly, I really enjoyed the titles of these two essays. I also enjoyed these essays far more than anything of the others that we had read. They took the same feminist message but worded it in a witty way, and turned it around on itself.

In If Men Could Menstruate, the change is society was well done. The idea of "cool slang" based off of menstruating, I found really funny. I thought what this piece did well was that it didn't complain about issues and try to prove using facts and figures, but rather took a social construct and reversed it. I thought it went about proving how ridiculous our society was without directly stating it. "The logic is in the eye of the logician" sums it up perfectly. We have, for thousands of years as men, come up with lies and flawed to prove that men are indeed "superior" and what Gloria Steinmen did so well was to turn it on its head. Women were thought unfit for political office because of their time of the month, but If Men Could Menstruate points out women would be thought unfit for political office because of their lack of a time of the month. I found it really clever as she came up for justifications for religious services, work, etc. because every time I could hear some misogynist preaching that, and each argument made sense. I found the pop culture references funny, and I really enjoyed the whole article.

Why I want a Wife is another story that I thought was strong. Firstly, I think it is interesting how the author, Judy Syfers, seems to be a traditional housewife. I suppose that perhaps all the things she says a wife does, is what she does. I think this adds a level of understanding and depth, and makes the piece more powerful. I think it was well written, because it takes traditional stereotypes, and turns them around. Also, by talking about wives as a term "a wife" rather than "a woman" it implies that "wives" are interchangeable and not human almost. I think she is making the point that a "wife" is not necessarily a woman, but I think it goes further to say that "wives" are not considered people, and therefore, women are not considered people. Also, she makes that argument that women want these things as well. When she says "My God, who wouldn't want a wife" she is implying that wives are universally desired, and that very few women are happy about their un-chosen role in the household.

Just a side note, just thought it should be mentioned: I also thought both were much better than blame it on feminism, yet it did bring up an interesting point. Dr. Jean Baker Miller points out, very interestingly, that "A backlash may be an indication that women really have had an effect", and that the "lack" of progress demonstrates progress.

Rwanda

 I wanted to talk about the story entitled "The Yellow Wallpaper" today, but I thought I would instead take a post and talk about the trip my mother recently returned from. She has been involved in a charity called "Women for Women" for a number of years now. They are a charity organisation that goes into previously war torn countries to help the women there. They run a two year course that teaches the women all about their rights, both civil and personal, and teaches them a trade. At the end of this program the women are eligible for micro loans to start small businesses. My mother had previously traveled to Bosnia to meet the organisation there, and has just arrived home from Rwanda, where they also run an school.

The civil war and attempted ethnic cleansing in Rwanda was horrific. Men, women, and children were brutally massacred during a race war between the Hutus and the Tsutis. It is interesting to note that those words have recently been banned in Rwanda, as the government is trying to break down these social tensions. During the civil war, there were a number of atrocities and massacres of women and children that happened. In one particular massacre, men in a Church murdered children. They were ritualistically executed by being thrown of smashed head first into a wall of the church. One attacker elaborated on the process, saying that the children made a very pleasing “popping” sound when they died.

To hear some women speak, my mother said, was  incredibly frightening. One woman is the last living member of her family as her husband, four children, parents, siblings and extended family were all murdered during the fighting. She still carries the scar on her chest from which her unborn child was ripped. Yet, there is a silver lining in that these women carry on. As my mother's trip arrived, the women sang and danced and cheered. My mother danced and sang with them, as they lived, and learned and grew. Rwanda is now a strengthening economy and a growing social structure. While much of Africa is imploding, Rwanda seems to be improving. Perhaps these women could have a better life. What was amazing to me, was that these women who had endured incredible tragedy, tragedy that I cannot even begin to imagine, were trying to improve. The resilience of these women, and this country as a whole, is truly astounding to me.

women who had endured incredible tragedy, tragedy that I cannot even begin to imagine, we trying to improve. The resilience of these women, and this country as a whole, is truly astounding to me.