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.