LECTURE 1 tHE HANDMAID’S TALE

1. LECTURE 1tHEHANDMAID’S TALE Chapters 24-28

2. Agenda • We’re going to go through important plot points in each Chapter and discuss the major tensions. • Chapters 24- 28 • What I’m hoping you take out of this lecture is: • Offred realizing she now holds a little bit of power over The Commander, vulnerability of men ( can be easily manipulated with sex) • Gileads affect on the Commander • The Commander begins to understand the oppression the Handmaid faces. • Constant fear of being ‘found out’ • The compliance of the working class – Atwood’s view of society • IT NEEDS TO BE UNDERSTOOD THAT MEN ARE NOT THE ONLY PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE POSITION WOMEN ARE IN AND ATWOOD BRINGS ATTENTION TO THIS.

3. Chapter 24- plot points • Refresh: This occurs right after The Commander and Offred’s first meeting. They played scrabble and he asked her to kiss him before she left his room. • Offred decides she has to forget her old name and her past; she needs to live in the present and work within its rules. (prison) • Offredfinds the events of the night incredibly funny. In the dark, she stumbles into the closet (cupboard), where the Latin phrase ‘nolitetebastardescarborundorum’ (Don’t let the bastards grind you down) is written. She falls asleep on the floor next to it. • She recalls a message Aunt Lydia shared with her about the men. The underlying message is that men are “sex machines” and should be manipulated with sex.

4. Feminist LENSE • This is a turning point in the story because Offred is starting to realize she does hold little power over The Commander. • According to Aunt Lydia men can be easily manipulated with sex – VULNERABLE, WEAK, DESIRE CLOSENESS • But also women can best manipulate men with sex, not intellect. Sex becomes the secret weapon that women have to sway men. • Atwood gives a Offred a little bit of power BUT the only reason she has power is because she is meeting the Commanders desires.

5. GILEAD’S AFFECT ON THE COMMANDER • This society completely perverts sex and closeness by putting such strict restrictions on who can come in contact (intellectually, emotionally, and sexually). Sex is a cold practice when it is probably one of the most intense ways we connect to each other as human beings. • Like the women, he seems to be a prisoner of Gilead, starved for genuine human contact.  • In a small way certain cultures and religion still do this. We are conditioned to value monogamy. (other ex. white sheet, biracial couple, rich/poor couples, arranged marriages).

6. “He was not a monster, to her. Probably he had some endearing traits: he whistled, off key, in the shower, he had a yen for truffles, he called his dog Liebchen and made it sit up for little pieces of raw steak. How easy it is to invent humanity, for anyone at all. What an available temptation”

7. The Commander is her oppressor yet she is so easy to find the ‘humanity’ in him. Offred is able to look for familiar and endearing traits that the Commander might have instead of labeling him as a monster because of who is he in society and what he does – similar to the Nazi story. • We are tempted to find closeness in those around us. • Wives of killers/ mob members • Attraction to the ‘bad boy’ in popular films, television shows etc.

8. Chapter 25 plot points • The visits to The Commander become more frequent and they develop secret signals through Nick to alert each other whether it is a good time for a visit or not. • The physical advances stop during this period but they play scrabble and she looks at an issue of Vogue. • Offred points out that Serena often leaves to visit other Wives that are sick. Handmaids and Marthas couldn’t afford to get sick or else they would be sent off to the colonies. Offred never saw any old women, and she never knew where they went. What does this remind you of?

9. PLOT POINTS CONTINUED • Offredasks the Commander for lotion which he provides for her.   • At this point the reader finds out he does not understand the humiliation of these women face. • They are forced to hide scraps of their own dinner, denied the tiniest luxuries. He does not even understand that their rooms are searched, that they live under constant scrutiny and have no privacy whatsoever. (The Blind Side) • This can be compared to a young German child not understanding the lives Jewish children led. Can you blame him? • Or the rich not understanding the poor.

10. CHAPTER 26 PLOT POINTS • Offredhas developed a relationship with the Commander and she now feels awkward/ embarrassed about having sex with him. • Although the Commander and her aren’t having unregulated sex she still views herself as a mistress. “Emotionally cheating”- there relationship is against the law. If Serena found out she would expel Offred to the colonies. • The commander touches Offreds face during sex and she tells him to not do that. • The Commander tells Offred he finds the sex impersonal. • Offred remembers Aunt Lydia telling the Handmaids that the population would eventually reach an acceptable level, at which point the Handmaids would live in only one household. They’d become daughters of the wives.

11. MARXIST LENSE • Constant fear of being ‘found out’. What Marxist literary theory basically suggests is a discussion about how the social and political culture determines/ impacts ones life in a significant way. “Cultural Manipulation”

12. CHAPTER 27 PLOT POINTS • Ofglen and Offred visit the Wall and Offred wonders if Luke is detained behind the Wall. It used to serve as a university but now it serves as a detention center. UNIVERSITY -> DETENTION CENTER. This can be a symbol of education and reason being withheld and contained. • This can be compared to the Nazis asking everyone to bring their books to the ghettos synagogue. A place where one goes to pray and be morally educated is now a dump yard for education. It became a place where people were forced to give up there access to education (books). • In both cases education is taken away.

13. Attack on religion - On one of their return trips, Ofglen and Offred stop at a store called Soul Scrolls. Inside, humming machines print prayers. Many of the Wives phone in orders for prayers in order to signal their holiness. After the prayers are printed, the paper is recycled and used again. What does this remind you of?

14. Confessions- Don Jon • Sitting up at the front of a church.. The irony in this is that the bible actually states that those who sit at the front and offer the most money aren’t actually the holiest of people.

15. Ofglen and Offred receive a second of hope and understanding but it is immediately follow by fear of THE EYES. (Marxist lense) • As they walk home a dark black van stops abruptly. Offred thinks perhaps her conversation with Ofglenwas recorded, but the two Eyes who jump out grab a man carrying a briefcase. • Constant fear of being ‘found out’.

16. Chapter 28 plot points • We find out that Moira was a lesbian. She thinks if were Moira she would know how to take the fan apart and use the blades as a weapon. She thinks of how strange it now seems to her that women used to have jobs. • She remembers the fall of the United States. Congress was assassinated, state of emergency, people stayed home, television and newspapers were censored, roadblocks implemented, everyone needed to carry an Identipass and eventually woman lost all rights and property. (similar to the video)

17. There was a shutdown of anything considered ‘perverted’. • Pre- Gilead society was very sexually liberal which might be the reason for the conservative backlash. “Porno-marts” and “Feels-on-wheels”. There are “porn-riots” and “abortion-riots” • She remembers how the night after she lost her job, Luke wanted to make love, but Offred felt uncomfortable. They no longer belonged to each other; instead, she belonged to him. She thought he liked the fact that she belonged to him.

18. GUYS IN THE CLASS • Your girlfriend or sister comes to you saying I need to give up my things to you- what is your response?

19. COMPLIANCE • In Offred’sretelling, there is little resistance to the new regime, even after it disenfranchises women and strips them of their jobs. This IS INTENDED TO STRESS the complacency of ordinary people in times of crisis. • Everything we know of Luke suggests that he is a decent man, but he is willing to go along with this oppression of women. Gilead re-establishes the old patterns of patriarchy, and Luke slips back into those patterns, promising to “take care” of Offred instead of fighting for her rights. (FEMINIST LENSE) • Women took for granted the gains of feminism and the government’s protection of the rights of women, and so lost them all. (FEMINIST LENSE)

20. IT NEEDS TO BE UNDERSTOOD THAT MEN ARE NOT THE ONLY PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE POSITION WOMEN ARE IN AND ATWOOD BRINGS ATTENTION TO THIS.

21. compliance • Compliance exists in our society and has always existed. Here is a frightening and true example: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdONydDX44I

22. For this week • Tuesday- 28-34 • Wednesday - 35-40 • Thursday off • Friday- 40- 44 & historical notes • Monday/ Tuesday we’re watching A Handmaid’s Tale • Tuesday & Wednesday- talk about the film and prep for in class essay- Marxism/ Feminism • Structure, & content. • Thursday & Friday – prepare and write in-class essay.