Journal #1: Topic A

     Just a short clarification before I begin my entry: My distopian novel is The Handmaid's Tail by Margaret Atwood. This entry will be covering the first third of the novel (pages 1-99), and I selected Topic A from the requirements list. The passage I chose to analyze is replicated below.


Passage: Pg 99

     "Is it so bad for him, that he'd take the risk of coming to my room at night? I think of the hanged men on the Wall. I can hardly stand up. I have to get away, back to the stairs before I dissolve entirely. His hand's on my shoulder now, held still, heavy, pressing down on me like warm lead. Is this what I would die for? I'm a coward. I hate the thought of pain.
     "He told me to," Nick says. "He wants to see you. In his office."
     "What do you mean?" I say. The Commander, it must be. See me? What does he mean by see? Hasn't he had enough of me?
     "Tomorrow," he says, just audible. In the dark parlor we move away from each other, slowly, as if pulled towards each other by a force, current, pulled apart by hands equally strong.
     I find the door, turn the knob, fingers on cool porcelain, open. It's all I can do."


Response:

     The chosen passage shows the effects of society on two individuals: Offred, a Handmaid, and Nick, a Guardian. These characters meets by chance in the living room of their household and a forbidden emotional exchange takes place between them. The nature of Offred and Nick's blooming relationship is outlawed because of the prospect of sex. In this society, the only function of sex is to reproduce- and such is done by unconventional means. If individuals form an emotional attachment to one another, they become a liability, and their lives are terminated. Each person has a role specific to them. there are Handmaids, Marthas, Guardians, Angels, eyes, Commanders, and Commanders' Wives, among others. Offred's only purpose in civilization is to bear the children of a Commander. This selection subtly references the punishment for any interaction she should have with Nick- being hung on the Wall. Offred and a fellow Handmaid passed by this Wall earlier in the novel. It is there that rebels are made an example of.