idealso6

idealso6

Mon 12/01/08

could also partly be modeeed after anita bryant

commander's role

role of handmaid .. get pragnent by commander

later on , whole thing about clandestine relationship between handmaid and commander

eventually wants to play scrabble with handmaid

what does that mean?

a society which even the people who created it for their own good are imprisoned by it

.. handmaids are not allowed to read .. supposed to be illiterate

when something is forbidden, it's something you want to do

gives her magazine .. also forbidden

.. watches her reading it .. supposed to be a turn on or something .. becuase it's so forbidden

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Wed 12/03/08

Ofred's mother -

significant at least rhough memories

page 116 -

ofred refers to the take back the night deomonstration ..

.. characteristics:

- ofred's father -- he was just a boyfriend

page 121 -- a man is just a woman's strategy for making women

single mother .. probably in the forefront of the femenist movement at the time .. maybe organizer of the take back the night demonstration

conversation with luke page 121

look at him slicing up the carrots

.. cookings my hobby ..

once upon a ime you wouldn't have been allowed to have such a bhoobby

so .. she's an independant activist . someone that ofred feels very strongly toward because she has some many memories

how this society got started

congress and president were gunned down .. story that it was islamic terrorists

constitution suspended dand then they had this checkpoints and became militaristics

but even before that , the Us wthat was replaced by the new society, was not that great

.. US at some future date ..

what were some of the tings that were happened ...

one thing to whipe out a thread and another thing to create a new society

society replacing that replaces something that peopple have viewed as something wrong with it.

must have beeen somehing about htat previous society -

environment - chemcials , radiation,

porno mart . porno on weels

.. that society that was replaced was not in good shape .. had already destroyed the eonvironment

- sterility .. declining birht rate

we hhve essentially a magnification of the porn inudstry that we see today but taken to a logical extension ..

d

seems like porno was rampant.

feels like it wasn't as safe for women ..

evidentially the crimes against women were increasing .. becoming intolerable .

the degredation of women was not just throuhg the fact that there was sexual chrimes taking place . but a kind of a general reducion of the importance of women

job that ofred had before the regeme took over: she worked in the library .. putting books on cds so that you don't have to read any more

alludes to the fact that it was to save space .. you gotta wonder about a society that has decided to put their books on disc and throw away the original

think about that job ofr a college grad . some grads maybe do get jobs like that but

scene at the library when supervisor comes in and metnions I gotta fire all of you ..

well all of you were all women and the supervisor was a man

.. intentiional .. this society was going down hill not just from the environment but also in tems of hits image of women

and maybe this society that took its placeis tapping into certain characteristics from before

all the women were doing a job that does not take a lot of training

fiiring takes place under new regeme .. but the job demonstrates the state of things in the US of the future

.. also, couldn'g buy cigarettes .. money was beconing less anddless .. all cared based

but much easier to disenfranchize some one

goes to the store and her card doesn't work

all done by the new regeme .. basic change .. women are no longer able to function independantly

one of the things tha really helps wiith idependance is having control of their money

.. if you want to tie their hands , you take away the control of their money

.. they can always get the money .. but must goo to their husbands.

return to the old days .. 1950's ish

.. this regeme might look back kinda fundly to the 1950's .. neuchlear family ..

return to the tradition al view and superimposing a religious aura

the effect that losing her ability to spend money aad on her relation ship with luke

she starts to resent him .. it seems like LUke is tryng to be an OK guy .. but no matter what he says or does, it will come off bad because from her perception , she feel slike property .. paranoid that LUke actualy likes it better this way

.. no longer equal .. now inferior to her husband

sayhing that ofred found etched in her closet:

- doesn't know what it means ..

but in enchouters with commander she works up the courage to ask the commander

. he recognizes it ..

.. latin that sounds important .. but really "dont let the bastards grind you down"

.. which is actually an important message from one handmaid to another

came fom his old school books .. but that also indicates somethig else ..

the other handmaid learned it from him .. so they had the same kind of relationship with the command that ofred had had .

so this wasn't the first time .. some dkind of regular thing

page 210 - one of these conversations with the commander

210-211 . asks ofred "id like to know what you think"

what do you think of this thing we created .. she kinda plays coy . doesn't waat to say the wrong thing

.. tries to evade the question ..

.. gets the picture that she doesn't like it

. can't make an omlet w/o breaking eggs .. we thought we could do better

.. tht seentence right there is one of the pointed sentences in the whole novel ..

that always it . you always think that you could do better .. but it goes all haywire

better never means better for everyone .. always means worse for some

. belamy though it could be.

this society is worse for women especially

but the irony is that it's rpobably worse for everybody.

another thig about the handmaids

reason for being .. they are suppposedly fertil . in a society that is going down hilll in terms of fertiility rates, it becomes a commodity of extreme value .

importtant resource .. though not free

given all that , wouldn't you think it'd be a temporary thing .. stabilize the population , create neough babies to sovle the problem

in other words, handmaids won't be necessary a t some pont in the future

seems like a weird msolution .. don't you need yojhng guys as well as you gurils

.. gotta bget the most healthy , youthful on BOTH sides .. not these old commanders

but to use females who are fertiil .. paired up with the commands, obviously si aa distrotion of the eugenics idea

so there's a hidden motive beyound solving the problme .. solving the problem becomes a cherade

162 - quote from aunt lydia .

red training center

for teh generations that come after, it will be so mcch better .. better than you will have it .....

if they're trying to get these women to have kids . why don't they make them more comfortable

"the fact is that I'm his mistress"

in the future .. not only that some handmaids will exist . but the commands migh have more than one

in onther words, this is not a temporary thing .. this is a practice that is intended to stay on forever.

ofred could not have been a handmaid unless they could have pinned some kind of crime on her

handmaids are in some sense prisoners

they only thing she did .. s she aad eseentially committed adultry with luke because luke was married and they had a relation ship before he was devorced.

.. actually, society declared that all not first marriages were adultrist

.. therefore could be legally enslaved as handmaids.

natural trial birth ... no pain killers of any sort . even use the old fashioned birthing stool

prevaganza -

big mass wedding between daughters of commanders who marry Angels (war heros)

still kinda a war going on still fighting other groups .. mainly religious grouns who have opposed the imposition of a religous society on others

these are arranged marriages .. people dont pick and choose

sun young moon .. started this christina church .. people kinda believe he's the messiah

in 70s and 80s .. he used to do these prevaganzas essentially

match up his followers

.. so this particular prevaganza is a take off of his mass (not Mass :-D) marriages

page 219, 220 -

we've given them more than we've taken away

over looked love -

-

arranged marriages work just as well.

how big? this group has taken over a chunch of the US

frontier that's still in battle.

colonies .. that's where you put the undesirables

send gays, blacks there

how do they get any work done ..

colonies, perhaps

. but they're not doing very well economically .. when you go to the store there's shortages.

names of the aunts were deliberately change to be names of common woman's products .. so that when they took over their role .

they wear brown l.. from nazi stoom troopers . so in terms of the female population, they're like storm troopers . given these very benign names that would make their charges feel more comfortable in their company.

offred's real name is June.

jezebells

mora wearing a playboy bunny output

.. wearing anything they can find that refers to women being a sex object

cheerleader outfits

jezebell's .. whore house

only difference .. at a houe of prostitution usuaaly there's some freedom

here they're forced -- ummmm that actually happens today.

.. indicates that the society isn't working for the guys .. so they have to create an alternate society

.. and only for commanders .. wives don't know about it

mora tells the story of what happened after the red center

underground female road

mora .. ends up at jezebells becuae that's the only place for her .. can't be a handmaid

seems like she's gvven up .. the way she talks .. says "this is better than the colonies" i'll be dead in theree or four years .. and she's a lesbian .. allowed to have a relatinship after hours

that's not the mora at the beginning .. she was always the one willing to take chances .. she was the one who escaped after all

mora was always the persona that offred wanted to be in terms of snubbing the system

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Fri 12/05/08

last test covers the last four boooks

looking backward

brave new world

lost horizon

handmaids tale

10 quotes and you have to do 8

about half the test

second half .. more taditional types of essay quuestions

might be a little longer but same weight as other exams

20-part paper also due at the beginning of the final exam period

no need for much formal intro .. get a thesis in there somewhere

exam friday at 11

the character of Nick:

nick is the choffer for the command

used for a variety of tasks .. including illegal activities

.. singlas when rondevous will take place

a little later

conversation between servena and offred

page 204 -

taking about offred and whether she's pregnant

serena says something really out of place

"maybe he can't" .. out of place .. can see that by the reaction

.. it's heracy in this society .. only the women who can't receive ..

interesting that the ideology (sexual) is that ther's a problem with fertility but the problem with women not the men

reconized as a fualsehood by the men who created and also the females

so the ideology doesn't seem to have any true believes ..

except maybe for the handmaid

serena suggests .. why don't we try another way

I was thinking of Nick

she also mentions in the context of the discussio that this is not an unheard of thing ..

this is a thing that wives do .

kinda illustrating in a way how much the camelflougue of this society is seen through by pretty much everyone

after this , section ofn jezebell's

.. has to be home at midnight .. because she and serenty have made a plan tht nick will be available that night

first sexual encounter with nick

earilier in the novel .. ad been some incident that tells us that the handmaid may have had some feeling toward nick

but now we're going to have this exual encounter that's arranged by seriena

sernena has arranged t

handmaid offers to go to apparment above the garrage in order to try to get pregnant from nick

first encounter

a variety of ways to read this .. but one way is as a commentary on reconnstruction of ovents

whenver we have a first hand account of something

is this accunt the truth .. this is a questiojn you can ask if you have a first person narration of the navovel .. if it's a person recounting

first of all you have theiir own lmited perspective

seoondly you have the distance .. how far away in the past

and then we have to remember it .. reconstructed over time .. so that's another place where it can lose varacity and truth

but also hidden agendas .. when they reconstruct somehiig rom the past .. tend to maeke it souund better for themselves

historians aave to deal with this too .. every first person account you have to see if that person really had teh facts .. all kinds of things come in to play to sortyout history

.. favorite place that deals with reconstrction is in the encounter with nick

right aggvoe the garate .. the same night as jezebell's

page 260 - recounting of what actually happened

i created the top of the stairs

describing the details .. military stripped ddown room

waiting for her .. got a cigarette .. no preliminaries .

"he moves away from me , turns off the lamp .. almost no pause and the the thunder .

.. sounds like a romance novel .. right after that

" made that up .. it didn't happen that way "

tells the story the "way it really happened"

now the second redition is not that romantic .. "well we gotta go through with this

but then it sorta does get a little not realistic again.

"you come here often " and what's a nice girl like me doing in a spot like this

sentence along the way that makes them sound like some from a 1930's romantic comedy

.. people could just banter away .. clever way

is this true or not? we don't know at this point

but it sonds like something you would

right before that "we're going to be touggh" and then she changes it

at the end f the secon drecounting she also makes an admissions about the first recunting .. there wasn't any thunder .. I added that it

i invented that too .. ther was no thunder

it didn't happnd that way either .. and then she cant really tell how it happened

a lot of places in the book where she refere to reounting a story and whether its true or not

really a stron gtheme is this book

this is a good passage for that teme

and thnn page 267 - beginning of chapter 41

"i wish this story were different more civilized"

but gotta tell the story the way it happened.

why does she wish the story were different

why does she find herself disapppointed in herself ?

she fell in love with NIck ...

.. goes to see nick several times after the encounter .. becomes a regular love affair to some extent

.. feel slike she's betraying luke .. "it would be better if I knew if he was dead " .. if he's alive .. that means she really is in some sense cheating on luke

giving into society even though she's going to nick

marthas know .. so maybe they're in on the big charade

why else might she feel ashamed

fells sorta like guity that sh'es happy .. should be focused on trying to get out

there is a real satisfaction relatively speaking\

feels guilty .. shouldn't feel that good given the circomstances.

MOra .. I didn't want mora to be like me"

also , when she's given the opportunity to really help the opposition, she's focused on her private agenda .. 270 and 271

soul scrolls .. no one there to read it

and then the paper is recycled and they print over it

so right there the idea that the religioun is a kind of empty thing

.. two of them are looking in the window and they can see each other

and then ofglen says "do you think god hears those prayers"

.. moment of trruth for ofred

offred says no .. they take a sigh of relief .. realize that they hve something in common .. part of the resistance

from that time on , wheneverrofglen is with offred .. usually opus up the queston about offreds relationship with the commander and that offred can really provide some useful informaton from that relationship.

always trying to get offred to do more and offred always backs off

270 271 .. end of chapter 41

you could go into his room at night .. look through his desk

"the door is locked"

digression .. the commanders no longer of interest to me

... thinking about nick instead

splice together the quesin that ofglen asked

"says I cant and and Id be no good at it

by bottom of 271, ofred says .. ofglen is giving up on me .. i do not feel regret about this

not going to get offred to do the things she wasy capable of doing given her situation

tells the story but feels that she could have done better

district salvaging - big event

three women were executed .. two handmiad sand one wife

why woul dthey exe a wife?

.. killig a handmaid and then there's always adultry

but there's really not a trial .. they get up there and they're all hanged

taking place in front of the wiedner library in harvard

rope - .. have to hold onto it .. they are symbolically contributing to the execution and in ta sense tacitly approving of the regeme by doing so

after the salvaging, then the particicuption

brought out a guy who they said that had raped two handmaids and one lost a bably because of it

gets the handmaids angry .. so they're allowed to do whatever they want to this guy .. get the feeling that he was torn apart

but what does ofglen do right before this cround reaches this guy

.. she knocks him out

of course offred sees this and can't believe it

.. how could she be so cruel?

.. member of the resistance .. she was just putting him out of his misory by knocking him unconceous

and that's pretty much how the particucution ends

and later that afternoon ofgred is going out shopping with ofglen again

.. a new ofglen that meats her

.. so now we have this reversal

and just like the old ofglen tryed to size of ofred using the mayday code word

284 - be careful .. i'm not one of them but i know about them

.. we find out that ofglen knew that hhe gig was up for her and hangs herself

offred goe home and as if her day hasn't been full enough already, serena joy is there holding onto the costume that she wore to jezebells .. obvious that she had used it

interesting what serena says when she confronts offred

285 -

could have left something to me .. takes away wife's self respect

narrative ends whith her stepping into thh van

ends quite abruptly

then we have the historical notes .. epilogue

conference of academics

session on a specialty .. society that existsed for a time afte rthe us has been destroyed

now of interest to historians

.. confdrences where they disguss the society

professor marian cresant moon

department of caucasion anthrology ..

.. totally reversed .. studyhing the natives?!

unversity of denying non of it

kind of a humor here

.. perhaas still patriachical ideas .. written by a woman so we can laugh it off.

still vestigages of the same old thing .. sexism

origin for the title for handmids tale .. imposed on it by a professor

play on the word "tale" .. vulger joke on women's bodies

same old same old .. same sexism 200 years later .. and this is supposed to be an academic conference

near the end .. 310 - trying to reconcile thh tale with toehr historical evidence

crumbs tht history has left us

.. wait!! isnnt the history of a woman's struggle important .. not a crumb!

printout from man's computer .. power

history all bout power .. same old stereotyype

only really important stuff is what people in political power have done?

purpose of the historical notes:

history repeats itself

studyiing this thing as professional historians but they don't seem to get the lesson

playing wwth our emotions .. we've been attached to this handmaid and now they're discrediting her

fills in holes

.. rejected fertillity drugs .. not religiously based

adoped the surogate mother thing because it was in the bible

maybe deigned to let the reader down a little .. make it more even keel

.. shakespeare ends with an extra scene with a tragedy

"awe hamlet he was the noblest of all .. no that's not hamlet .. that's juleous ceasar"

also, things when they happen can be very dramatic and tramatic .. but over time, they just become stories ..

the distance in tme tseems to soften things up a little bit

dnow it's ancient history .. no longer something directly affecting us right now.

also tells us taht she apparenlty made it out

marrative as reconstrcution and now the 30 tapes are jumbled

and she jumps back and forth

by the time we get the narrative there are some really huge questons as to how close is it really to what really happened.

more non-western :

professor of western philosophy

did they just die out?

well the problems didnt seem that bad to the historians .. but that might just be an error

thoughhs on last epigraph -

in the desert there is no sign that says, thou shalt not eat stones.

.. just have to do what you have to do to survive

people have an instict for survival .. and intuitively yo'll know what to do to survive .. intutively you okow not to go eat stones in the desert

sufis like language and how a few short words mean different things

.. also stones are not a scarce resource in the desert .. so you don't need prohibition

.. so ability to conceve children a scarce resource.