Sun and Moon (Nature and Balance II)

Offred is an interesting character. In the beginning of Chapter Thirty, she talks about something I found very interesting - the night. She asks, "Why is it that the night falls, instead of rising, like the dawn?" (201). This was interesting to me because it connected directly with my idea of balance in the world. If we take the sun and moon to be opposites, then one must rise while the other falls. This does still happen, however, if we take Offred's view of the night rising. To see her view, we must imagine the sunrise and the sunset. During sunrise, the sun is coming up and the darkness is falling back. You can see this very clearly, and imagine it almost like a dome opening itself from one side to the other. During the sunset, you can see the darkness rise as the sun falls. So here is our balance. One always rises while the other falls. But one can never be without the other. How would we know what light is without the darkness? We never enjoy things until we have felt their absence. This could be compared to the fragile balance between men and women in society. As one side rises, the other falls. However, neither can live without the other because of the way nature has been built upon this Earth, because of the way we are. If either the male or female lines were to disappear, our human species would come to extinction. And so, in a sense, I suppose we could say that we as a species, and all other species like our own resemble the very thing that give us life - the sun. Interestingly enough, in this story, the Handmaids have been given the color red, and the Commanders, the color black. Darkness is usually associated with depression, sadness, negativity and death. We discussed in class that red also symbolizes things that give the characteristics expected of the Handmaids. In the book, Offred describes that the "night falls because it's heavy, a thick curtain pulled up over the eyes." (201). The night could represent the Commander, while the dawn represents the Handmaids. Commanders are supposed to be dark, powerful, generally negative people. And so, they are the night which smothers all happiness from Offred's life. They are the thing that takes away her freedom. But at the same time, for balance, they could soon be the very thing that helps Offred escape. 

Future Apocalypse

Today we hypothesized about how this new future existence with what seems to us as odd laws had come to be. An idea that stood out was that perhaps, in accordance with "The End of Men" by Ann Friedman, the women in society had gained so much power that men started to feel their own power drain. Hypothetically, if this happened, then the men felt that they were becoming useless. They felt stifled, suffocated, and endangered. This new world was unfair to them, and they couldn't cope or comprehend the reality of it. And so, they plotted. They planned the downfall of the democratic society, the shooting of Congressmen as Offred describes, and they planned to separate the jobs of women so that the individual females would no longer hold much power. As Abraham Lincoln said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." The men used this idea to go forward with their plan and to gain control over the women who were outranking the men in society. However, as they put their plan into action, they also made a grave mistake. In Lincoln's speech, the word "house," in this context would refer to the human species, not to men or women alone. I believe that we were built by evolution to coexist as all animals have with two genders. We were not meant to live without the other half of our species. The men did not understand this, and so when they did "divide the house" they also isolated themselves from each other. They now no longer have any companions, no friends to be social with, no comrades to converse with. Just as all humans want what they do not have, the men want companions, someone they can really talk to and connect with. A clear example of this is when the Commander asks Offred to come play Scrabble with him just for fun. He needs someone to talk to and to be friendly with, so he uses his Handmaid. However, Offred is not a creature that has forgotten all feeling and sentiment. She knows that because there is this longing for companionship in the Commander she can use him, perhaps to escape. Men, by trying to attack the other half of their world, the females, have attacked themselves. There is no understanding of balance in this world!

Books about dry futures

Having recently read the beginning of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, I have found certain similarities between it and two other books I have read in the past which are The Giver and A Brave New World. All three of these books have a setting in a future time with utopian-like societies. They all are quite dry in terms of the society it self. In order to keep the people in order, it is necessary to take away the "individual." It seems that this statement is a big part of all three books. In The Handmaid's Tale, women, and the rest of society, have very specific roles assigned to them. At the top there are commanders, and as we get lower, we pass guardians, and then we come to Handmaids. We have hypothesized from the evidence in the book that the handmaids go around birthing children instead of wives doing that. They are, in some sense, like the birthing mothers in the Giver. In the Giver, each person is given a specific job, and being a birthing mother is one of them. Babies that are born are then assigned to families. Similarly, in The Handmaid's Tale, handmaids go around to get children. However, throughout the book, but most evidently in chapter 5, there seem to be no children. We have speculated as to whether this might be because of radiation poisoning, which could very well be the case. Interestingly enough, there is a bio-hazard symbol on the cover of the book on the Handmaid on her legs. Also, as far as future utopian societies go, there are no lawyers, and universities here, and so people cannot get educated and think for themselves, nor can they argue cases because there is no one to stand up for them. If someone were to stand up and complain, they are alone in the world, like a single needle pointing up in a pile of needles on their sides. It seems like people imagine the future as dry, and in this book, we see a future where women are exploited for their biological features, and given jobs such as being a handmaid who runs around giving birth to children. Another interesting point in this story is that color is a major factor. In such a dry world, colors designate someone's status and occupation. For example, the handmaids wear red. In The Giver, color is very important too, as there is not to all except for the Giver and the Receiver (the Giver in training). It seems that authors are thinking about how to make these "utopian" societies seem without color, and so they either get rid of it entirely, or they categorize it and latch even color to the grey, utopian system. It will be interesting to see how this story unfolds as The Giver ended with the boy being able to see color and being able to see what the society truly was.

Natural to Unnatural (Nature and Balance I)

Equality is something I support heavily. I hope that there will be a day when all people look upon each other, whether they be female, male, white, black, of any religion or of any country and be able to talk as friends not foes. The balance in the world is something we have forgotten over time. When we first evolved, the differences between men and women (as far as I know) in terms of work was more a division of labor rather than a set of distinguished classes, each at a different level. Rank may or may not have existed between members of tribes, but I do not think it existed between the genders within the tribe. The division of labor, for example, women would take care of the children and cook while men would go hut, was (once again, as far as I know) probably because life seemed to balance itself out that way. I don't think there were any rules against women going hunting or men taking care of children and cooking but no one questioned it because no one cared. It was not an issue of social pride or of status. However, in the modern world, as we have come to the economic age that we are in today, we no longer have this natural balance. I believe that this is due almost entirely to the fact that the world is no longer natural. Our lives are governed by the economy, not by the essentials to life. We no longer use our minds to figure out the best way to stalk and run an animal to death, but to look at the stocks and run opposing companies to the ground. Instead of becoming more competitive with other species, we have turned upon ourselves. In "The End of Men" by Hanna Rosin, a lot of emphasis is given to how we are already moving past the stage where men and women are equal and that many more women have been acquiring high ranking spots in companies and that more of them have been graduating from college. I personally am indifferent to this fact, but look more broadly to the fact that we are fighting ourselves. All this competitiveness has come between our genders because a long time ago some guy found some shiny yellow metal and was struck by greed. When he had the gold, he had the power because everyone else wanted it too. He decided what to do for the next few hundred years. And now, women have found the stash of gold and are raiding it. However, as much as I do support equal rights, I do not think revenge is the right way. If revenge is taken, then there will be a series of wars back and forth till the end of time.