Identity

From the past reading, we find out that Ofglen, the one that was Offred's friend, has dissapeared (we find out very soon that she is dead), and Offred says that she never knew the Ofglen's real name. Now the new Ofglen is there and Offred comments on how hard it is to find someone in "a sea of names" (295). This brought to light a fact that I hadn't thought of since the beginning of the book. We had a discussion in class about whether or not the "Of" part of the Handmaid names were referring to the fact that they were owned by whoever's name followed the "Of." If this is the case, then this is not a name, but a label to be placed on an item so that one does not lose it. This brought into question what is identity here? It seems that as long as the Handmaids live with their respective commanders, they have no real identity other than that they can be identified as this commander's handmaid. The very last sentence of the book, however, cleared some of this up for me. It reads, "And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light" (307). I thought that this statement drew a perfect line from the loss of identity to the gaining of it. We don't know what happens to Offred after she goes into the black van, but we do know that it could be positive for her. It might be that if the handmaids, having been taught not to have an identity, start to regain their old sense of self, they are sent away in the black van. It is a bit sad to think that in this supposedly futuristic world, people no longer have an identity, that there is no place for identity in our world of tomorrow. And that the only place for individuality and identity in the world of tomorrow is outside that world, in the land of the outcasts. So, to be free, to be an individual is now to be an outcast?