Wednesday, April 15, 2009
it's just gotten very strange
I have recently read chapters 21-23 of The Handmaid’s Tale and chapter 21 was mostly about a woman, Janine, giving birth to a baby girl. However, although Janine is the mother of the child, it is the wife of the Commander who keeps the child. I see that as splitting apart the bond between a mother and her child. It should be the birth mother’s decision as to what happens to the baby. To make matters worse, Janine doesn’t get to name the baby; it’s the Commander’s wife who names the baby instead, Angela. I view that as taking two things from a mother who will never get them back: the naming of the baby and the bond between the two. That should never happen in any society. Of the three chapters that I recently read, I found chapter 23 the most disturbing. The Commander invites the narrator, Offred, to play Scrabble with him. The first thoughts that came to my mind were “how does he know whether she can read or not?” and “should Offred play and reveal she can read or act like she can’t?” I thought she would play dumb, but I found out I was wrong as I continued to read. After Offred revealed that she can read, I was unsure how the Commander would react. His response just utterly caught me by surprise; he told Offred he wanted her to kiss him. That whole situation was completely awkward, and it made the Commander seem like a slave master who just does whatever he wants.
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I can’t help but agree with you, however you seem to completely dehumanize the wives and the commanders perhaps a little too harshly. It may be harder to realize but the commander and his wife are also people just as much as Offred is and should be looked upon as such. I know it’s unfair that the true mother of the child can’t name the baby and that she won’t really be recognized as a mother but on the other hand, how painful would it be to be a wife who can’t provide children for her husband, especially in this particular society? In addition, the commander may miss the past just as much as Offred seems to, maybe he wants to play Scrabble for mere nostalgia. I do admit that it is rather creepy but it does not necessarily have sinister roots as you suggest. Both the commander and the wife are not necessarily as evil as you make them suggest and their actions do have some root in reasonable wants and needs.
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