English Essay: The Handmaid's Tale
I consider the book The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood to be a memoir. She is telling her story, or as much of it as she can. The book is her recorded diary; she tells us the trails of her everyday life; and it is told from her point of view and not from the view of some random onlooker. In my mind that makes it as much a memoir as the movie Memoirs of a Geisha, which was told from the point of view of the geisha. This book is a memoir because it is Offred’s story and no one else’s.
The fact of this book is that it was recorded on tape with some music, which for the time period that it was written in it would have been forbidden, at the beginning. Two professors found it in a locker: “The item in its pristine shape consisted of a metal footlocker, U.S. Army issue, circa perhaps 1955. This fact of itself need have no significance… Within this footlocker, which was sealed with tape of the kind once used on packages to be sent by post, were approximately thirty tape cassettes… ” (pg 301) There were no dates or names written on any of the tapes. They were out of order and the professors did what they could to put them back into the original sequence. One of the things that I find most interesting is that it was not the first of its kind. “I remind you that this was not the first such discovery. You are doubtless familiar, for instance, the item known as ‘The A.B. Memoirs’… ” (pg 301) There were other handmaids going through the same situations as Offred. And I know that, that was the time and everything so of course there were other people who went through the same situations as she did, but it still amazes me. In theory this will actually happen. That is the scariest thing of all. Will there actually be handmaids? Will I live to see it or my children or my children’s children? What is going to happen? And those questions can sadly only be answered with a sigh and a smile. We will have to wait and see how the world evolves before those questions that lure in the minds of several human beings will be able to be answered. That however is not the topic at hand. The topic is that the book is not a book at all but a recording of Offred’s voice. That is what we have to go on. Even if we want to accept it or not. The big question is where did she get al of those tapes?
The recordings tell the trials of her everyday life. And yes I am sure she skipped days and she did not tell us everything but a memoir tells us about the trials of the time period and of the person. And this book does all of that. She struggles to fight back the memories of the past. The memories about Luke and her daughter, about her mother and the person’s name who was probably mentioned the most Moira. Even though she struggles with those secrets she creates new one to keep. She keeps the ones about the times that she spends alone with her commander and about the times that she sneaks to Nick’s apartment. What would happen if someone found out about her secrets? Or just about some of them. What would she do is they came close to finding out? "Dear God, I think, I will do anything you like. Now that you've let me off, I'll obliterate myself, if that is what you really want; I'll empty myself, truly, become a chalice. I'll give up Nick, I'll forget about the others, I'll stop complaining. I'll accept my lot. I'll sacrifice. I'll repent. I'll abdicate. I'll renounce." pg. 286Some one did almost find out. If a friend of hers had not killed her self then all would be lost one of her secrets would be told. She would have had some one come and take her away. Then she would end up telling all of her secrets and everyone she was involved with would be punished. She told us that if someone threatened to hurt her or anyone else she would probably give in right then and there. If you were her what would you do to comfort yourself? She would say a line to herself, "Don't let the bastards grind you down. I repeat this to myself but it conveys nothing. You might as well say, Don't let there be air; or Don't be. I suppose you could say that." (pg. 291) All though she is expressing a bit of anger and resentment she repeats this line to herself often. Now is when she realizes how much repeating this line will do nothing to save her. It has been said that there are no trials worse then that of the heart, but I think that any trail in the right circumstance can be that of your life. She faces things and then tells us about them. The experiences that she has are documented by the recordings of her voice. This story is a memoir because it is her story.
What good is a memoir told in the third person? I wound not consider that to be a memoir. She tells everything to us from her memory not as an onlooker but as the person who had experienced the experience. "We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edge of print. It gave us more freedom."(pg. 57) It is important that we see it from her point of view and no one else’s. It helps us understand the story and the people who are in her life and the relationship that she has developed with them. "The trouble is I can't be, with him, any different than I usually am with him. Usually I am inert. Surely there must be something for us, other than this futility and bathos."(pg. 255) This is the perfect example of what I have been talking about with her and the relationships she belongs in. She has thoughts about Nick and she has to keep them a secret from the rest of the world so she tells us because she can and we are the only ones that it is safe to tell. Other people would report her or look down on her. I think that what she wants is someone to love her and care about her and that is what Nick does for her. He makes it bearable for her. This ties in with the trails of her everyday life and with her telling us things from her point of view. This makes the story a memoir because it is her and not a reporter or some other random person who was taking notes about someone else’s life. She is a memoir.
The best way for me to sum up this essay is to say that it is a memoir because of the contents. That is a little to broad for me. This book is a memoir because it tells the story of a woman; that was in a time that will be looked back on in shame; from the woman to the people. It was written by her about her. It was her diary. It tells her story in her perspective. What else is a memoir supposed to be other then that? The book The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood is the memoir of Offred. At this point in time there is no other proof that I have to bring forward. This is her story and that is all that matters. Offred is the memoir for the time of Gilead.
Science Write-up
Respiratory System
Parts:
The plastic tubing represents many things. Mostly it represents the trachea/mouth area (lets out CO2 lets In O2.) It also represents the vanes that bring blood full of CO2 to the lungs.
The milk cartons represent the ribs.
The airtight box, with dry ice in it, represents the heart pumping CO2 into the lungs so then it can be breathed out.
The plastic bags represent the lungs themselves. They mostly hold air.
The two cardboard circles with handles represent the diaphragm and muscles. They contract and expand to inflate and deflate the lungs.
How it works:
When the cardboard circles are let down the CO2, from the dry ice, flows into the lungs. After the lungs are full of CO2, the cardboard circles are pushed back up and the human’s “mouth”. Then at this point the CO2 is breathed out. Thus, this is one cycle of the respiratory system. This process is continued until the day the mammal dies.
The Amish
The Amish have several beliefs that separate them from other communities. They are Anabaptist Christians which means that they believe in not baptizing at birth because a baby does not have the capacity to make a commitment like that to something they can not even comprehend. They have very strong feelings that church and government should be completely separated. They believe that the Bible should be at the center of every person’s life, and if it is it will provide life with fulfillment and faith may believe that a forgiving love is the answer to life and they do not participate in war. The Amish believe in peace and that that is the only way to live. They are calm and loving. They do not need a lot of things to make them seem like they are worth more. In their mind simple is better.
Their education system is simple as well. They are taught in one room schoolhouse. They are only educated through the eighth grade. They feel as though their children will learn everything else from them out in the field, that there is nothing in school that they won’t learn about in their own household. They are a people that believe in the values that are taught at home.
The Amish have little to no relations with the outside world. There was a law passed in 1965 that said it was legal for them not to pay taxes because they do not draw from social security. They do, however, vote. They vote mostly left of center politics. There have been rare occasions when they have had to step out of their own community to defend themselves. During World War II they encountered people who harassed them. There was a case where someone threw a rock at a carriage and it hit a baby in the head. The baby later died because of the injuries that it sustained. There was another case where someone threw a beer bottle and it hit a women and she had to have reconstructive surgery on her face because it was so badly injured. The woman did not have money to afford the surgery so people from all over sent her money for the surgery. There are people in the world who throw beer bottles at others because of their beliefs and then there are those who send money because they are good human beings and have an open mind.
The Amish have encountered some hardships from the outside world because of the way that they live. There was a school shooting on Monday October 2, 2006. The shooter took hostages and killed five girls. People have not been able to determine what their motives were. There have been some arguments about his mental state. There has been at least one TV show that took the some Amish people and stuck them in the middle of LA or New York. They were tempted by the outside world that they had never known and several of them chose to have their families disown them and stay in the city.
The Amish community is almost a Utopia. They have people who want to leave and there are people who throw things at them and come into their community and seriously injure five people and kill five others. One can bring up the point that they live the simple life and that if it was a true Utopia, people would be more open to it. The other side of that is that people just don’t understand and that it may take some time to show people that simple is better. There are conflicts in this community. There are people who want to leave it. And if that is the case then it is not a Utopia. There are things in this community that need to be refined and then it could be a Utopia, but then the question is it is possible to achieve a true Utopia?
It may not be possible to achieve a true Utopia. Each person is different so each person’s Utopia is different. The challenge is accepting that another person’s Utopia is different then their own. The Amish are not perfect but they are close to a Utopia. They live a simple life and they only take what they need. They are not bound by cell phones and the internet. They can take the joy from the simple side of life. No community is perfect, it is what you do with the hand that you are dealt that makes it all worth while.