The Handmaid's Tale

Analysis:
The Handmaid's Tale makes a statement of desired equality between males and females.  The novel does so by showing that extremist groups of any kind can lead to problems.  The whole society in The Handmaid's Tale is an example of too much power given to males.  Throughout the novel it is clearly seen that that is the wrong way to go.  The example of extremist feminism in the novel is the book burning.  Notoriously, book burnings are meant to send strong messages.  Another message sent by book burnings is one of ignorance though.  When a group reaches a point where it performs book burnings it displays a lack of rational thought.  This lack of rational thought is meant to show that extremism in any direction, is bad extremism.

Favorite Passage:
My favorite passage in the novel was, "I almost gasp: he's said a forbidden word. Sterile.  There is no such thang as a sterile man anymore, not officially.  There are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren, that's the law."  This quote is a drawback to times where culture was much more misogynistic, it references the times of King Henry the VIII, among most other points in time up until now.  The whole concept of men not being sterile is what lead King Henry the VIII to create his own religion so he could have a child.  The man-centered frame of thought is so absurd to me that this quote added humor to the otherwise bleak and sad novel.

Thoughts on the Novel:
I really enjoyed the novel because the allusions and how they were used were quite interesting.  In this novel, the allusions made were quite clear and they were also used ironically.  In some novels finding allusions is a stretch, however in this novel they were not hard to find, the allusions in the novel were definitely intended.  I enjoy the allusions because they can add depth and meaning to a seemingly simple sentence or concept.  For example, the secret police being called the Eyes.  Without the allusion the image would simply be portrayed that the secret police see things.  However, with the addittion of the allusion, the Eyes, meaning the Eyes of the Lord, can see everything, this adds an oppressive and frightening power to the Eyes in this context.  In the real context it is supposed to be meant comfortingly, however, in this case the allusion was also used ironically.

We: Distopia to a T

Discussion:D-503 most definitely loved I-330.  Although D-503 repeatedly states that he hates I-330, the way that he presents it indicates a love for her.  From the begining D-503 does not report I-330 after she had broken rules due to a connection between them.  Throughout the novel the connection grows, however, only for D-503.  I-330 was using D-503, but he was not aware of this and it therefore did not shape his opinion of her.  It is portrayed that the connection is growing in two distinct and important ways.  The first way it shows is the fact that D-503 spends some of his days hopelessly waiting for I-330 at the end of the novel, showing clear enamoration.  Also, D-503's willingness to rebel for I-330 shows great love for her.  In the begining of the novel D-503 had great admiration for One State, an admiration that could only be broken by love.  D-503 rebels to such a great extent that he aids in the attempted capture of the Integral, a rocket he was creating for the gobernment.  He gibes up his own metaphorical child for this women that he had grown to love.

Favorite Line/ Passage:
"A knife is the most permanent, the most immortal, the most ingenious of all of man's creations.  The knife was a guillotine, the knife is a universal means of resolving all knots..." (Zamyatin 113)  I like the previous passage because of its absurdity.  In the passage the knife symbolizes war at the end.  War creates descruction, despair and a loser, when a war is over, the problems are less than resolved, maybe even worse than they were before.  If anything, the knife, except for when used for cutting of things that are not mammals, is one of the worst inventions to come to this earth.  Although the knife was the guillotine, and it inspired and promoted rebellion, the only reason the guillotine was needed is because the people who had more knives and more power were taking advantage of it.  The mentioning of the guillotine as an example of a knife, is obscure and it lends to the point of necessary rebellion in the novel, because as we know, authors do not put random words in just for fun!


Likes/ Dislikes
Although at some points the rules did not seem to concrete to me, the novel was good.  I just do not understand how with such a restrained society D-503 managed to do so much damage to himself and other before he was caught.  Also, at some points in the novel I just flat out lost track of what was going on, other than that it was pretty interesting.  I am a mathematical thinker so I thought that the incorporation of math was quite interesting.  I particularly enjoyed how the square root of one played in with the concept of imagination.

                         (uprising at it's greatest, the song uprising with V for Vendetta Clips, enjoy)