Religion and morality

I’ve been thinking lately about what we discussed in class—the pervasiveness of religion in the book and of, as Ms. Clapp pointed out, the imposition of morals upon a society. As I said before, Aunt Lydia is the voice of the society; now I see that she is also representative of this obligatory morality. "The greater the risk, the greater the glory" (144) she declares to the girls about giving birth, and with this Atwood establishes Aunt Lydia’s role as providing moral guidance for how the girls can live upright fulfilling lives. Like a school teacher (which, to some degree, I suppose she is), it is her job to duty to implant within the girls this righteous fiber and to mold them into the set of like-minded people—or machines, rather—she wants them to be. She tries to make everything about the old society seem vulgar and horrible, such as when women had babies "unnaturally" by procedures like induced labor and when they held protest marches in favor of abortion: "Freedom to choose. Every baby a wanted baby. Recapture our bodies. Do you believe a woman’s place is on the kitchen table?" (154). In today’s society, this seems like a very empowering image of woman taking charge and demanding their rights. Aunt Lydia, however, endeavors to portray this as something wrong and shameful; in this society, women are supposed to be submissive and accept their position as it is, and furthermore, abortion is viewed as a crime because bearing children is so rare. This anti-abortion, female-inferiority standpoint also relates to the idea of the society being based on Bible, with its ideas about male superiority as well as its stance against abortion. The pervasiveness of religion within this scene is also reinforced with the imagery of the balloons floating away with strings that look like the "stem of a cross" (154). The red color of the balloons also seems to be representative of fertility, a symbol that is presented through the entirety of the novel and is most obvious in the color of the clothes worn by the hand maids-- a fertility that is being wasted and "floating away" like the balloons because the women are arguing in favor of abortion.

It seems like these people are trying to return to a society that was more "pure," endeavoring to return to a Biblical utopia that was not corrupted by such things as machines and technology and in which things happened according to the natural flow of events. Of course, the idea of this "Biblical utopia" is also interwoven with the quotations from the Bible running throughout the book: "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children" (146). This quotation seems rather symbolic, in fact, of the situation in which the women are forced to live. Birthing, while there is the outward semblance of happiness, is actually a very lugubrious affair, for the biological mother is forced to relinquish her own child and concede that it is not hers. When, for example, Janine gave birth to the child, "she [cries] helplessly, burnt out miserable tears" (163), and Offred and the others are forced to shield her from the child so that she will not have to bear the pain of having to see it in the arms of the Commander’s wife. In addition, the sentence that directly follows this quotation in the Bible is "Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you."Again, there is this prominent theme of male domination, and here it is clear the interconnection between the Bible and the society: both enforce this type of gender relationship.

I also found it quite hysterical how the girls were taught the maxim "From each…according to her ability; to each according to his needs" (151) and told that it was from the Bible, when it fact it is the Communist manifesto! Under the Communist system established by Karl Marx, a cooperative society would be set up in which every person would contribute as much as he was able to and then, no matter how much he was able to give, would receive as much as he needed. This is directly applicable to the society set up in The Hand Maid’s Tale: each women gave as much as she could (i.e. those that were fertile bore children) and were supposed to do whatever they could to make the men happy, so that the latter would obtain everything "according to his needs." The society in the novel was based on a cooperative endeavor not dissimilar to the Communist way of life.

The fact that the women were taught that this quotation was from the Bible also goes to show the amount of manipulation that went behind the structuring of this society. Eventually, as the next generation comes into being, women will not know enough to question what has been taught to them (nor does Offred question that this saying is from the Bible—though she does question many other facets of the society) and "will accept their duties with open hearts…because they have no memories, of any other way" (151). Even within this generation, "already [they] were losing the taste for freedom" (172), as they found their new way of life secure. Moira represented the antithesis of the society, one who did not accept it and would not take anything lying down. However, the other women were not as courageous and chose to continue living their lives as they were. Like the serfs of Austria when King Joseph II freed them, women in subsequent generations and perhaps even in this one would be confused and disoriented if they were liberated and allowed to do things like read because this was not the life they had known.

Offred, nevertheless, seems at last to have found a way to manipulate the system rather than have the system manipulate her: she has an opening with the Commander. His weakness—this longing for sexual fulfillment with Offred—may give her the chance, as she thinks, to request something for herself and perhaps find liberation: "If I press my eye to it, this weakness of his, I may be able to see my way clear" (176). This could provide the hope that Offred needs to overcome the system after all.

Nolite te bastardes carborundorum

I was so curious about what "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum" (69) meant that I looked it up: apparently it means "Don’t let the bastards grind you down" (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nolite_te_bastardes_carborundorum). Throughout the book, the "bastards"—the invisible "they" controlling and manipulating the society—have the upper hand. The existences of the women like Offred, who are victims to their despotic system, seem hopeless. The women are beaten down at every turn: Moira tries to escape from the "institution" but is caught and her feet are mutilated; Offred loses her daughter and Luke; she is forced to consummate with the Commander even though she would rather do anything but this; she longs to read, to do this thing she "squandered" (114) so back in the days of freedom, but knows she cannot. Yet, it appears that despite this, there is still some hope for these women, as revealed in the aforementioned quotation. There are still ways to beat the system: just the fact that a woman had written a message on the floor, which was illegal, and gotten away with it is cause for rejoicing; furthermore, that it had not been discovered and washed away--that it was almost waiting for Offred to read it--, seems indicative that ways exist to circumvent the corrupt system enslaving her. The cushion she has, on which reads the word "faith," is also representative of this fact. Again, not only are there not supposed to be words around for the women to read, but that the cushion had stitched on it this particular word seems to convey that with faith, the women may be able to overcome their circumstances. It is these transgressions and the inspiration they bring that allows Offred to get through the day; that, and the memories of the past, though sometimes these memories are too painful for her to bear. The overwhelming desire to steal something that possessed Offred conveyed the necessity for her to have some sort of power, a power that would make her feel like she was in control and that she could, in fact, get around the system. She needs to know that in some small way she has freedom and can above her situation. Towards the end of this section, when Offred encounters Nick in the sitting room in the middle of the night, this rendezvous is also symbolic of the limbo that Offred is in: half of her wants nothing more than to succumb to her undeniable passions; half of her is bound by the rules and her fear of the consequences if they were to be caught. Perhaps, however, the encounter is foreshadowing something more to come in the future, a glimmer of hope that Offred will keep from "let[ting] the bastards grind [her] down."