The Handmaid's Tale Summary

    On Friday, our group mentioned Moira was a gay, but we were wondering why she had not been send out since then was a strict society; and we also thought that Moira's escape would waver Offred's mind, but Offred would not leave since she had no courage and she fell in love with the commander. We thought the reason that Offred fell in love with the commander is that their interactions reminded Offred about past, like Luke and her. Furthermore, the sentence "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum", which appeared in page 52 and page 185, was a significant part for the handmaid who suited and the commander. It was their important connection.

    I found out a news relate to the Handmaid's Tale; a thirty-five-year-old women, Amira Osman Hamed, is a civil engineer. Refusing wearing the Hijab to cover her hair, she was arrested and charged with committing "indecent dress" and "contrary to public morality" on August 27. If she was convicted, she may be flogged for penalty. Both of the society and the government in the news and the Handmaid's Tale was limiting “women’s” dressing. The sentence “Everything except the wings around my face is red: the color of blood, which defines us. The skirt is ankle-length, full, gathered to a flat yoke that extends over the breasts, the sleeves are full. The white wings too are prescribed issue; they are to keep us from seeing, but also from being seen. “ in The Handmiad's Tale showed that the society thought women should be in a certain way. They had to cover their bodies and their hair without any comment. It seems like if they had revolted, the would have the same effect like Amira Osman Hamed. However, in our society, there are still many people support Amira Osman Hamed, complimenting she is a brave women.

News

There parts were adopted from "To close the gender pay gap we need to end pay secrecy".Women in full-time work take home A$283.20 per week less than men, according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, which puts the gender pay gap at 18.2%.More disturbing is that the gender pay gap is increasing. Under pay secrecy, conscious or unconscious bias can affect pay decisions. Managers are able to apply criteria that have an adverse impact on women.Second, pay over and above base pay is typically based on employee performance. Research shows women are less likely to get a high performance rating relative to their male counterparts.

In this news, we can see that the majority of the people usually determine women according to their genders. "The pro-male bias in performance ratings is particularly prevalent when women are in jobs traditionally carried out by men and the performance rater has strong gender stereotypes." They give women lower pay back which they deserve. Men and women do the same job, but they earn different money. We can connect the inequality shows in the news to the Handmaid's Tale, which is also include gender inequality. "Don't open your door to a stranger, even if ...by yourself,at night." In the Handmaid's Tale, this part shows that the antecedents always warn girls not to do this, not to do that. However, in both news and story, women and men do the same thing, but why women always got lower position and lower status? Both of women and men are alive, why should women limit themselves? 

Citation:http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/09/16/comment-close-gender-pay-gap-we-need-end-pay-secrecy

Poem

 "A Red Shirt", a poem written by Margaret Atwood, related to the Handmaid Tale according to the how they treat women. In the poem, the author wrote“Children should not wear red, A man once told me” ,this shows that the people in the poem drew up the rules for women. Women were kept from wearing red since it was the color of death, passion,war, anger and sacrifice of shed blood. “A girl should be a veil, a white shadow, bloodless as a moon on water” pointed out that people gave a model for a girl. They thought girls should be like what they wanted. Same as the poem, the Handmaid's Tale limited women's freedom. It seemed like to protect women, but it took away women's right actually. People always give the other "What they think is good" but never ask the other's thought.

The Handmiad's Tale

“There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.”

In the story, that author mentioned that there are two freedom in the society. One is freedom to, which was Offred used to have; the remaining one is freedom to, which was Offred being given now. Offred said she used to wear her own clothes,to have her own soap and to earn her money, she was “freedom from” then. At that time, people accustomed saying that women should not open your door to a stranger, should not go into a laundromats at night , etc. Though they could wear whatever they wanted, they have responsibility to keep themselves from being rape or violate by man. If they were rape or violate by man, they would blame by other since they exposed their body to much, which may lure man. In our society, parents are used to warn daughter’s actions, don’t wear short skirt, don’t go to bathroom without accompany,etc. Why people blame women who did not protect themselves, but not man who did the bad things? Why man can do whatever they want without having high alertness? We should stop the people who violate other, not blame the people who are innocent. It seems like whether women have freedom to or freedom from, they cannot do whatever they want.

Book I would become

On pages 144-146 in Fahrenheit 451, Granger told that they have each become a certain book by memorizing severals books in order to preserve it. If I were Montag, I would remember Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol. Alice in Wonderland seems to be a dreamland fairy tale for children, however, if you look closer, you will notice that the story translated into much more than children’s fairytale. One of the lesson in Alice in Wonderland is being specific about what you want to achieve, in alice conversation with the Cheshire Cat, I learn the importance of goals.

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where” said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

If the characters in Fahrenheit 451 could realize this, they might not burn the books without conciseness. Were all the fire fighter want to burn the books? Was book burning what they want to reach? I think Montag had realized this since he chatted with Clarisse, “why are we burning the books?” “what are those books talking about?” “Does book burning make my life better?” I think these might be the questions that Montag had thought about.  Montag wanted books be kept. Though in the end of Fahrenheit 451 he did not really spread the information he had learned to others, at least he knew that he wanted to keep the book, the information and the lesson during g his escaping. The majority in the story did not know why they were burning the books, they destroyed the books without thinking. If they  ever thought about the reason, the person who want to rebel would only be Montag.

The Role of Clarisse

Clarisse was an outgoing, naturally cheerful, and unusually intuitive girl.

She seemed to be weird but simple at her first presentation; she was standing at the same place, and waiting for Montag without reason. She is unpopular among her mates and disliked by teachers for asking "why" and focusing on nature rather than on technology, and she always skipped the school since she felt it was useless and was a repetition. She influenced Montag a lot in the story. She was Montag's inspiration. She was responsible for Montag's change and she also made him realize that he wasn't happy. It was her simplicity and expression of her thought which led Montag to question his own static life.

Clarisse represented the innocent and the consciousness that did not corrupted by the government in Fahrenheit 451. Clarisse did not accept the values that society set for her, and hardly took part in activities. She also represented everything that Montag wished to become. She played an essential character in Fahrenheit 451. If it were not for Clarisse, the story would be tedious.

Fahrenheit 451

“Mr. Montag you are looking at a coward … yelling with me, by then. Now, it’s too late.”

I felt Faber was a pity person when I reached this part in Fahrenheit 451. Faber was a devotee of the ideas contained in books.  He was quivered on the brink of rebellion. “I’m one of the innocents who could have spoken up and out when no one would listen to the ‘guilty,’ but I did not speak and thus became guilty myself. And when finally they set the structure to burn books, using the fireman, I grunted a few times and subsided. ” In this part, Faber’s words made me feel that Ferber blamed the fault on himself.  He had spent years regretting that he did not defend books when he saw the moves to ban them. He might think that if he had spoken out, book burning might have not been existed. Actually, Faber had nothing to do with the book burning. Even if Faber had spoken put, the government still would made this happen. I believed that there did have some people spoken out at that time, but it didn’t help the condition. Rebellious people’s power could not compare with the government’s power. I can see that he was desperate for books, and he loved reading. However, Reality is always cruel.

Fahrenheit 451

     The author of the Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury, was lived in the McCarthy era that thousands of Americans were accused of being communists or spies of Soviet and questioned  by the other. The majority of the accused were government employees, people who were in the entertainment industry, educators and union activists. Though the accusers did not have the evidences, lots of people still suffered from the conviction just like the last story we read(the Crucible).Government also suppressed people thinking through book banning. Feeling bitter about the workings that government had done, Ray Bradbury was inspired to write  "The Pedestrian", a short story which would become "The Fireman" and then Fahrenheit 451.

    Ray Bradbury concerned about the censorship in America, and he worried about the future of America . Bradbury said these during a radio interview in 1956: "I wrote this book at a time when I was worried about the way things were going in this country four years ago. Too many people were afraid of their shadows; there was a threat of book burning. Many of the books were being taken off the shelves at that time. And of course, things have changed a lot in four years. Things are going back in a very healthy direction. But at the time I wanted to do some sort of story where I could comment on what would happen to a country if we let ourselves go too far in this direction, where then all thinking stops, and the dragon swallows his tail, and we sort of vanish into a limbo and we destroy ourselves by this sort of action." Ray Bradbury mentioned that he was trying to describe the events would happen in 40 or 50 years.  I think his vision of the modern society is right. What Ray Bradbury said in the interview could connect to some of the country nowadays. For example, China restricts their citizens using Facebook,Line and Youtube,etc. Government afraid that people would spread the ideas through these social websites or applications, moreover organize an ally and revolt the country. Regardless of the past or the present, government always restrict people by many different ways.

The meaning of "The Crucible"

The title of “The Crucible” can be defined in two meaning. The first one is defined as a container in which metals are subjected to high temperature; the container can also purify metal. It is a good metaphor for the bloody village of Salem. The village of Salem is a puritan society, this can connect with the meaning of container. The content of this “crucible” are the Salem’s citizens with their excessive emotion. The crucible which is full of the accusations of witchcraft can also been regarded as a melting pot. At the beginning of the story, the majority of the victims are slaves and rovers; however, witchcraft gradually turn into an inordinate enemy when citizens are charged such as Elizabeth.

The second meaning of crucible is “severe test”. The entire society of Salem is a severe and difficult test throughout the whole trial. For example, John Proctor was once put through a severe test of faith of the court and of God. Yet John found that he could not cast away his clan’s reputation in signing a confession at the end. All of the villagers who encounter the trial go through the severe test, and that is why “The Crucible” comes from.

The Crucible- Act three

Mary used to be a sympathetic and weak girl; however, she changed at the act three. Mary was one of the girls who were caught by dancing in the forest. She was part of the court that denounces witches. She seemed to enjoy the power that Abigail “gave” her. When more and more innocent people began to be accused, she started to feel guilty. She made a poppet for Elizabeth, which gave a chance to Abigail for accusing Elizabeth. This made Mary feel so terrible that she agreed to testify against with John.

Mary plucked up her courage, she went to the court, confessed that she was just pretending to be witched. There was no devil. When Danforth asked the others girls whether they were pretending or not, the girls began to act like they were bewitched by Mary. Mary told them to stop, but they just repeated everything she said. Mary gave in to the pressure gradually. She started to sob, confessing that John made her sign her name in Devil and convinced her to testify against Abigail in court. I thought that Mary may save the innocent people at first, but now she rejoined the girls again. I cannot say that she is a bad girl. Though she brought John’s name up in court, I know that she just wants to save her own life. 

The Crucible Act II

Abigail is a skillful liar. She frightened the villagers and the Court by fainting, and falling with stomachache.  Abigail had witnessed Mary putting the needle in a doll during the court. She pretended she was stuck by a needle and claimed that Mary's doll was shown to have a needle stuck in its center. The Court discovered the doll in the Proctor home with a needle inside it, and Elizabeth soon finds herself arrested for witchcraft. Abigail became aware of her influence in the village and the Court. In this act, Abigail's influence over has already begun to run. She started to accuse other people making the villagers’attention turn to other people. Salem is suspicious of witchcraft.

“I know not if you are aware, but your wife’s name is - mentioned in the court.”

This quote shows the power of Abigail. She just only needs to mention one’s name instead of accusing somebody, and the court will charge that person as guilty. The horrible thing is that no proof can prove their innocence.  People can only save their life by confessing. Though Abigail cannot offer a proof, but the fear of witchcraft that she had already created had influenced the whole society.

The Crucible

Abigail, who is 17 years old,was the servant for the Proctor house before. Abigail was fired by Ms. Proctor after she found out Abigail’s affair with her husband, John. Abigail and Tituba, who is a slave too, led the local girls danced in the Salem over a fire. Rumors of witchcraft fly, and Abigail tries to frame the town's people to get the advantages. She accuses a lot of citizens. Finally, she accuses Elizabeth in order to get marry with John. John says that Abigail “hopes to dance with me.” She is manipulative person. She get away Salem during the trials.

In act one,she fully showed her manipulation. She pins the whole thing on Tituba and some of Salem’s citizens when she was scolding by the others. She was acting like she cared about Betty in the beginning but in the end she turned out to be a big manipulator.

Intro

HI,everyone,my name is Anita Hsu but I prefer you call me Poki ,which is my nickname.

 I was born and raised in Taiwan.

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