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.