THE ART OF FICTION

After reading the first three epigraphs of A Handmaid’s Tale, I was a little bit confused because of the long descriptive sentences and lack of actual dialogue. What I did get from reading it was that the narrator, a woman named Offred, is living with her Aunt Lydia and a few other servants in a house that doesn’t belong to them, and she leaves to fulfill her duties as a Handmaid in a household of a lady who is referred to as the “Commander’s Wife”. The last paragraph of the third epigraph is a flashback to when the narrator was younger and first saw the Commander’s Wife on television, which gives us some insight to the narrator’s childhood and what life was like before she had to sleep in gymnasiums and move houses. The women in the story appear to be wearing the same type of clothing: a skirt that covers the leg down to the ankle. This might be an indicator that women in the story’s society should act modest and not free or wild. On page 12, the narrator talks about gardens and how the Commander’s wife is often picking flowers: “Many of the Wives have such gardens, it’s something for them to order and maintain and care for”. This might tell us that the Wives of Commanders have no children, or were never able to have children, hence why there are Handmaids to have the Commander’s children. The gardens may be a symbol of solace to the Wives and are the substitute of caring for a child.

The first epigraph is a biblical story about Jacob, Rachel and I’m pretty sure in Genesis it states Jacob has a second wife but I cant recall her name. Basically, this epigraph demonstrates how Rachel’s infertility leads her into accepting that her husband takes on her maid as long as he gets her pregnant and they “have children by her”.  This definitely gives insight into what Offred’s role is in the home of the Commissioner and the Commissioner’s wife which I don’t think has a name so far in the story. It is interesting how the women are referred to in the first three chapters. Towards the end of chapter 3, the commissioner’s wife tells Offred not to call her ma’am because she’s not a “Martha” at first I thought it was a name but I’m now beginning to think it’s a level or category of women. If Offred isn’t  a Martha then she’s the better of the maids? Not sure, but curious to find out. Also, I think it’s funny that the narrator’s name is Offred, considering she has to wear all the red which she doesn’t seem to love. off red, but really on red.

I don’t know what the second epigraph is all about. It mentions something about a proposal, maybe this is a handmaid commenting on her past life before the proposal of bearing someone else’s children and how it changed her life. Not too sure about this one though.

Lastly, the third epigraph doesn’t make much sense to me either; it almost just seems ironic. There isn’t a sign in a desert that says don’t eat stones because you don’t need to tell people they cant eat stones because it’s obvious –people don’t usually go around eating stones. In a way maybe this hints towards weird and unacceptable things that are done in the story. It isn’t necessarily correct to have a woman spread her legs once a day so your husband impregnates her just so you can have her children.

To begin I really enjoyed reading Happy endings by Margaret Atwood so I know I will enjoy this book. Reading the epigraph and the first 3 chapters, it really confused me. I think it relates to the story in some way, but I still don’t see the connection. The first epigraph about the Bible verses are verses that I reread in the Bible. In the Bible, the commentary said that Rachel was so desperate to have a child that she was an embarrassment to her husband. In verse 3, she gave up and decided to allow her husband to sleep with her sister. Now in relation to chapters 1-3, I’m assuming that the Commanders wife cannot have children, so the handmaids are surrogates who sleep with the commander. The second epigraph to me is a sign of hope in a way. In chapter 1 and 2, it was very descriptive; I felt like I was actually there with the narrator. In chapter one, the text states, “We yearned for the future” (3). This to me was a way that the 2nd epigraph and chapter 1 related. The last epigraph is a real mystery to me. I have no idea why that epigraph was there and its relation to the story. It threw me off however I believe that the last four words of the epigraph which states, “thou shalt not eat stones” are significant to the story.

The novel starts with the narrator in sort of captivity and the reasoning behind the moderate incarceration remains undefined. The room that serves as the narrator’s space of incarceration is absent of any elements that could be used for an early arrival to the pearly gates. The narrator demonstrates a concupiscence, as she repeatedly shares her urning to touch the skin of another. One may believe this desire for human contact to just be a causality from her incarceration, but the context of this sentiment arising was shrouded by statements alluding to sex. I posit that the concept of sex will be a major pillar of the story. The narrator noticeably demonstrates a provocative bravado even despite her subservience. I also noticed her captivity has made her cautious. She is methodical when it comes to taming the potentially lethal capabilities a mind harbors in circumstances akin to hers. She maintains a positive mindset with her mental fortitude. Psychology says longevity of the ability to avoid the acknowledgement of mental anguish is proportional to the longevity of one’s ability to properly distract oneself. So will her mental fortitude remain intact? Or will the narrator’s early remarks about the escape of death or the “tantalizing” ways in which to conduct murder become predominant? I have no freaking idea… The narrator also seems to reminisce upon things quaint. She looks fondly upon simpler times. Yet in contrast the story’s culture seems to plant horrid old fashioned standards into its present. The house in which the narrator lives strikes me as a sort of slave plantation. The house’s help are called “Martha’s” which in such context seems like a synonym for slave. There is a foreign social paradigm and or class structure that has yet to fully reveal itself. I think its a fair conjecture to say that whatever this structure may be, will be of paramount importance in the development of the story’s plot. It should be interesting to see how the story works out and I look forward toward seeing how all these vastly differing elements coalesce.

While reading “The Handmaid’s Tale,” I got this idea that we were being told the life of these servants through the eyes of one of the servants. The way I interpreted the three epigraphs in the beginning was that they all involved someone being told to do something. This is especially clear in the first epigraph where we can see Rachel is willing to make her maid, Bilhah, carry Jacob’s baby for her. The subject of having servants is further explored within the story. Within the first two pages, we are described of this world that is very similar to ours, but there are a lot more “rules” in a way. We know that this character is being held within a gym, but they are trapped within the building. Theres a fence with barbed wire and guards surrounding them. Its almost like they are in prison. Theres also this feeling that they are extremely suppressed, like how they can’t talk to each other so they learn to read mouths and whisper with little to no sound. The suppression of these characters is shown even further within the next few pages. We can see that they all have to wear a certain type of clothing and a certain color that is assigned to them. They are basically servants, who are all female, to whoever they are assigned to. I believe we’ll follow the character who has been narrating the story so far and how they break away from this suppressed system.

I was very angry reading these first three chapters. Never in a book before had I read so much setting build up before I actually heard some sort of attempt at dialogue. The only knowledge I have of what the story, or the characters may be is from the title, and even that is vague. For the three epigraphs, I for one am happy I now know what an epigraph is.

In movies, usually the first scene is supposed to introduce us to possibly what the movie will entail, what it’s themes are. I thought about this as I continued to read on past the first chapter. The narrator in the epigraphs points out the youthfulness that used to fill the auditorium, and the football fields, all the sex, and school dances. The disco balls, and devil cut outs. She now describes this place like a jail. “Aunts” guarding these people from a freedom, a freedom it seems like she they have completely all but forgotten exists

So as I read on I kept this in mind, it seems like this narrator has forgotten a life outside of this place. (As they said they ration thought, and even that is bad). This book reads like a robot. I can’t tell what the epigraphs might foreshadow as a theme, but it really set the robotic tone I read in. It dehumanized the narrator for me.

I found it confusing, on the names. There are both boy, and girl names. Yet, there are only a handful of names? I don’t understand that. I am eager to see how this story can flesh out if it continues in the way it does.

I have no idea how these could be connected to the story, at least not from what I have read so for. From the beginning part which was assigned, I think that this is some sort of dystopian novel. Parts of the past that we are given hints of seem normal, then skipping to the present, things seem to have completely shifted to be otherworldly. However, after reading the back of the book, I get a clearer view of the story at hand. The narrator, Offred, lives in the house of the commander and his wife, her job is to get pregnant, because they”are in a time of declining births”. However, I got this information from the back of the book, not the first chapters. I think the quotes are laying a ground work for the book. If women are now breeders only, I think the first quote might point to what a society may do if there is a massive drop in birth rate. After looking up “A modest Proposal” by Johnathan Swift on wikipedia, I think Margaret Atwood may be pointing to a satirical nature of her book, or a commentary on cruelty also. And finally, the sufi proverb points probably to desperation. When you are in a position of desperation, like being stranded in a desert, no one is going to question you if you suck on a rock pretending it is food. It’s like comforting yourself although tough times lie ahead. These are mostly just guesses, because I don’t know how the story will progress, but for the back of the book, the first chapters, and a little context of the quotes, it seems that this novel will be telling a tale of desperation and coping mechanisms when faced with hard times.

In the beginning of “Handmaid’s tale” by Margaret Atwood  the three epigraphs refer to the Bible and like Rachel suggest to Jacob that he should go to the Maid so that Jacob could bear her children is what is going to happen in the book. Maybe not in the same way but I do think that maybe a husband who’s wife is sterile will have an affair so that he can have an offspring and when the wife finds out she’s going to be in conflict with the other woman. From reading the first chapters of the book I can’t really figure out the scenario. All I know right now is that there are many women in some place that use to be a museum. I’m confused about what is exactly going no in the story because there is no background info. I sense hat the author begins in the middle   and that leaves the reader guessing what’s going on.

I can’t see how the epigraph relates to the first chapters because like I said before the first chapters are description of how the place look but the epigraphs are about bearing children. When I read the first and second chapters I thought that the women were taken away and trapped in something that seems like  jail because the author writes that they wrote white to not see anything and from being seen. What could that possibly mean? Why are they wearing red. When I first read about the color red I immediately thought of blood, then when I read that everything that they wore has to be red Thought that they have to be in uniform for some reason but I just can’t figure out what that reason is.

The first few chapters of this story intrigue me. On one hand, there are no quotes for dialogue yet the story is written in a way that is relatively easy to follow despite the lack of direction. I got the sense that they were in war times because there were limits to when they can go out and come in. On the other hand there are all these interesting but generalized characters, people with titles but no names yet. There are Guardians which seem to act as patrol through the streets and regulating travel among locations? The Angels are fighting for something and the Wives are making scarves for them?  All of these groups, character, etc are capitalized and we have Martha’s who I would assume treat the Wives. Our central character is new to this position yet will be with Serena Joy for a long time. I would like to think that things may change and perhaps Serena Joy will warm-up to Offred. We have had a couple movies in the past few years that have followed the idea of an internal, confined society with events happening outside the walls of the city but no one inside is really allowed to be involved. This is how I see Offred, she’s doing her part, she’s new to this, but we don’t really know why the Handmaid’s are confined to the rooms they are and why they expected to perform their duties and not question anything. Generally a rebellion of some sort happens and breaks up the society but I’m not sure. However; the news of the Wife being a celebrity of sorts in nicer times is interesting and now I’m curious how she ended up where she is and if her position is something she accepts or works with Offred to change.

The first chapter of The Handmaids Tale is an introduction of the characters Alma, Janine, Dolores, Moira, and June. This chapter describes an old room that makes up of bad smells and dreary looks. They describe the smells to be old sex, loneliness, and expectation with old sheets that have not been touched for a long time. As the second chapter is when she has to put on a red dress I am guessing for a formal dinner as she does not like the dress and meets women who she suspects were talking about her. She also meets a lady named Rita. Rita sounds like she is the “housemaid” where these ladies are living. What seems to catch my attention is how it seems to be a house full of suspecting people, like they are planning something or have already done something. She doesn’t seem like she is comfortable meeting these people as she would rather be with Rita. The third chapter is when she meets the Commanders wife. The wife is not pleased to meet her in fact she doesn’t want to ever speak to her. She keeps quiet most of the time when the wife asks her questions. As they are talking she realizes that she has seen her before. When she thinks back she remembers as a child watching t.v early on Sunday morning and seeing the wife as the lead soprano. This could take a turn into more trouble.