One of the things that I noticed in the novel was the usage of human beings as objects with which to further themselves or others. Yes, it did happen quite a bit. It seems that as humans become less important in running a society, their purpose dwindles from doing things to being things. There were quite a few instances where this happened.
Firstly, I'll discuss Paul and Bud Calhoun. Yes, I will go as far to say that Paul was using Bud Calhoun, and so was the entire system. Paul would simply go past him every now and then, and demand a new machine. He just took for granted Bud's abilities. He seemed more interested in success in business than what exactly Bud was doing. The system merely cranked out whatever he was thinking up. Eventually, Bud thought up something that put himself out of a job. There was nothing left to do after that. Though he likely walked into that one himself, neither Paul nor the system cared much or did anything to help prevent it or then fix it. They simply took his ideas and cranked them out, kicking more people out of jobs than before. Paul went to Bud indifferently, and when he left, there wasn't much of a large disturbance in Ilium at his dismissal. Even when he boarded the train later, Paul was already thinking of what Bud could do to improve the system, even though an old conductor was sitting beside him. Bud was merely a miracle invention machine.
Next, I'll discuss the reverse of that, and also Finnerty, Lasher, and Luke. The Ghost Shirts decided to use Paul as a figurehead for their operations. He really wasn't anything more than that, and they probably wouldn't mind killing him and thinking up something else. They just figured that this was the easy way out. The great Paul Proteus had become a name on a piece of paper. He was just going to be sitting there as the alleged but hardly the leader of the secret society. Of course, once his purpose was finished, who knows what they'd do with him. As the people began to grow less of an attachment to the machines, they sought to break away, but still saw Paul as merely an item, a tool to fix the overall machine. No better than the society that they just fled. Perhaps that's the proof that the rebellion was doomed to fail.
Anita and Kroner also used Paul quite a bit, the former more so than the latter. Anita saw Paul, without a doubt, as a trophy that would get her into the papers. She just wanted him to do every last little thing she desired, to get her everything she sought. (She more or less sought the world, but still she'd likely have asked Paul for that and then shoot for the moon to boot.) She threw a temper tantrum every time she didn't get her way, and sought to make Paul feel miserable afterwards. Her continual reminding of Pittsburgh is the most notable of her little obsession. Kroner also wanted to use Paul to find the Ghost Shirt society. For someone who was supposed to be a fatherly figure, he really appreciates a little go-for rather than a happy young man. If he could catch the Ghost Shirts, then he would be the friend of a national hero, and doubtless that would have at least three or four (hundred) perks when Paul climbed the success ladder. Such a loving family, pushing the one prodigal son through the fray so they could get a little bit of personal satisfaction. As the closest part of industrial America to Paul, these are most definitely the antagonists and symbols of corruption. Fitting that they would seek glory for themselves.
Also, for a change of pace, Halyard simply used the citizen Edgar Hagstrohm as an exhibit to show the Shah of Bratpuhr. Of course, when the exhibit wasn't as wonderful as planned he simply dragged the tour to another house and made himself at home. To Halyard, the people of America were separate shows to be aired whenever it was necessary to impress foreign visitors. He made no effort to express concern over the opinions or conditions of the families, he simply put them all on display. And, naturally, the show went wrong and the Shah was not impressed all too much. In response, the tour moved to another location; if one show doesn't work, go somewhere else, it's just a cheap show. Doctor Dodge entered with no intention of being friendly, and made it very clear to Edgar that he was only here to impress the Shah when Edgar asked for a handshake. The citizen of America is now no more than something to impress the neighbors with, and they'd better do a good job at it too. Edgar, of course, made effort to show that he wasn't there to just be used. This was important in reminding authority that they were dealing with a living human being. Despite being described as average, it was interesting how wrong the computer was at choosing this person as the best place to advertise to the Shah.
There's an awful lot of person-using-person here. It seems that, especially in the last case above, an automated society comes at the cost of individuality but also at the cost of basic human value. People are not just there to serve a purpose like a computer program. They are important in their own way, and need to be treated as more than just another object to be used as seen fit. Of course, a world run by computers and managers rarely concerns themselves with the importance of human value. All that's important is a bigger number and more progression down a path of educated guesses. The human being becomes nothing more than an obstacle to be manipulated at will.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Player Piano- Passage Analysis
I'll go with the play. Just because it's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Just a little peculiar. The whole thing is obvious propaganda, and to me it was so blatantly pointless and false at first I had to read it again before I could even comprehend how the others could accept it and believe that the managers were saviors. Quite frankly, I'm not so sure I'd use it or something like it to a crowd unless it was significantly tweaked.
My complaints have to do with the fact that the focus of the prosecution was less focused on how the civilians felt rather than the physical numbers. Now, if there was no need to really buy anything then a drop in pay would seem a little less outrageous. However, if the prosecution focused more on the fact that there was a large drop in public image, that most of Americans were dissatisfied, that most people were not happy in the least, then it might have been a little more apparent that there was a bit of a problem at hand. There isn't any point in progress if the progress doesn't make the people happy. Unlike computers, humans have feelings. This is probably why the Star Manager forbid any emotional evidence, because everything looked better in numbers. God forbid the managers have to suffer from emotional dissent (or rather, a soul). Of course, the prosecution only whines that managers are paid more than workers. Weak.
On the other hand, the defense states a whole lot of numbers. Numbers, that's all. More fridges, TV's, cars, and automatic toilets, I'm sure, than the rest of the world. The only flaw with referencing Caesar in the defense's speech is that even the poorest feller in today's world is infinitely better than he would be hundreds of years ago. Public advancements are beneficial to everyone, and I sure would hope that we've improved technology since Caesar's time. The only real qualifier with an ancient ruler comparison is luxury, really. The ability to have these extra items, though, is nothing if the people don't really enjoy them. If progression was strictly numerical, in terms of what should make someone happy, then the Benefactor and Beatty ought to be celebrated as wonderful heroes. Moreover, Caesar had plenty of fun bossing his people around, throwing them to the lions and such, being a real leader. Quite frankly, he was probably happier than most of the people in that automated world of technological America. (Of course, the assassins put a minor damper on his leadership, but aside from that, he's probably laughing at Ilium.) This seems to stress that the only factor important in progress is if the numbers are bigger at the end of the process than at the beginning.
I also laugh at the statement that the boss of the managers is really John Averageman. That one was the biggest laugh in the entire comedy routine. I highly doubt that the consumer really concerns himself with dictating to the managers what should be made. The managers call for construction and then it is sold to us by hitting us over the head with a hammer until we buy buy buy buy buy. McDonald's sells us burgers; we did not ask for meat, cheese and veggies between bread to the response of a fast food chain scampering up, begging to grant them the privilege of feeding us. They sell burgers to us. End of fairy tale. When they think of something new, they tell us it's better and just buy the thing. Most of them try to show up other restaurants by adding their own spin on a classic, which sometimes is the spin that makes it trash. Furthermore, if the managers can brag that they're getting a bigger paycheck solely to produce more for the Averageman, I'll assume that these engineers pay for company projects out of pocket. If they are, that's reason #592 to get rid of the system because workers shouldn't be paying to work for someone. If they don't, then I'd love to find out where those rich engineers spend their thousands of dollars. Balls and dances? Country clubs? Grand cuisine and a wonderful cruise or two? Yeah, that really helps out John Averageman, enduring a cruise around the ocean. It would be so terrible if the engineers weren't happy enough to do their job.
Really, the whole play makes a weak argument from the prosecution and a load of rubbish from the defense. Materialistic improvements come at the expense of personal pride and entertainment, and that's really no improvement. Quite frankly, the whole thing is just a single reason for why there was even an automation revolution in the first place, and a poor excuse at that. Plus, the reasoning behind the bigger paycheck for engineers seems to stress the fact that something's not right. The fact that this was cheered so darn much makes you almost want to pity the poor fellas who have no clue how to run a country. Vonnegut really put a lot of emphasis on making this terribly ridiculous and obviously fake.
My complaints have to do with the fact that the focus of the prosecution was less focused on how the civilians felt rather than the physical numbers. Now, if there was no need to really buy anything then a drop in pay would seem a little less outrageous. However, if the prosecution focused more on the fact that there was a large drop in public image, that most of Americans were dissatisfied, that most people were not happy in the least, then it might have been a little more apparent that there was a bit of a problem at hand. There isn't any point in progress if the progress doesn't make the people happy. Unlike computers, humans have feelings. This is probably why the Star Manager forbid any emotional evidence, because everything looked better in numbers. God forbid the managers have to suffer from emotional dissent (or rather, a soul). Of course, the prosecution only whines that managers are paid more than workers. Weak.
On the other hand, the defense states a whole lot of numbers. Numbers, that's all. More fridges, TV's, cars, and automatic toilets, I'm sure, than the rest of the world. The only flaw with referencing Caesar in the defense's speech is that even the poorest feller in today's world is infinitely better than he would be hundreds of years ago. Public advancements are beneficial to everyone, and I sure would hope that we've improved technology since Caesar's time. The only real qualifier with an ancient ruler comparison is luxury, really. The ability to have these extra items, though, is nothing if the people don't really enjoy them. If progression was strictly numerical, in terms of what should make someone happy, then the Benefactor and Beatty ought to be celebrated as wonderful heroes. Moreover, Caesar had plenty of fun bossing his people around, throwing them to the lions and such, being a real leader. Quite frankly, he was probably happier than most of the people in that automated world of technological America. (Of course, the assassins put a minor damper on his leadership, but aside from that, he's probably laughing at Ilium.) This seems to stress that the only factor important in progress is if the numbers are bigger at the end of the process than at the beginning.
I also laugh at the statement that the boss of the managers is really John Averageman. That one was the biggest laugh in the entire comedy routine. I highly doubt that the consumer really concerns himself with dictating to the managers what should be made. The managers call for construction and then it is sold to us by hitting us over the head with a hammer until we buy buy buy buy buy. McDonald's sells us burgers; we did not ask for meat, cheese and veggies between bread to the response of a fast food chain scampering up, begging to grant them the privilege of feeding us. They sell burgers to us. End of fairy tale. When they think of something new, they tell us it's better and just buy the thing. Most of them try to show up other restaurants by adding their own spin on a classic, which sometimes is the spin that makes it trash. Furthermore, if the managers can brag that they're getting a bigger paycheck solely to produce more for the Averageman, I'll assume that these engineers pay for company projects out of pocket. If they are, that's reason #592 to get rid of the system because workers shouldn't be paying to work for someone. If they don't, then I'd love to find out where those rich engineers spend their thousands of dollars. Balls and dances? Country clubs? Grand cuisine and a wonderful cruise or two? Yeah, that really helps out John Averageman, enduring a cruise around the ocean. It would be so terrible if the engineers weren't happy enough to do their job.
Really, the whole play makes a weak argument from the prosecution and a load of rubbish from the defense. Materialistic improvements come at the expense of personal pride and entertainment, and that's really no improvement. Quite frankly, the whole thing is just a single reason for why there was even an automation revolution in the first place, and a poor excuse at that. Plus, the reasoning behind the bigger paycheck for engineers seems to stress the fact that something's not right. The fact that this was cheered so darn much makes you almost want to pity the poor fellas who have no clue how to run a country. Vonnegut really put a lot of emphasis on making this terribly ridiculous and obviously fake.
Player Piano- Reaction to the Novel
Trying to keep this short, I'll say that I preferred this book over a few of the others read in class, primarily because of the wit and humor in the novel. I find the jokes, though dry, dark, and dreary, add a great deal of entertainment to the novel. The ironic twists and turns were well placed, and kept me interested to a greater extent than the other novels. And I will also say that this ending was one of the better ones in the sense that it did not just suddenly drop off with no hint of the future. It would certainly be better if the ending was a tad more hopeful, yet that not only isn't Vonnegut's style and would be terribly out of place, the novel still concludes slowly enough to wrap up all loose ends without simply dropping off as it did in Handmaid' Tale or ending abruptly as in We. It was pretty good, I feel.
It's also frighteningly accurate. There are so many different things that technology is capable of doing today that human effort is becoming unnecessary and the way of the past. Just about everything can be done without human beings, and eventually they won't be needed. ATM's, checkout lines, packaging and shipping, assembly lines...pretty soon the only thing people will be needed for is to fix a small kink in the system. Soon people may only be unnecessary beings wandering the earth with nothing to do. Even if you had all the time in your life to yourself, it'd get pretty darn boring. There'd be nothing to do. The only thing that makes vacations (say, for example, Christmas break in 2 weeks) so fun and wonderful is that you've been toiling away incessantly for an eternity. Now you want to enjoy yourself, and you can. This world would bore you eventually, and most likely sooner than you'd ever dream, and with nothing to do you'll spend most of your life in absolute boredom. It'll be Fahrenheit 451, only with books. Miserable.
However, there is one glimmer of hope: this sure won't happen in our lifetimes. Technology, I've found, is wonderfully unreliable. It'll take at least 20 years, more likely 25, to perfect computers. They always crash or catch cold or do something weird. It'll take longer than that for mankind to perfect systems for everything else. And by that time, there'll be some arrogant punk who's figured out some way to break the new toys with the push of a button, and the whole process of creating a system will begin again. There's a far better chance of us figuring out how to live on Mars rather than to make a completely automatized world. A TV show once detailed how in 50 years they'll have perfected hovercars and will have a networking system built into our body so someone can personally monitor our health every second of the day. Alternative fuel hasn't been completely figured out yet, much less put into action to a large degree, and I doubt the anti-gravity measures will be easily calculated. And considering how bad computers are, I highly doubt that super network in our body will ever run even half the time at 50% efficiency. We all think that such a world is possible, but I know from experience that things take a lot longer to do than originally intended. They're also a tad tougher. If we ever reach that stage where our lives are completely automated, I will be thoroughly shocked and impressed. I really don't think that it's possible to achieve such a level of automation so quickly. We're still only beginning to improve technology, and there's so much that we haven't even dreamed of doing yet. A number of these dreams are right in this book.
It's also frighteningly accurate. There are so many different things that technology is capable of doing today that human effort is becoming unnecessary and the way of the past. Just about everything can be done without human beings, and eventually they won't be needed. ATM's, checkout lines, packaging and shipping, assembly lines...pretty soon the only thing people will be needed for is to fix a small kink in the system. Soon people may only be unnecessary beings wandering the earth with nothing to do. Even if you had all the time in your life to yourself, it'd get pretty darn boring. There'd be nothing to do. The only thing that makes vacations (say, for example, Christmas break in 2 weeks) so fun and wonderful is that you've been toiling away incessantly for an eternity. Now you want to enjoy yourself, and you can. This world would bore you eventually, and most likely sooner than you'd ever dream, and with nothing to do you'll spend most of your life in absolute boredom. It'll be Fahrenheit 451, only with books. Miserable.
However, there is one glimmer of hope: this sure won't happen in our lifetimes. Technology, I've found, is wonderfully unreliable. It'll take at least 20 years, more likely 25, to perfect computers. They always crash or catch cold or do something weird. It'll take longer than that for mankind to perfect systems for everything else. And by that time, there'll be some arrogant punk who's figured out some way to break the new toys with the push of a button, and the whole process of creating a system will begin again. There's a far better chance of us figuring out how to live on Mars rather than to make a completely automatized world. A TV show once detailed how in 50 years they'll have perfected hovercars and will have a networking system built into our body so someone can personally monitor our health every second of the day. Alternative fuel hasn't been completely figured out yet, much less put into action to a large degree, and I doubt the anti-gravity measures will be easily calculated. And considering how bad computers are, I highly doubt that super network in our body will ever run even half the time at 50% efficiency. We all think that such a world is possible, but I know from experience that things take a lot longer to do than originally intended. They're also a tad tougher. If we ever reach that stage where our lives are completely automated, I will be thoroughly shocked and impressed. I really don't think that it's possible to achieve such a level of automation so quickly. We're still only beginning to improve technology, and there's so much that we haven't even dreamed of doing yet. A number of these dreams are right in this book.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
The Handmaid's Tale- Symbol/Theme
I am going to discuss the expression of power in this novel. Now by expressing of power I primarily refer to Aunt Lydia being a bit of a complete ***** and certain other authoritative figures either abusing their power in some way or their controlling of it. I'm not sure whether conclusions can be drawn due to position and the fate of others of the same ranking and gender, or whether or not it's just due to character, but in the end it basically makes some solid statements about people and the absolutely corrupting substance known as power.
Aunt Lydia is absolutely drunk on power. There is no other word for it. (other than, of course, the omitted word from above that sounds like the bolded word before it) Considering her position, however, it is completely expected. She is one of the few women with unrestrained, unchecked power, and she enjoys using it. When Moira walked, or rather, strutted out of the Center with that air of authority, she was cleared without a moment's hesitation. She commands even the soldiers with nothing more than a stiff back and a dirty look. This gives an idea of how darn powerful the Aunts actually are. She now takes the position of training the women to become Handmaids and respectable ladies of Gilead. She can be quite cruel, though, and she likes to flaunt her power. She tortures Janine relentlessly, then takes advantage of her resulting want of acceptance and significance by offering her the position of lapdog. She takes her sweet time reading the Salvaging speech as well. She enjoys being in power, the sheer force she can exert on the rest of society. An oversight during the Janine meeting causes the young woman in question to understand that she was going to be sharing this power, and though Aunt Lydia did allot some authority to Janine, she was reluctant in doing so. She was quite surprised when Janine actually requested to sit before Her Pompousness. Whatever the reason, out of all the subservient women, she was of the few that gained power. As as result, she ended up corrupted by it when placed in a community of powerless women like her. It all went right to her head.
A stark contrast to this is Serena Joy. Yes, she was also not the nicest of people, but she had a reason for it. Besides, she really did not abuse her power. She could have made Offred absolutely miserable, but simply let her be. In fact, she even offered to help her in the middle of the novel. Th conspiring certainly did not demonstrate any use of power. She could have forced Offred to have sex with someone else if she really desired that baby, or if she just wanted to know that Offred was being brutally raped every few nights. Aside from that, she could have berated Offred every single day, or had the Marthas overcook her food. She could have kept her awake at night, or could have had her standing in a room somewhere holding something heavy pretending to need help moving something heavy. She could have done many things, but instead left her well alone. She does not take advantage of anyone in the household, but rather just exists with them all. In stark contrast to Lydia, who had no reason whatsoever to be so freakin' annoying, Serena Joy seems like one of the nicest women around. Both have power. Only one of them abuses it. Perhaps Serena is far kinder than Lydia, or is too exhausted to be a jerk. Perhaps her situation is less of a send-in-the-next-batch job than Lydia's, so she is nicer to the people she'll be living with until she's dead. Maybe she just needs some friends. Either way, she certainly hasn't been corrupted by power. Rather, she seems tired of it. Perhaps Lydia got drunk on power quickly, and never broke the addiction of indulging in it, while Serena gradually eased into it and found that it wasn't all that much better. Maybe it was just because Lydia can exercise power over many others.
The Commander is somewhat in between the two. I say in between because he does pull for some side "favors" from Offred, but doesn't really abuse his power all that much. Although we don't know whether he asked for these few favors from the other women and Handmaids, it can be inferred that Offred is the only one involved in this. I'll ignore Nick for this part, because he's simply willing to help his boss out. There isn't much pulled from him, other than the drive to Jezebel's. Now, of all the things that he could do, he ends up pulling Offred into his office to play Scrabble. As a treat to both of them. Regardless of his position as Commander, he's going to be in serious trouble if he gets caught. And all he does is ask for Scrabble and a kiss. He even gives a few things to Offred. However, this also abuses his position in the sense that he relies on his name as Commander to get all the black market stuff, and to coax Offred into joining him for the occasional game. He could be demanding much worse. In all, it's a measured indulgence; not passively floating through life by the book, also not being a complete son of a *****. (same word as above) He is a man; he has several other liberties and sources of power, yet he doesn't really flaunt them all that much. He knows what is just enough to get optimum enjoyment out of life. That being said, he did overindulge that one night in Jezebel's. If Offred is not the only Handmaid brought here for that reason, then he really does abuse his power significantly and is a little more of a jerkwad than I have given him credit for.
To analyze all three at once, several reasons can be offered. Perhaps gender can play a part in power corruption in this society. Lydia is one of the few women that can lord over the little authority granted to this gender, therefore she abuses it profusely. Serena Joy, while she does have power, does not have a whole whopping lot, and therefore will not impose her might on others because she really doesn't have all that much power to impose. The Commander has a good deal of power, but he is a man, and men are allotted significantly more power. Therefore, he is not as easily corrupted by it; it is almost second nature to him. Then again, another aspect is how freely you can impose that power on others. Serena Joy has very few people to impose power over, and the Commander can only impose power on his own household and those underlings that fear the position. Lydia has a whole lot of women under her command, and she gets fresh meat every once in a while. She has a lot of people to boss around and make miserable. Also, she has a significant level of command in the society because she read the Salvaging speech. Also, the position they are in can severely affect whether or not it's really worth it. The Commander can exert power to a certain degree; he can get in an awful lot of trouble if he's caught doing what he's doing. However, he has enough power to get away with it. Serena Joy is stuck with her underlings for the rest of her life, save the revolving position of Handmaid that will need to be broken in all over again at every changing. Lydia can basically do whatever she feels like doing, other than murder. She is in absolute control. Of course, this may all be due to personality and nothing more, meaning that all this is just coincidence. However, I believe that a combination of these factors have made these people the people they were in the novel, and their environment determined whether or not they would fall prey to the corrupting influence of power in their hands. In a world of restriction, power can do nothing other than corrupt.
Aunt Lydia is absolutely drunk on power. There is no other word for it. (other than, of course, the omitted word from above that sounds like the bolded word before it) Considering her position, however, it is completely expected. She is one of the few women with unrestrained, unchecked power, and she enjoys using it. When Moira walked, or rather, strutted out of the Center with that air of authority, she was cleared without a moment's hesitation. She commands even the soldiers with nothing more than a stiff back and a dirty look. This gives an idea of how darn powerful the Aunts actually are. She now takes the position of training the women to become Handmaids and respectable ladies of Gilead. She can be quite cruel, though, and she likes to flaunt her power. She tortures Janine relentlessly, then takes advantage of her resulting want of acceptance and significance by offering her the position of lapdog. She takes her sweet time reading the Salvaging speech as well. She enjoys being in power, the sheer force she can exert on the rest of society. An oversight during the Janine meeting causes the young woman in question to understand that she was going to be sharing this power, and though Aunt Lydia did allot some authority to Janine, she was reluctant in doing so. She was quite surprised when Janine actually requested to sit before Her Pompousness. Whatever the reason, out of all the subservient women, she was of the few that gained power. As as result, she ended up corrupted by it when placed in a community of powerless women like her. It all went right to her head.
A stark contrast to this is Serena Joy. Yes, she was also not the nicest of people, but she had a reason for it. Besides, she really did not abuse her power. She could have made Offred absolutely miserable, but simply let her be. In fact, she even offered to help her in the middle of the novel. Th conspiring certainly did not demonstrate any use of power. She could have forced Offred to have sex with someone else if she really desired that baby, or if she just wanted to know that Offred was being brutally raped every few nights. Aside from that, she could have berated Offred every single day, or had the Marthas overcook her food. She could have kept her awake at night, or could have had her standing in a room somewhere holding something heavy pretending to need help moving something heavy. She could have done many things, but instead left her well alone. She does not take advantage of anyone in the household, but rather just exists with them all. In stark contrast to Lydia, who had no reason whatsoever to be so freakin' annoying, Serena Joy seems like one of the nicest women around. Both have power. Only one of them abuses it. Perhaps Serena is far kinder than Lydia, or is too exhausted to be a jerk. Perhaps her situation is less of a send-in-the-next-batch job than Lydia's, so she is nicer to the people she'll be living with until she's dead. Maybe she just needs some friends. Either way, she certainly hasn't been corrupted by power. Rather, she seems tired of it. Perhaps Lydia got drunk on power quickly, and never broke the addiction of indulging in it, while Serena gradually eased into it and found that it wasn't all that much better. Maybe it was just because Lydia can exercise power over many others.
The Commander is somewhat in between the two. I say in between because he does pull for some side "favors" from Offred, but doesn't really abuse his power all that much. Although we don't know whether he asked for these few favors from the other women and Handmaids, it can be inferred that Offred is the only one involved in this. I'll ignore Nick for this part, because he's simply willing to help his boss out. There isn't much pulled from him, other than the drive to Jezebel's. Now, of all the things that he could do, he ends up pulling Offred into his office to play Scrabble. As a treat to both of them. Regardless of his position as Commander, he's going to be in serious trouble if he gets caught. And all he does is ask for Scrabble and a kiss. He even gives a few things to Offred. However, this also abuses his position in the sense that he relies on his name as Commander to get all the black market stuff, and to coax Offred into joining him for the occasional game. He could be demanding much worse. In all, it's a measured indulgence; not passively floating through life by the book, also not being a complete son of a *****. (same word as above) He is a man; he has several other liberties and sources of power, yet he doesn't really flaunt them all that much. He knows what is just enough to get optimum enjoyment out of life. That being said, he did overindulge that one night in Jezebel's. If Offred is not the only Handmaid brought here for that reason, then he really does abuse his power significantly and is a little more of a jerkwad than I have given him credit for.
To analyze all three at once, several reasons can be offered. Perhaps gender can play a part in power corruption in this society. Lydia is one of the few women that can lord over the little authority granted to this gender, therefore she abuses it profusely. Serena Joy, while she does have power, does not have a whole whopping lot, and therefore will not impose her might on others because she really doesn't have all that much power to impose. The Commander has a good deal of power, but he is a man, and men are allotted significantly more power. Therefore, he is not as easily corrupted by it; it is almost second nature to him. Then again, another aspect is how freely you can impose that power on others. Serena Joy has very few people to impose power over, and the Commander can only impose power on his own household and those underlings that fear the position. Lydia has a whole lot of women under her command, and she gets fresh meat every once in a while. She has a lot of people to boss around and make miserable. Also, she has a significant level of command in the society because she read the Salvaging speech. Also, the position they are in can severely affect whether or not it's really worth it. The Commander can exert power to a certain degree; he can get in an awful lot of trouble if he's caught doing what he's doing. However, he has enough power to get away with it. Serena Joy is stuck with her underlings for the rest of her life, save the revolving position of Handmaid that will need to be broken in all over again at every changing. Lydia can basically do whatever she feels like doing, other than murder. She is in absolute control. Of course, this may all be due to personality and nothing more, meaning that all this is just coincidence. However, I believe that a combination of these factors have made these people the people they were in the novel, and their environment determined whether or not they would fall prey to the corrupting influence of power in their hands. In a world of restriction, power can do nothing other than corrupt.
We- Symbol/Theme
Something that I noticed in We was the large use of numbers and logic. Noticed, of course, is a little bit of an understatement. The references continue throughout the book. I personally think that it all refers to the summation speech by the Benefactor at the end of the novel, and how inhuman a "true love of society" is. What I believe is trying to be conveyed is the idea that logic and reason really cannot be applied to something that does not always function as predictably as a computer program, namely human beings.
The Table of Hours seems to be more than just a freakish way of setting up the lifestyle of the community. It dictates exactly what the people need to be doing exactly when. However, the entire process is much like a pre-programmed system that is able to operate autonomously. There really isn't anything the Benefactor and Guardians needed to do other than to remove any bugs in the system. The community of OneState is mechanized; it is no longer a community but a program or a machine. The life had been more or less sucked out of it. Considering this, D-503's remark about the system is that everything would be 100% perfection if the Table of Hours listed directions for every second of every hour of every day for all eternity. The system is idle for those free hours; it needs to be doing something. Otherwise, the system is dead until it awakes again. D-503 is talking from the perspective of a machine at this point. Now a complete mechanized society whose only objective is to continue existing actually IS SOMEWHAT UTOPIAN when it comes down to the technical stuff. Tell you what: program a computer with a short little schedule and tell it what happiness is, and it would tell you continually that it was happy. Is it really happy? Not really, because it has no idea what happiness is, besides whatever you said it was, but it is content with doing what it needs to do. What it thinks it must do. It assesses situations and responds with a technical answer. Thus, this community can be loosely called utopian only when mankind is completely mechanized.
Now, there's just one little problem with living beings: they think. Computers don't think, they compute. Machines just act. We think, and when we think we really explore many things that a computer might call absolutely pointless and stupid. They would explode trying to just accept the fact that we actually waste time living. Now, I'm going to say that this translates roughly to the fact that HUMANS ARE NOT PERFECT, and cannot achieve a status of perfect happiness. At least, not while being human. D-503 can still think about the square root of negative 1; a computer would just put it out of mind and only read ERROR if it saw it. But D-503 can think about it. This causes him to attempt to understand, find some answer to, explore further, get irritated over, rack his brain about, etc. etc. etc. until he snaps. As long as we can think, as long as we have free will, as long as we have a soul with preferences and emotions, we cannot achieve paradise on earth. There are too many, if one can call them, variables, to completely deduce the equation Happiness. As a result, we are doomed to the bad times as well as the good. We can't just have one without the other, because we exist on several planes of existence. Computers don't; either it is or it isn't, and this is how it's done. However, some people can waste their lives chasing perfection rather than living. D-503 spends most of his time in the novel fretting over why why why. He wants to be "happy." He doesn't care much about anything else. Thus, the Benefactor in the end of the novel gives him exactly what he wants. He extracts D-503's imagination (and free will) and makes him a mindless drone. The Benefactor has done this to the whole world, as far as we know. How "nice," giving the whole world the "happiness" they always wanted. See what I mean?
This is actually quite cruel. Humanity wants to exist and know they're existing. They do not want to simply perform task, compute result, begin next task, 1010010101010. (That's binary computer-talk, by the way.) However, society is going to pieces in the search for said perfection. The Benefactor has granted their wishes. In a sense, it is the best thing for the world. No hunger, no discrimination, no suffering, no unhappiness. All problems solved. Thus, it can be noted that society should really be glad they can live rather than wanting more, wanting constant bliss, wanting an easy life. Live how you'd like, but don't waste the time you've got. Just live. This society has already become mostly computer, and at this point knows of no other way to achieve happiness. If they already have all this granted to them, why not continue on and get the rest of the problem fixed, to never suffer again? Another thought D-503 had was about how happiness was always thought to be a plus. He often noted several other items as a plus or minus, to express his opinion. He later begins to wonder about the inherent opposite to that number, and how it must exist and must be included somewhere in the equation of life. The extraction of imagination solves the problem: set everything to zero. It isn't quite positive, but it sure isn't negative, and that's all that matters. D-503 also tries to make a function out of love and death. That he had quite a bit of difficulty with, because it isn't necessarily true. He was trying to mix both the logic of mathematics and the emotions of the soul he was experiencing. Those two really don't mix, accentuating how different the logical road to success is from the emotional and gut feeling road.
This novel seems to exaggerate the mathematical concept of perfection, and how inhuman it really is. But this, I think, is the purpose of that exaggeration. The logic behind perfection and paradise is highly inhuman and is not supposed to be applied to unpredictable humans. We cannot follow a system like a computer. We only know how to live by our own beliefs. As a result, it attempts to show how utopias are really impossible for us, and also not to worry about living as much as actually living. Logic cannot be applied to life to receive an all-powerful result. That result is somewhere near infinity, and the only beings that know of that number are the inhuman, soulless ones that live in the realm of probability, theorem, and instructions. They can determine how to live perfectly; only we can live, and we can only live by living, not computing.
The Table of Hours seems to be more than just a freakish way of setting up the lifestyle of the community. It dictates exactly what the people need to be doing exactly when. However, the entire process is much like a pre-programmed system that is able to operate autonomously. There really isn't anything the Benefactor and Guardians needed to do other than to remove any bugs in the system. The community of OneState is mechanized; it is no longer a community but a program or a machine. The life had been more or less sucked out of it. Considering this, D-503's remark about the system is that everything would be 100% perfection if the Table of Hours listed directions for every second of every hour of every day for all eternity. The system is idle for those free hours; it needs to be doing something. Otherwise, the system is dead until it awakes again. D-503 is talking from the perspective of a machine at this point. Now a complete mechanized society whose only objective is to continue existing actually IS SOMEWHAT UTOPIAN when it comes down to the technical stuff. Tell you what: program a computer with a short little schedule and tell it what happiness is, and it would tell you continually that it was happy. Is it really happy? Not really, because it has no idea what happiness is, besides whatever you said it was, but it is content with doing what it needs to do. What it thinks it must do. It assesses situations and responds with a technical answer. Thus, this community can be loosely called utopian only when mankind is completely mechanized.
Now, there's just one little problem with living beings: they think. Computers don't think, they compute. Machines just act. We think, and when we think we really explore many things that a computer might call absolutely pointless and stupid. They would explode trying to just accept the fact that we actually waste time living. Now, I'm going to say that this translates roughly to the fact that HUMANS ARE NOT PERFECT, and cannot achieve a status of perfect happiness. At least, not while being human. D-503 can still think about the square root of negative 1; a computer would just put it out of mind and only read ERROR if it saw it. But D-503 can think about it. This causes him to attempt to understand, find some answer to, explore further, get irritated over, rack his brain about, etc. etc. etc. until he snaps. As long as we can think, as long as we have free will, as long as we have a soul with preferences and emotions, we cannot achieve paradise on earth. There are too many, if one can call them, variables, to completely deduce the equation Happiness. As a result, we are doomed to the bad times as well as the good. We can't just have one without the other, because we exist on several planes of existence. Computers don't; either it is or it isn't, and this is how it's done. However, some people can waste their lives chasing perfection rather than living. D-503 spends most of his time in the novel fretting over why why why. He wants to be "happy." He doesn't care much about anything else. Thus, the Benefactor in the end of the novel gives him exactly what he wants. He extracts D-503's imagination (and free will) and makes him a mindless drone. The Benefactor has done this to the whole world, as far as we know. How "nice," giving the whole world the "happiness" they always wanted. See what I mean?
This is actually quite cruel. Humanity wants to exist and know they're existing. They do not want to simply perform task, compute result, begin next task, 1010010101010. (That's binary computer-talk, by the way.) However, society is going to pieces in the search for said perfection. The Benefactor has granted their wishes. In a sense, it is the best thing for the world. No hunger, no discrimination, no suffering, no unhappiness. All problems solved. Thus, it can be noted that society should really be glad they can live rather than wanting more, wanting constant bliss, wanting an easy life. Live how you'd like, but don't waste the time you've got. Just live. This society has already become mostly computer, and at this point knows of no other way to achieve happiness. If they already have all this granted to them, why not continue on and get the rest of the problem fixed, to never suffer again? Another thought D-503 had was about how happiness was always thought to be a plus. He often noted several other items as a plus or minus, to express his opinion. He later begins to wonder about the inherent opposite to that number, and how it must exist and must be included somewhere in the equation of life. The extraction of imagination solves the problem: set everything to zero. It isn't quite positive, but it sure isn't negative, and that's all that matters. D-503 also tries to make a function out of love and death. That he had quite a bit of difficulty with, because it isn't necessarily true. He was trying to mix both the logic of mathematics and the emotions of the soul he was experiencing. Those two really don't mix, accentuating how different the logical road to success is from the emotional and gut feeling road.
This novel seems to exaggerate the mathematical concept of perfection, and how inhuman it really is. But this, I think, is the purpose of that exaggeration. The logic behind perfection and paradise is highly inhuman and is not supposed to be applied to unpredictable humans. We cannot follow a system like a computer. We only know how to live by our own beliefs. As a result, it attempts to show how utopias are really impossible for us, and also not to worry about living as much as actually living. Logic cannot be applied to life to receive an all-powerful result. That result is somewhere near infinity, and the only beings that know of that number are the inhuman, soulless ones that live in the realm of probability, theorem, and instructions. They can determine how to live perfectly; only we can live, and we can only live by living, not computing.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Anthem- Symbol/Theme
One of the major noticeable characteristics of Anthem was the continual references to one large being of man. The names of the people, the daily schedule of events and how they are carried out, and the peculiar rules and mannerisms all seem to emphasize that the community is not a community, but rather a single group of people. One huge brotherhood of man, whose sole purpose is to simply exist and slave away for everybody else because individuals are as nothing. What is truly interesting is that the individuals of the society, though they work for the entirety of man, are truly fearful individuals whose prevailing thoughts reflected an idea that they are and have never been anything but evil, and that they owe their lives to their "brothers and sisters" for all the trouble they have caused.
Firstly, all the people in the community have names that are symbolic of unison and wholeness. Equality, Fraternity, Unity, etc...all stand for a united group of persons. However, these words have very little of their true meaning left. If they are now names, then there is a good chance that their meanings have lost value, and that to use them in this society would not get much of a reaction in return. Instead, it is assumed that the society is all these words, and that they are no longer needed. After all, that would only be stating the obvious. In the novel, Equality gets scolded for singing or whistling, I forget exactly what, and he states that he did so because he was happy. Then the elder tells him, in effect, well that's obvious, of course you're happy, everyone is. In losing their meaning, there is no real way for the citizens to confirm that there is, in fact, unity and equality. Equality should supposedly have known that he was happy, just as he should supposedly know the community abounded with continual expressions of unity. It was taken for granted. However, this hides (or rather, partly emphasizes) that there really is no unity. If there was, the people would be as one people gladly working together for the betterment of others. The unity is only skin deep; within, they do not know what else they could possibly be. They do not realize that the community's stressing of unity has devalued what unity actually is, and has torn them farther apart than ever. Equality also has a technical but really-not-there-fully existence in that everyone appears to be the same and therefore equal, but in reality the people set themselves lower than everyone else because of their own personal "sins." The community really isn't united any more than it is happy.
The daily schedule is also an emphasis that all people are as one. They all rise at the same time, go about their jobs, and travel to their respective eating quarters and recreational facilities with all the others of their specific kind. Now I'd like to point out the obvious fact that if everyone were that same it really shouldn't matter where you went with what people, so long as you followed a schedule. No, apparently, the people are equal, but not that equal. Anyway, everyone moves in the same way around their life with their section, all working in unison. Again, it only appears to be unison. Equality stresses the fact that he daydreams, and therefore is evil, unlike his brothers. Well, how does he know that, exactly? The idea that everyone could be dissenting secretly seems to stress that the society is meant to keep the people in apparent unison to dissuade any that feel like doing something else. The rampant fear of how anything that all do not think is evil prevents anyone from really expressing how they feel. This most likely causes everyone to withdraw from others, with a sense of fear of being recognized as evil. This, more than anything else, result is a society that focuses on the individual's struggle to blend in. It points out the fact that everyone is terrified of being different, so in pretending to be the same everyone fakes it and cautiously blends in, ever wary of and distant from others. No one can trust the other, and no one wants to be evil. Let the evil keep their distance from the holy.
The other little quirks of the society include strict separation of women and men, where neither can speak to or even really acknowledge the other. For a society of unity and equality, there really is a little bit of a required explanation for this. About the only reason that would count would be that they needed to separate them for sexual and competitive reasons. But if they've got that much control over the community, I really doubt that many problems would arise due to lust or competition. Besides, that is an evil that absolutely must be avoided. No one in the community would want to be evil. Therefore, the separation really stands against any idea of unity. Particularly when considering the security at the Palace of Corrective Detention. When Equality breaks out of the Palace, he just knocks a door down and then walks right out. No one ever disobeys society. If anything, that incident shows that the Elders go pretty much unchallenged, and that there really shouldn't be a fear about allowing others to mingle. Other than the fact that the two different genders are a difference that they cannot ever overcome. A weak solution to an unavoidable part of nature that only accentuates the disunity of the society. Curiosity also kicks in and makes people want to break the rules even more. Also, the peculiar practice that everyone had to go to an assembly with their group as recreation deserves some attention. Everyone is expected to want to watch the same thing, to appreciate the same form of art. Really, this isn't unity, this is just a ticking time bomb. Some will tire of the performance, then either express it and be rooted out or will become terrified that they are evil and do not think as their brothers really ought to be thinking. Others will most definitely show some great appreciation to it, and may whistle, bob heads, tap feet...do things that are different that will land them in trouble, like Equality's whistling or singing. Personally, I think that subjecting everyone to a play is just passing them through another sieve or an obvious negligence that will point out that the entire community is not 100% united in all thought, all the time.
As as result, the many aspects of the community that seem to hint to unity only point out how far from unity the society is. It reminds us that perhaps the more one attempts to achieve total unity and conformity, the more nature will rage against it and express itself in defiance. The people end up becoming paranoid and self-deprecatory. Equality's escape was bound to happen at some time, and is bound to happen again. Eventually, in a world that points out how different everyone is and teaches them that these differences are evil, someone will get to the point where, believing they can't get any lower, they will strike out and act for themselves, doing as their different minds dictate.
Firstly, all the people in the community have names that are symbolic of unison and wholeness. Equality, Fraternity, Unity, etc...all stand for a united group of persons. However, these words have very little of their true meaning left. If they are now names, then there is a good chance that their meanings have lost value, and that to use them in this society would not get much of a reaction in return. Instead, it is assumed that the society is all these words, and that they are no longer needed. After all, that would only be stating the obvious. In the novel, Equality gets scolded for singing or whistling, I forget exactly what, and he states that he did so because he was happy. Then the elder tells him, in effect, well that's obvious, of course you're happy, everyone is. In losing their meaning, there is no real way for the citizens to confirm that there is, in fact, unity and equality. Equality should supposedly have known that he was happy, just as he should supposedly know the community abounded with continual expressions of unity. It was taken for granted. However, this hides (or rather, partly emphasizes) that there really is no unity. If there was, the people would be as one people gladly working together for the betterment of others. The unity is only skin deep; within, they do not know what else they could possibly be. They do not realize that the community's stressing of unity has devalued what unity actually is, and has torn them farther apart than ever. Equality also has a technical but really-not-there-fully existence in that everyone appears to be the same and therefore equal, but in reality the people set themselves lower than everyone else because of their own personal "sins." The community really isn't united any more than it is happy.
The daily schedule is also an emphasis that all people are as one. They all rise at the same time, go about their jobs, and travel to their respective eating quarters and recreational facilities with all the others of their specific kind. Now I'd like to point out the obvious fact that if everyone were that same it really shouldn't matter where you went with what people, so long as you followed a schedule. No, apparently, the people are equal, but not that equal. Anyway, everyone moves in the same way around their life with their section, all working in unison. Again, it only appears to be unison. Equality stresses the fact that he daydreams, and therefore is evil, unlike his brothers. Well, how does he know that, exactly? The idea that everyone could be dissenting secretly seems to stress that the society is meant to keep the people in apparent unison to dissuade any that feel like doing something else. The rampant fear of how anything that all do not think is evil prevents anyone from really expressing how they feel. This most likely causes everyone to withdraw from others, with a sense of fear of being recognized as evil. This, more than anything else, result is a society that focuses on the individual's struggle to blend in. It points out the fact that everyone is terrified of being different, so in pretending to be the same everyone fakes it and cautiously blends in, ever wary of and distant from others. No one can trust the other, and no one wants to be evil. Let the evil keep their distance from the holy.
The other little quirks of the society include strict separation of women and men, where neither can speak to or even really acknowledge the other. For a society of unity and equality, there really is a little bit of a required explanation for this. About the only reason that would count would be that they needed to separate them for sexual and competitive reasons. But if they've got that much control over the community, I really doubt that many problems would arise due to lust or competition. Besides, that is an evil that absolutely must be avoided. No one in the community would want to be evil. Therefore, the separation really stands against any idea of unity. Particularly when considering the security at the Palace of Corrective Detention. When Equality breaks out of the Palace, he just knocks a door down and then walks right out. No one ever disobeys society. If anything, that incident shows that the Elders go pretty much unchallenged, and that there really shouldn't be a fear about allowing others to mingle. Other than the fact that the two different genders are a difference that they cannot ever overcome. A weak solution to an unavoidable part of nature that only accentuates the disunity of the society. Curiosity also kicks in and makes people want to break the rules even more. Also, the peculiar practice that everyone had to go to an assembly with their group as recreation deserves some attention. Everyone is expected to want to watch the same thing, to appreciate the same form of art. Really, this isn't unity, this is just a ticking time bomb. Some will tire of the performance, then either express it and be rooted out or will become terrified that they are evil and do not think as their brothers really ought to be thinking. Others will most definitely show some great appreciation to it, and may whistle, bob heads, tap feet...do things that are different that will land them in trouble, like Equality's whistling or singing. Personally, I think that subjecting everyone to a play is just passing them through another sieve or an obvious negligence that will point out that the entire community is not 100% united in all thought, all the time.
As as result, the many aspects of the community that seem to hint to unity only point out how far from unity the society is. It reminds us that perhaps the more one attempts to achieve total unity and conformity, the more nature will rage against it and express itself in defiance. The people end up becoming paranoid and self-deprecatory. Equality's escape was bound to happen at some time, and is bound to happen again. Eventually, in a world that points out how different everyone is and teaches them that these differences are evil, someone will get to the point where, believing they can't get any lower, they will strike out and act for themselves, doing as their different minds dictate.
Monday, November 5, 2007
The Handmaid's Tale- Analysis
What to analyze, what to analyze...so much to choose from... ... How about the Ceremony? Well, not quite the actual Ceremony, and by that I mean the...well, THAT part, but...more of the stuff leading up to it, and the reasoning behind it. Surely there's some special meaning to the reasoning and not just the act. That act definitely has a large reason, but I overwhelmingly see it as a part of society that just about everyone hates, which accomplishes a purpose that really was meant to be reached through other means.
Well, beginning with the fact that everyone has to gather for the prayer part of the Ceremony, it is apparent that it is exactly that, a prayer service, as much as it is another chore that everyone's got to go through. Everyone gathers in the room and waits for the Commander to read from the Bible. Perhaps it stands symbolic for the church service. This is the new religion of procreation through handmaids, which Gilead in the name of God commands due to the rising infertility of women. He is the one that reads, for the purpose that the women do not have the right to read. However, it is kept in a box, locked up tight. It is referred to as an incendiary device. Only the Commander has the key. This reemphasizes the fact that the only people who are allowed to speak religion are the ones that have been told what to say, the ones that dare not say anything that would conflict with the twists of law the women have been taught. As is stated offhandedly, who knows what the women would think if they ever managed to get ahold of it. Perhaps this is emphasis on the fact that the truth is kept under lock and key, along with the freedoms that it now imprisons. The Bible itself, which does not actually command any of this, which stands for the warping of the pinnacle of holiness and goodness, is also the freedom of speech which no longer belongs to the women. Moving on, the Commander reads only the bookmarked pages. They do not skim through the books, looking for the correct page and possibly seeing something that defied Gilead's iron regime, contradicted their orders. Even the men do not have freedom of speech, but rather the responsibility of keeping the women away from the very thing that gives them that right.
As he reads, he reads only that parts that dictate to be fruitful and to replenish the earth. There really is no main message here, other than that women are vessels that are meant to make babies and then more babies after that. The Bible is meant to give more important messages than that, and God's main focus was not to just make more humans. He could do that Himself with little effort. The Bible is merely being used as a tool to fit the purpose Gilead intended for it. As the readings continue, the story of Rachel and Leah is read. The novel only mentions the part where the wives offer their handmaids as substitutes for birthing. Now there's a whole lot more than that to the story. Rachel was the wife that was supposed to be married off to Jacob, but due to some trickery he married Leah instead. He then works and eventually married Rachel as well, but then neglects Leah. As a result, God, who was not very happy with Jacob nor Rachel for this treatment of Leah, made Rachel barren. Rachel, if anything, did this to get around God's curse, and then the handmaids were used in a sort of competition to see who could make more babies. Really, it's not as if God commanded that the handmaids be used to make more babies. In this way, the Bible is cut and pasted into a different version that allows Gilead to enforce a practice that would otherwise have gotten an overwhelming response to go shove it where the sun don't shine. It seems to reemphasize the fact that the government had used a holy writ to achieve its own evil ends, to show a destruction of a good religion into something that completely warps the original message in the opposite direction. In this light, the almighty Republic of Gilead is nothing more than a gigantic hypocritical fake.
With the false command from God, the Commander then concludes and asks for a moment of silence, at which Serena Joy ends up crying. This "good news" doesn't exactly make people happy, or result in any large level of goodness. Rather it does the opposite and creates much hatred and sadness. Serena's crying seems to emphasize the fact that the new version of the old story is more of a reminder that she's worthless to Gilead, that a replacement is necessary because she's nowhere good enough. Women again are depicted to be nothing more than decoration, and this shows that really no woman has a purpose except for that sole reason stated in the forbidden Bible. Also, it seems to be an omen of bad things to come, where a silence for hopeful prayer results in some dread of what is to come. In the end, the Bible ends up being the exact opposite of what it should really be. Gilead has completely changed the meaning behind it, and has made it into a weapon against the people rather than the saving word. The interruption Offred mentions reminds that even the Beatitudes had been changed to ensure that the women followed orders as expected, and that there was a justification for the rule. This passage points out primarily the hypocrisy of the holy society of Gilead and what the Bible has become as a result of the new powers in charge. And the new Bible is as effective as the old one, albeit the effect opposite from what it should be.
Well, beginning with the fact that everyone has to gather for the prayer part of the Ceremony, it is apparent that it is exactly that, a prayer service, as much as it is another chore that everyone's got to go through. Everyone gathers in the room and waits for the Commander to read from the Bible. Perhaps it stands symbolic for the church service. This is the new religion of procreation through handmaids, which Gilead in the name of God commands due to the rising infertility of women. He is the one that reads, for the purpose that the women do not have the right to read. However, it is kept in a box, locked up tight. It is referred to as an incendiary device. Only the Commander has the key. This reemphasizes the fact that the only people who are allowed to speak religion are the ones that have been told what to say, the ones that dare not say anything that would conflict with the twists of law the women have been taught. As is stated offhandedly, who knows what the women would think if they ever managed to get ahold of it. Perhaps this is emphasis on the fact that the truth is kept under lock and key, along with the freedoms that it now imprisons. The Bible itself, which does not actually command any of this, which stands for the warping of the pinnacle of holiness and goodness, is also the freedom of speech which no longer belongs to the women. Moving on, the Commander reads only the bookmarked pages. They do not skim through the books, looking for the correct page and possibly seeing something that defied Gilead's iron regime, contradicted their orders. Even the men do not have freedom of speech, but rather the responsibility of keeping the women away from the very thing that gives them that right.
As he reads, he reads only that parts that dictate to be fruitful and to replenish the earth. There really is no main message here, other than that women are vessels that are meant to make babies and then more babies after that. The Bible is meant to give more important messages than that, and God's main focus was not to just make more humans. He could do that Himself with little effort. The Bible is merely being used as a tool to fit the purpose Gilead intended for it. As the readings continue, the story of Rachel and Leah is read. The novel only mentions the part where the wives offer their handmaids as substitutes for birthing. Now there's a whole lot more than that to the story. Rachel was the wife that was supposed to be married off to Jacob, but due to some trickery he married Leah instead. He then works and eventually married Rachel as well, but then neglects Leah. As a result, God, who was not very happy with Jacob nor Rachel for this treatment of Leah, made Rachel barren. Rachel, if anything, did this to get around God's curse, and then the handmaids were used in a sort of competition to see who could make more babies. Really, it's not as if God commanded that the handmaids be used to make more babies. In this way, the Bible is cut and pasted into a different version that allows Gilead to enforce a practice that would otherwise have gotten an overwhelming response to go shove it where the sun don't shine. It seems to reemphasize the fact that the government had used a holy writ to achieve its own evil ends, to show a destruction of a good religion into something that completely warps the original message in the opposite direction. In this light, the almighty Republic of Gilead is nothing more than a gigantic hypocritical fake.
With the false command from God, the Commander then concludes and asks for a moment of silence, at which Serena Joy ends up crying. This "good news" doesn't exactly make people happy, or result in any large level of goodness. Rather it does the opposite and creates much hatred and sadness. Serena's crying seems to emphasize the fact that the new version of the old story is more of a reminder that she's worthless to Gilead, that a replacement is necessary because she's nowhere good enough. Women again are depicted to be nothing more than decoration, and this shows that really no woman has a purpose except for that sole reason stated in the forbidden Bible. Also, it seems to be an omen of bad things to come, where a silence for hopeful prayer results in some dread of what is to come. In the end, the Bible ends up being the exact opposite of what it should really be. Gilead has completely changed the meaning behind it, and has made it into a weapon against the people rather than the saving word. The interruption Offred mentions reminds that even the Beatitudes had been changed to ensure that the women followed orders as expected, and that there was a justification for the rule. This passage points out primarily the hypocrisy of the holy society of Gilead and what the Bible has become as a result of the new powers in charge. And the new Bible is as effective as the old one, albeit the effect opposite from what it should be.
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