Nap and Household

Chapter 13: Nap
Describe the nap. What is the purpose of the nap? 

Offred’s life is full of what she calls “blank time”, periods of complete, mind-numbing boredom. Naps are a way to fill this time, and during it, Offred thinks back on her life at the Women’s Centre. I think that this is a very effective way of introducing flashbacks: they are not jarring, and we get to understand how the societal structures of Gilead were formed.

 

What is testifying? Explain how it is used as a way of control. 

Testifying is Gilead’s bastardised version of group therapy, where the women share their sexual experiences and are shamed for them, even when the acts they describe are out of their control, like rape. This is used as a way of control by enforcing the idea that sex is bad and that rape is one of the ways they have been punished by God for their sins. Women are shaming themselves for their experiences with oppression. The Handmaids are thus more likely to accept their role as reproductive machines. Testifying has been effective on Offred as she now sees her body as something out of her control (a marked change from before, when she “used to see her body as an instrument of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will”). She perceives herself as separate from her body as she cannot control it any longer, and sees menstruation as a mark of her failure.

 

How do the nap and testifying contribute to the mood? 

The nap and the testifying contribute to the oppressive mood of the novel by showing the ways in which such a supposedly utopian society was created. Although it is perhaps true that women are able to walk around town without fear of abuse, the Handmaids are now oppressed to the point where they are not allowed to do anything and spend the majority of their time bored. The testifying further emphasises this mood by showing how women are the perpetuators of oppression; they blame other women for their rapes and claim that such a violent act was God’s way of punishing them for their sins.

 

Focus on the narration in this chapter. How does the author use narration to reveal the main character’s story? 

Offred is, as in the rest of the novel, the narrator of this chapter. As she falls asleep, her mind drifts to memories from different times in her life. By using Offred in such a way, Atwood shows the reader how Gilead came to be, and emphasises the didactic message of her novel: feminism cannot be dismissed as unimportant, and being apathetic in the face of horrible things makes you guilty of those same things.

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Chapter 14: Household
Explain Offred’s desire to steal items from her house. 

Offred wants to steal things from the Commander’s house because it is one of the only ways she can rebel against the rigid societal structures she has been forced into. It is a way for her to regain control over her life. This stands in contrast to her otherwise supposedly perfect obedience (the readers know of her dissident thoughts but none of the other characters do). Looking at her loot later would “make [her] feel that [she has] power”.

 

What are the implications of the news report that Offred is allowed to listen to? 

The news report reveals the following things:

• There is a war in the Appalachian Mountains that span across the East coast of the US and Canada. It is being fought by the Fourth Division of the Angels of the Apocalypse against a “pocket of Baptist guerrillas”. The mountain range is being bombed. The news shows a prisoner being treated kindly.
• An illegal espionnage ring has been found by a team of Eyes. This ring had smuggled “precious natural resources” to Canada, and five members of the “heretical sect of Quakers” have been arrested. The camera shows two of these, and they look terrified.
• Detroit is a battlefield, and what the news broadcaster calls the “Children of Ham” are being resettled. Ham, one of Noah’s sons, is a biblical figure that is seen as the forefather of the African populations. Therefore, the “Children of Ham” are african americans. The word “resettlement” was used in Nazi Germany to describe the movement of Jews and other ‘undesirables’ to Polish death camps. This connotation makes the reader wonder what is really going to happen to these people.

The news is full of governmental slogans and words with negative connotations. It is evident that the Republic of Gilead is at war with other religious groups and that African Americans are unwanted in this republic.

 

Who are the Eyes? What is their role? 

The Eyes are the governmental spies. Their role is to identify and remove dissidents from the Republic and thus inspire fear in the population.

 

Explain Offred’s rationalization around her name.

Offred tries to comfort herself over the loss of her name by thinking that a name is only a way for other people to identify you. However, she knows this to be untrue: “what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter”. She keeps her old name a secret, and makes it a source of hope. She believes that she will go back to it when she regains her freedom, and thinks of it when she goes to bed at night. By keeping her old name a secret, Atwood makes the reader realise that Offred is not hopeless; she can imagine a future where she is allowed to use it again. This hope is an act of quiet rebellion against the oppressive and seemingly all-powerful Republic of Gilead.