The Handmaid's Tale Jezebel's Part

First of all, I would like to write about my overall impressions of The Handmaid's Tale. Throughout the novel, so far it has been an excellent read and I am thoroughly enjoying the study of it within class. It is fascinating the way in which Atwood uses certain words and uses language in order to portray meaning throughout the entire novel. The way in which Atwood presents the character of Offred is also very interesting, the way in which the character dwells in the past leads the reader questioning her future circumstances and her later outcomes. Offred is always questioning herself and Atwood uses this character so that as readers we can come to the conclusion that throughout the entirety of the novel her memory has become fragmented. This has lead her on to become broken as a person because of the circumstances that she is in during the present. Atwood overall uses language in a scientific and methodical manner, this language always has something under the surface, which is fascinating to explore as a reader.

Certainly, the most interesting section of the novel so far has to be the Jezebel's section, this is the most recent section that I have read. We begin to find out a lot more about the plot of the story, and certain characters roles within the novel. This section starts off with Serena Joy talking to Offred about possibly seeing Nick as well as The Commander in order to try and have a baby. This shows that Serena Joy may know more about The Commander than meets the eye, that in fact The Commander is the infertile one and Offred's only chance to have a baby would be seeing Nick instead of The Commander. This paints a more positive picture to Serena Joy's personality, that in fact she does care about Offred because she may not want her sent off to the colonies to become an Unwoman for example.

We recognize that also in this section the closer bond's of Ofglen and Offred. Ofglen seems to know a lot about what is currently going on within Gilead. The fact that we know now as well that Ofglen is a rebel similar to Moira through when she hinted "Mayday" to us and Offred, however Offred didn't realize this until later on in the novel and just took it as some kind of religious talk. This gives us and Offred hope of a brighter future for Gilead if more and more of these characters start to appear. But this in return can be misleading, how long can Ofglen and Offred keep up these secret talks before one of them is caught out or heard by The Eyes. The sentence of plotting would be devastating for either of them.

And of course, in the last bit of the section we come to the actual building of where these Jezebel's are. The Commander takes Offred out for the night and describes it as a treat. When there, The Commander describes it as some sort of "club" and from my recognition it seems to be a place where women are there purely for men's entertainment. Again through this Atwood is highlighting to us the hierarchical issues and sexism that have been placed upon the society within Gilead. Women seem only to be here because it's their last option and that is prostitution because none of them want to be sent off to the colonies. We come to this conclusion through the choice Moira had to make in this section. In this section however Offred meets up again with Moira by chance. This gives us a glimmer of hope for the future when Moira describes to Offred her escape from The Red Center. But Moira seems different when Offred really starts talking to her, she seems she doesn't actually mind this job because it seems that some of the Jezebel's are also lesbians. We get the impression that Moira may feel more normal staying here. For Offred and the reader Moira gave us hope, change and normality, which seems to backfire at the end of this section. We are left feeling an uncertain future now within the novel.

I look forward to reading the last remaining sections of the novel and to find out what finally happens within the narrative.