A 2nd Night with Handmaids, Numbers of Nights with Franz Indeterminate

The concluding night focused upon The Handmaid's Tale dovetailed with the previous, as we discussed the further revelations of life under the flag of Gilead, and the mysterious fate of mysterious Offred.

What do we make of the Commander? Once he was seen as a vile figure, but also an unhappy one, trapped in a better cage than Offred, but trapped all the same. Yet, the novel reveals, he has access to the Jezebel Club, a brothel prison where what little sympathy he had earned is stripped away. Was this a loss of nuance, or an accurate reflection of how repressive societies must operate? The leaders, after all, need their privileges and playgrounds, for faith alone will not sustain them. And what of faith in Gilead? Is the emptiness of their religion, with their Prayvaganzas, a simple case of an atheist author lacking understanding, or is the emptiness the point? Are the Christian trappings of Gilead little more than conditioning and inertia born of ennui? Are there any true believers outside the Aunts?


It was mentioned that Atwood employs two forms of exposition, with disputes over which was more effective. On the one hand, some chapters detailed specific historical events in that world leading to Offred's current situation. On the other, the novel bristles with off-handed comments, leaving us to fill in the blanks--casual drops, all the more creepy due to their casualness. Moira's lesbianism. Babies called "Shredders". The tossed off fate of Offred's mother. Is a dystopia more effective providing a chain of events for our fears to follow, or depositing details and letting our fears create the chain? Do we experience history as a narrative, or a montage?

And with so much time spent with the Commander, Sarena Joy, the Aunts, the catty house staff, what role does Offred's mother play in Offred's oppression? Seemingly a caricature of the bra-burning feminist, did her lackadaisical parenting, obvious contempt for Offred and her choices, and self-absorption leave Offred ill-equipped to rise above her situation the way Moira did? Of course, we discover Moira is eventually broken as well.

Offred passes from her own story, unnamed, her fate uncertain. Free for a day, a week, a lifetime, she leaves her tale behind and disappears, into imprisonment, death, or Canada, we can't say. We move on to other Canadians.