The Beginning p.3-86

Summary:

The first 86 pages are dedicated to the introduction of the story. While reading, we learn about the new life of the protagonist, but we also learn about her past and how the U.S. government has been overthrown to make way for the republic of Gilead. We learn that Offred’s best friend, who she knew before, was also in the red center with her. Among the others from Offred’s past are Luke, her husband and their daughter. We see the world as it has become, money is no longer a currency, instead, when she goes to the market, Offred pays with tokens with pictures on them. 

The protagonist is a handmaid and all but owned by a man we know as the Commander and his wife and her main function is to bear a child for them. In the beginning we also meet Nick, a guardian who works for the Commander along with Cora and Rita. Being pregnant is now such a privilege that when a woman enters the market, obviously pregnant, the other women resent her for it but it’s not even her child, she carries it for the people who own her. 

It also becomes apparent that Offred’s daughter was taken away from her against her will, and she often thinks of her, in fact, she is plagued with painful memories and flashbacks which reminds her of how good life was before. Towards the end of the first quarter, the importance of becoming pregnant in Offred’s life is highlighted. We learn that her life in fact depends on it.

Important Informations : 

Offred isn’t the real name of the protagonist. Handmaids are forced to change their names, and they don’t choose them either, it is the prefix ‘of’ placed before the name of the man they are supposed to bring children too. They don’t even have their own identity anymore, they are only an extension of someone else.

Fertile women are trained to be handmaids by Aunts in schools like “red center” where Offred needed to go. These schools assimilate women into thinking that rape is their fault and that having children is the only important thing, even if these children are not yours.

The society is watched by a group where their members can be anyone. They are called Eyes. This is scary in the way that no one has privacy anymore, anyone can have been sent to spy on you, to watch you.

“Perhaps he is an Eye” p.20 line25

Former doctors who have performed abortions are like war criminal. It’s punishable by death. It makes us think about what the world would be, like if abortion was banned, if women were forced to keep the baby that a rapist put in them.

“These men, we’ve been told, are like war criminals. It’s no excuse that what they did was legal at the time: their crime retroactive.” p.37 line 29

Women need to have excuses to be protected. And we can compare the way that they think rape is the woman’s fault with today’s people saying that women should dress differently to avoid sexual abuse.

Handmaids, the group that the narrator belongs to, are dressed in red, except for the white wings around their faces. The Marthas, household servants, wear green uniforms and “Wives” wear blue dresses.

Analysis:

“Last week they shot a woman, right about here. She was a Martha. She was fumbling in her robe, for the pass, and they thought she was hunting for a bomb. They thought she was a man in disguise. There have been such incidents.” (page 23, line 10)

We can easily think of George Floyd and all the victims that we killed because the police misinterpreted their actions. How a simple hairbrush or cellphone can turn into a dangerous weapon. Here is the same idea, in a dystopian world. But maybe they just wanted to shoot her and thought they had a good reason to make it seem like an accident.

“Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. I didn’t know what it meant, or even what language it was in. I thought it might be Latin, but I didn’t know any Latin. Still, it was a message, and it was in writing, forbidden by the very fact, and it hadn’t been discovered. Except by me, for whom it was intended. It was intended for whoever came next.” (page 58, line 1)

We can assume that “bastardes” means bastards, and so the previous handmaid wants to release her anger or warn the next one. It makes her feel like she knows something the others don’t. To her, it’s like having a privilege and she can have some enjoyment from it.

“It’s Janine, telling about how she was gang-raped at fourteen and had an abortion. She told the same story last week. She seemed almost proud of it, while she was telling. It may not even be true. At Testifying, it’s safer to make things up than to say you have nothing to reveal. But since it’s Janine, it’s probably more or less true.

But whose fault was it? Aunt Helena says, holding up one plump finger.

Her fault, her fault, her fault, we chant in unison.”  (page 82, line 12)

Even if this is a world where women are supposed to be treated well, they will blame them for being raped, even as young girls. Also, since she got an abortion, that makes them very angry and disappointed, as abortion is now a crime punished by death sentence on the Wall.