The Final p.259-339

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The last part is full of twists. Offred took more liberty and committed more and more sins and illegal actions by, for example, letting herself be led by the Commander to an illegal club where women could dress as they wanted in addition to drink and smoke. 

Offred meets Moira there. The mystery is solved: she ran away for a long time, until she ended up there, at Jezebel’s, after being caught. Otherwise, it was in the colonies that she was going to be sent and nobody wants to end up there... Offred’s mother is there, but she’s probably dead by now... 

The fact that she found Moira breaks Offred’s hope a little because she thought that her friend had escaped, and if she had been able, maybe Offred could too. But no, Moira didn’t, so how could she?

She hasn’t seen her old friend since that day... but she’s good at inventing scenarios to live in denial. So much that she convinced herself that perhaps Moira had, once again, ran away and succeeded in doing so. 

Now, precisely, Offred gives herself more and more freedom by committing illegal acts. She re-discovers her more rebellious side to the point of seeing Nick at night. It is not for love obviously because love is an unknown feeling from now on, but it is for the comfort of being in the embrace of a man and that of having chosen to be. The comfort of feeling like a woman again. She has more and more secrets to hide, and she knows what she is doing is dangerous. 

She attends a Salvaging where she remembers several memories since it is Aunt Lydia who is in charge of the event. However, the event has been changed and now, they do not name the crimes of women who will die to not encourage others to do so. They are examples. There is even a Wife in the three that are punished to death. It arouses the curiosity of women just like when Aunt Lydia presen
ted to handmaids a male accused of rape. It made them angry and disgusted to the point that he was beaten by the women whose first blow was administered by Offred’s friend, Ofglen. In fact, the man was part of Mayday, and she just put him out of misery.

The next day, Ofglen committed suicide because the Eyes came for her. Offred is scared for her life after this because she knows they can come and get her, but even if she is afraid, she tries to find out if the new Ofglen is part of the resistance. When she sees the truck, she knows it is for her and that she may die. She knows she was stupid and that she should kill herself... But she doesn’t. She can not convince herself to do so. But Nick arrives and reassures her by telling her that it is to save her.The Commander and the Wife are angry at her, while she is brought in. She has the hope that it is indeed a rescue As she always does, she clings to hope. 

The book ends with this opening where we do not know what happened to Moira and what will happen with Offred. Was Nick really part of Mayday or was it another technique to arrest her? Is Offred alive? What about Moira? Was the new Ofglen also part of the Mayday or was she a true partisan? 

Margaret Atwood kept us captivated throughout the book. It was an easy but complex book to read. We loved it!

Comments

  1. Noémie FraserNovember 4, 2020 at 11:26 AM

    In your article you said it was not an easy book to read. What was complex in your book?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. M. GingrasNovember 4, 2020 at 11:42 AM

      Well, it was an easy book to read, but it was complex to follow since the different time periods were mixed (present and past), but also because Margaret made many connections with her present as religion, feminism and political systems that are the basis of Gilead’s world in the book :D

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Final thoughts

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Glossary

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