|
|
It’s All What You’re Used To Offred’s life was so out of the ordinary, that as I read the book, I had to change my views on just what is ordinary. Ordinary events to one person may be totally out of the ordinary to another. What is normal or typical today would have been abnormal or atypical just a few years ago. Like the main character Offred, we too must adapt ourselves and make concessions to the new norms in our lives. In the Handmaid’s Tale, there were so many things that Offred had to get used to and perceive as being a typical part of her day. She must adapt to changes in her environment, her sexuality, sense of identity, and of lesser importance her sense of fashion. The aunts had told her “humanity is so adaptable…it’s amazing what people can get used to as long as there are few compensations”. For Offred and ourselves as well, what is at stake in our personal lives when we agree to accept the new norms without question? Just from a physical environmental standpoint, she had to get used to the walled city she lived in, the barriers, floodlights and machine guns that surrounded her “home”. She lost any control on her environment, as she was not allowed to go to church, read books, write letters, or stay outside of her home. Censorship controlled many facets of her life. As I read this description I was reminded of the Warsaw ghetto that the Jewish people were forced to live in during the Holocaust. The people lived like “rats in a maze, they can go anywhere they want as long as they stay in the maze”. One of the most difficult sights to get used to were the hangings of those who opposed the system, out in view for anyone to see as they walked by. They were a constant reminder that torture was a way of life, accepted as part of the society and a reminder that these were different times and those who opposed the government would be publicly punished. In a fashion sense, she had to get used to the style of clothes she was forced to wear, the red dress, stockings and wings around her face. Again like the yellow star that identified Jews. In a social sense, she had to get used to the different classes of people, who she could trust, who she could talk to and who she must avoid.
|
