Journal Four

Journal Four


Offred is characterized predominately by her duty as a Handmaid. Atwood uses expectation of her and her reaction to such expectation to reveal her character. She is clearly intelligent and has an innate curiosity causing her to endlessly search for truth. Outwardly Offred is loyal and well behaved within the societal structure of Gilead. However, it is clear, by the Atwood's description of her internalized thought, that Offred strives for reason and truth. More than physical freedom, Offred searches for freedom of comprehension. Offred also possesses a strong desire for human intimacy. She longs for trust and friendship. Her relationships with Ofglen, Moira and Nick reveal her obtainment of closeness with others. Each of these people also encompass a portion of Offred's desire. Ofglen provides her with hope for the future, Moira, with tangible evidence of the past and Nick with passion in the present. Offred seems to be a threat to the other women belonging to the Commander. Serena Joy hates Offred passionately. This leads me to believe that Offred is perhaps most human out of all of them. Her sustained desire for relationships captivates the Commander and others who are close to her. For those women who have been hardened by the creation of Gilead, her intimacy is a huge threat to their cold existence. 

• I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will . . . Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I’m a cloud, congealed around a central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and more real than I am and glows red within its translucent wrapping.
• "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum"
• I try to congure, to raise my own spirits, from wherever they are. I need to remember what they look like. I try to hold them still behind my eyes, their faces, like pictures in an album.
• It's my fault. I am forgetting too much.
•  I don't want pain. I don't want to be a dancer, my feet in the air, my head a faceless oblong of white cloth. I don't want to be a doll hung up on the Wall. I don't want to be a wingless angel. I want to keep on living, in any form. I resign my body freely, to uses of others. They can do what they like with me. I am abject.
• I feel, for the first time, their true power.

Moira is seemingly created to illuminate Offred's obsession with rebellion and her past.  Moira is present mostly in Offred's memory. Offred remembers Moira as a friend and as her rock. She acts as a foil to Offred, in that she takes action when Offred remains stagnant in her misfortune.  Moira acts as Offred's tangible example of feminism in its entirety. In Offred's memory Moira has no fear. She is strength. Offred gains her hope for survival from her memory of her friend Moira. Offred envisions herself acting as Moira does. She becomes inspired and happy when thinking about Moira's proactive behavior. And when Offred is reunited with Moira, Offred sees that Moira has lost her strength. And subtly, Offred loses her own.