another one of those books

I was a little surprised to read the last chapter and get to the end and find out that this is yet another book without closure. These books really annoy me. They tell a story and leave you hanging without any closure or finality to the story. Maybe Atwood wanted us to make the ending up ourselves, or maybe she was to lazy to make an ending herself. Another possibility would be opening the door for a sequel but "A Handmaid's Tale" does not seem like a series book and I'd be very surprised if there is a sequel. The afterward did clear some things up however and confirmed my assumption that the Handmaid's were named after their commanders (Ofwarren Of -Warren, Ofglen Of-Glen, Offred Of-Fred). It's pretty interesting how Offred isn't even focused on escaping on the end and seems obsessed with Nick. I'm surprised they never got caught. I wonder how he felt about their whole relationship and It'd be interesting to see his perspective.

As Moira is describing her story and what happened after she left the Red Center, I made a couple connections to our history. The "Femaleroad" seems very similar to the Underground Railroad which was used in the South to help blacks escape slavery. There are checkpoints and different steps along the road to try and get the people out of an area. Also both the Femaleroad and the Underground Railroad operated illegally. The citizens escaping through the Undeground Railroad both choose to flee because they were greatly oppressed or unhappy with the society they were living in. It also seems very hypocritical that they have a place for many of the things which are forbidden to happen such as: wearing revealing clothing, wearing makeup and smoking. This just makes the society seem much more corrupt and hypocritical. How can the leaders of the society disobey their own rules and what message would this send to the rest of the population.

I am beginning to hate this society more and more. All of the restrictions and limitations on the people first of all, and the overall misery of all of the inhabitants. Also the women, as stated by the Commander, are supposedly only supposed to perform their biological task, giving birth. Otherwise they are supposed to remain silent. They continue to stress how much better off all the women are when really most of them have a worse life than they did before. It also disgusts me to think that they disregard love completely. The Aunt's say to forget about it and the Commander said he read about it in a magazine. I would hate to have an arranged marriage like they have in Gilead. You would just be stuck with a random person for the rest of your life and have no say in the matter. Actually this is a common practice in some societies in the world. I believe they justify it by saying "the parents know what is best for the children" and "they will grow to love each other". I personally would prefer to be able to choose who I am married to and not leave it to chance.

finally..

Whew.. things are finally starting to pick up in the story. First the scrabble games and the awkward situation with the Commander and now the new friend that she can talk to in Ofglen. It is very scary, however, to think that either the Commander or Ofglen may be acting. The Commander seems genuine but it's possible that Ofglen is a spy. Not very likely though. I doubt there are even that many spies in the society. The government uses that as a good ploy, to keep everyone antisocial on to better contain and control people. I know I would be very paranoid if you never knew if anyone you met was a spy looking for one wrong move. I guess it's better just to go for it though rather than continuing to live the way she is living. I knew the Commander was going to start have feelings for her. It was bound to happen.

hmm

These last few chapters have really stirred things up and created some excitement. I was glad to hear that Moira escaped and got away from that dreadful place. She had a very well thought out plan and it worked. I'm surprised more of the girls don't rebel or try to escape.

I was very surprised when the Commander asked to see Offred, since it is so obviously forbidden. You would also think, since he holds such a high position, that he would want to enforce the laws and abide by them. However, I could also see how the Commander might want some excitement it his life since the society seems so dull and dreary. I thought it was really random that he chose to play scrabble, a game that was probably the worst they could play. Offred seems to be treading on thin ice here.. one wrong step and she's off to the colonies.. whatever that means.

why?

I was wondering why they would even want to create a society like the one in The Handmaid's Tale. It seems so restrictive and almost all of the characters seem miserable and tense all of the time. Nobody, besides Nick, seems to be enjoying themselves at all. How did this come to happen? Why would anyone want this? I certainly would not want to live here. There is hardly any freedom and everyone has their set role in society with little flexibility. It seems to me a society like this would only form under extreme conditions. I bet people were panicking when the radiation began to effect fertility rates in the U.S. Many people then turned to religion as a solution to their problem since they had no other choice. They are now forced to encourage and protect the pregnancy on the handmaids because fertility is bad and children are highly valued. When people think they are in danger they panic and give up much of their rights as seen in many occasions in world history.

Thinking About Logan's Run

I was thinking a bit about Logan's Run
and had a few questions:
Why did they have to live in the bubble world when the "Sanctuary" seemed to exist outside?
Why were they forced to be "renewed" at age 30?

I have some speculations to the answers to these but am not sure at all. I think they choose to live in the bubble just to maintain better control over the population. Also they are free from weather hazards. They probably tell people it is dangerous outside to dissuade them from leaving which would weaken their society. They most likely are forced to be renewed as a sort of population control since it would seem like they have plenty of children. Therefore there is no older generation and they do not need to use resources to support it. I guess they are trading a short pleasureful and fun-filled life for a longer less party-like life. They have so much less responsibility in this system and don't even care who their children are or who they have sex with.