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wingedbeastIf there's a singular intended theme to the fourth chapter in The Handmaid's Tale, it's control and the limits of control. That's appropriate as that feeds into the themes of the entire novel. If there's an unintended theme (and I'm not entirely certain it was unintended), it's the potential for motivated mistakes.
We start with a look at Nick. Nick is a Guardian, and one with a cigarette indicating both something to trade and the connections to do so on the black market. He's old enough and ranked enough that he could have been issued a woman, as wife primarily and, potentially, servants in the forms of Marthas and Handmaids. But, for some reason, he hasn't. Either he doesn't rate due to a defect or he just doesn't have the right connections in the system to make that work.
The yet-still-name-unspecified Offred stares at him longingly and he winks back, which would suggest that he mistook her gaze for sexual/romantic attraction. What he actually wanted was his cigarette. Of course, she won't correct him or anything else. He could be testing her. He could be an Eye (one of the secret police seeking out potential sedition).
Eye or not, Nick, is the Guardian who wears his cap at a jaunty angle, his sleeves rolled up to show forearms. Nick is the Guardian who smokes a cigarette while in uniform. He seems to have a motivation to be viewed, if only by himself, as roguish and/or sexy. So, when the gaze of a woman is on him, he has motivation to view that as being on him rather than being on something else that might be desired.
Incidentally, this very attitude may be why he wasn't assigned a woman. The officials who would make that decision could take lax uniform standards to be an indication that he doesn't take things seriously enough to merit a wife. That would be poor reasoning indeed, but that would fit both themes.
Next, we have a section with the Handmaid Ofglen. They exchange the required pleasantries and exchange small-talk in required recitation of lines.
These are banalities, but they're banalities that have explicit performance to them. The purpose isn't to communicate, which would suggest a connection of some sort. The purpose is to perform the appropriate ideology and culture.
Amidst the banalaties, there's talk of Baptists being smoked out of a stronghold in the Blue Hills. Our narrator explicitly states that this could be false news, either a lie by Ofglen or a lie believed and repeated by her. The control of news and information.
But, it also represents a point of control of information to the reader. Were I reading this blind, it would be all too easy for me to believe, at this point that, the controling element of this society (which hasn't even been named yet), isn't Christian.
We've seen generic references to things like scripture, which doesn't necessarily mean anything. We've seen religions banalities such as those in the quote above. We've seen a reference to Serena Joy being on a Christian program once upon a time, but nothing to state her greater role. Now, we've seen reference to Baptists. To someone who is motivated to see Christianity as a source for good, it's easy to think that there's some other religion, some other cult that aped some of Christianity's trappings for nefarious end. (And, considering the frequency of the No True Christian defense against atrocities committed by Christian regimes for expressly Christian motivations, one could still come to that conclusion.)
This is what brings me to the theme of motivated mistakes. Atwood has left room for this mistake, one that would be made purely out of motivation and not out of indications otherwise. She hasn't sneakily left things that might indicate one thing but will, upon new context, mean something incredibly different. She just hasn't, yet, explicitly stated that the theocratic nation that took over is a Christian theocracy.
And, finally, we have the case of the two Guardians, both very young manning a check-point. The very fact of the checkpoint is an element of control. Like the Handmaid's garb, it controls them. It also controls the Guardians, two young men who will sleep in barracks and hope and long for a future in which they merit being assigned a wife... and maybe being assigned a handmaid if necessary.
Here we note the limits of control. They had killed a Martha previously. She was digging around for her ID and they shot her, thinking she was bringing out a bomb. They were mistaken. They could probably be mistaken to think that there is such an effort to blow them up in the first place, but that would be another motivated mistake. This kind of society demands a war in order to be legitimate. Peace time would take off pressure, let people think about what is being done to them.
The killing, itself, had been excused. Offred had heard the two Marthas in her house discuss it. The boys were only keeping them safe. This invites us to ask how safe you can be kept by people who are so ready to kill you on such an easily avoided mistake.
And, there is that little bit of control that this society cannot exert. Everything about the Handmaids, from their dress to their very existence, is about controlling sexuality. Everything about the young men of the Guardians is the same. They sleep in barracks, without privacy, not being allowed to see women nearly at all. One of the two blushes when he sees Offred's face.
In an exertion of power, perhaps the only power she's allowed at this point because she can't be disallowed it, Offred sways her hips a little. It's an expression of sexuality, or more to the point, a teasing of the two young men. It's small, but it's a limit to the amount of control that can be put to her.
Finally, I'll play a game of re-engineering The Republic of Gilead, something I said I'd do earlier. At this point, it's hard to say what sect or denomination of Christianity the Republic of Gilead is. The dress of the Handmaids mimics Catholicism to some degree, but I don't think that would fit with the state of Christianity in America in the 1980s.
This was written when the open merger of the Republican Party and the Religious Right was still new. That would suggest that the religion is Evangelical Christianity. But, that would mean that the sect that came to power would, in fact, be Baptist. If the events that eventually became the Republic of Gilead had started not then, but now, the faction would claim to be the only true Baptists.
We start with a look at Nick. Nick is a Guardian, and one with a cigarette indicating both something to trade and the connections to do so on the black market. He's old enough and ranked enough that he could have been issued a woman, as wife primarily and, potentially, servants in the forms of Marthas and Handmaids. But, for some reason, he hasn't. Either he doesn't rate due to a defect or he just doesn't have the right connections in the system to make that work.
The yet-still-name-unspecified Offred stares at him longingly and he winks back, which would suggest that he mistook her gaze for sexual/romantic attraction. What he actually wanted was his cigarette. Of course, she won't correct him or anything else. He could be testing her. He could be an Eye (one of the secret police seeking out potential sedition).
Eye or not, Nick, is the Guardian who wears his cap at a jaunty angle, his sleeves rolled up to show forearms. Nick is the Guardian who smokes a cigarette while in uniform. He seems to have a motivation to be viewed, if only by himself, as roguish and/or sexy. So, when the gaze of a woman is on him, he has motivation to view that as being on him rather than being on something else that might be desired.
Incidentally, this very attitude may be why he wasn't assigned a woman. The officials who would make that decision could take lax uniform standards to be an indication that he doesn't take things seriously enough to merit a wife. That would be poor reasoning indeed, but that would fit both themes.
Next, we have a section with the Handmaid Ofglen. They exchange the required pleasantries and exchange small-talk in required recitation of lines.
"The war is going well, I hear," she says.
"Praise be," I reply.
"We've been sent good weather."
"Which I receive with joy."
These are banalities, but they're banalities that have explicit performance to them. The purpose isn't to communicate, which would suggest a connection of some sort. The purpose is to perform the appropriate ideology and culture.
Amidst the banalaties, there's talk of Baptists being smoked out of a stronghold in the Blue Hills. Our narrator explicitly states that this could be false news, either a lie by Ofglen or a lie believed and repeated by her. The control of news and information.
But, it also represents a point of control of information to the reader. Were I reading this blind, it would be all too easy for me to believe, at this point that, the controling element of this society (which hasn't even been named yet), isn't Christian.
We've seen generic references to things like scripture, which doesn't necessarily mean anything. We've seen religions banalities such as those in the quote above. We've seen a reference to Serena Joy being on a Christian program once upon a time, but nothing to state her greater role. Now, we've seen reference to Baptists. To someone who is motivated to see Christianity as a source for good, it's easy to think that there's some other religion, some other cult that aped some of Christianity's trappings for nefarious end. (And, considering the frequency of the No True Christian defense against atrocities committed by Christian regimes for expressly Christian motivations, one could still come to that conclusion.)
This is what brings me to the theme of motivated mistakes. Atwood has left room for this mistake, one that would be made purely out of motivation and not out of indications otherwise. She hasn't sneakily left things that might indicate one thing but will, upon new context, mean something incredibly different. She just hasn't, yet, explicitly stated that the theocratic nation that took over is a Christian theocracy.
And, finally, we have the case of the two Guardians, both very young manning a check-point. The very fact of the checkpoint is an element of control. Like the Handmaid's garb, it controls them. It also controls the Guardians, two young men who will sleep in barracks and hope and long for a future in which they merit being assigned a wife... and maybe being assigned a handmaid if necessary.
Here we note the limits of control. They had killed a Martha previously. She was digging around for her ID and they shot her, thinking she was bringing out a bomb. They were mistaken. They could probably be mistaken to think that there is such an effort to blow them up in the first place, but that would be another motivated mistake. This kind of society demands a war in order to be legitimate. Peace time would take off pressure, let people think about what is being done to them.
The killing, itself, had been excused. Offred had heard the two Marthas in her house discuss it. The boys were only keeping them safe. This invites us to ask how safe you can be kept by people who are so ready to kill you on such an easily avoided mistake.
And, there is that little bit of control that this society cannot exert. Everything about the Handmaids, from their dress to their very existence, is about controlling sexuality. Everything about the young men of the Guardians is the same. They sleep in barracks, without privacy, not being allowed to see women nearly at all. One of the two blushes when he sees Offred's face.
In an exertion of power, perhaps the only power she's allowed at this point because she can't be disallowed it, Offred sways her hips a little. It's an expression of sexuality, or more to the point, a teasing of the two young men. It's small, but it's a limit to the amount of control that can be put to her.
Finally, I'll play a game of re-engineering The Republic of Gilead, something I said I'd do earlier. At this point, it's hard to say what sect or denomination of Christianity the Republic of Gilead is. The dress of the Handmaids mimics Catholicism to some degree, but I don't think that would fit with the state of Christianity in America in the 1980s.
This was written when the open merger of the Republican Party and the Religious Right was still new. That would suggest that the religion is Evangelical Christianity. But, that would mean that the sect that came to power would, in fact, be Baptist. If the events that eventually became the Republic of Gilead had started not then, but now, the faction would claim to be the only true Baptists.
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Date: 2018-01-22 12:30 am (UTC)Welcome to BLM
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Date: 2018-01-23 03:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-30 03:33 am (UTC)The nearest likely explanation is that that's the only bit of power she can exert, even if there is said risk. The psychological pressure has to release, somehow.