The Handmaid's Tale Part 8: What's Mine

I've neglected to comment on one thread in this story. It's small, but it's thematically important. Offred's initial refusal to call the room she's boarded in hers. That's one bit of very small resistance that she can manage, as it's entirely internal. By not calling this room her own, not using the word "mine" in regards to it, she can deny the identity that makes that room her natural place.

But, the fact that it is so small is what makes this bit of resistance so difficult to keep up. It's a thought that you think without consciously choosing to use that word. So, in the previous chapter when she finds that the Commander was in that room, she's aware of the intrusion and aware that she referred to the room, entirely in her own mind, as "mine".

As a result, this chapter is all about "mine".
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