The End Or a New Beginning

The end of A Handmaid's Tale struck me as very ambiguous as I'm sure it was meant to be. So many questions remained to be answered mainly surrounding Nick, the Eyes and the resistance movement. On one hand, there is the pessimistic ways which strikes me as 1984-esque. Nick could have been a spy all along and the Eyes could be a propaganda/spy agency as they seem to be who wish to either kill or reeducate Offred. This would then mean that either the resistance groups don’t even exist or their impact is negligible when compared to the absolute power of the government of Gilead. On the other hand, Nick could really be part of the resistance, the Eyes either could be infiltrated or actually be working against the government which seems farfetched but still possible and that the resistance is a thriving struggle against the oppressive government. Obviously, I hope for the latter since Gilead can’t possibly be any closer to a utopia than the world that was sacrificed for its creation and so any chink in it’s armor would be an improvement. For now, I’ll be crossing my fingers

Letting Their True Colors Shine

So, near the end of the story, a salvaging is described in detail when Offred and everyone else are forced to go to one. To be honest, most of it was not as surprising as I thought it would be. Naturally, people had to be executed somehow in order to get onto the wall and the salvaging initially seemed like a normal way to accomplish this. However, this all changed when the alleged rapist was executed. I found it shocking that all of the handmaids charged out to tear the prisoner apart with no mercy. Ofglen seemed to be the only sane person besides Offred during the ordeal since she knocked the poor guy out immediately although we find out later that she most likely committed suicide to prevent capture. Anyhow, just the idea of these normally civil and complacent women tearing a person limb from limb show that some things about human nature can’t be erased from the subconscious completely. On a side note, no wonder they wear red.