How It Ends

This is my interpretation of how The Handmaid's Tale ends. Spoilers ahead, you have been warned.

     Nick, of course, was an Eye. Anyone with such a close connection to the Commander and his family would have to of been a spy, feeding information to those mysterious buildings that once housed students and lectures. How much did he know? And how much did he give away to the spies? Those questions are not answered to us.
     Yet, he was also an agent of the Mayday operatives. He helped those in need escape, how else would he know the code word? Sure, the Eyes might be aware of it, but it seems that it would be a word so insignificant that they perhaps would not take notice. The society had only been around several years, things can slip by.
     He recruited the help of the Eyes, claiming he was going to be taking Offred away to wherever those who break the rules go. Inside the house, the two recruits were under the impression that he was lying to her to make her feel more trusting and go with them. At this point, the book had ended.
     This is where my analysis begins.
     During the drive back to the Eye Headquarters, or whatever it is called, he took control of the van, veering off to a safe house and killing his two companions. He dropped Offred off here, then quickly tried to make an escape. He knew he wouldn't get far, treason was punished harshly. Likely, he was stopped and executed at a checkpoint. His sacrifice allowed Offred's story to stay alive though.
     From here, Offred was moved from house to house amongst the Railroad. Through her journey, she tried to get information about Luke and her daughter. Her efforts were fruitless, leaving her with only her memories to keep them alive. At some point, she was stuck for a very long time in the basement of a house. We know she got intimate with her surroundings, learning every detail of what room she resided in. She learned the basement, and eventually found a tape player/recorder and a box of old cassettes. There were quite possibly illegal contraband, hidden away so as to not have been found. Using these, she discussed her story and experience as a Handmaid. She stored the tapes safely away in a footlocker she had also found.
     Even after her story is finished, she is stuck in the basement. Her protectors have not found a viable solution to get her forward to the next house. Quite possibly there was a raid, backing up the flow of the railroad and holding her up. One day, the residence is busted. She and her protectors quickly leave the house, leaving everything behind. The tapes are hidden in the basement, protected from the ensuing fire by the footlocker.
     Offred lives. Her attempts to escape to England fail, but she manages to find a small community of outsiders who try to live outside of the oppressive American regime. They are inside the Canadian border, free from the reign, but still under fear of how their own government might react.
     Moira had been sent to the Colonies. Her time at Jezebels had taken its toll, and she no longer had any use. The aunts sent her away.
     Luke had died early into the events that occurred. He was punished for being in a second marriage, and was weeded out quickly. He was hung upon the Wall within the first year. His location was far away from where Offred had stayed.
     Janine was shot as she exited the scene. The hysteria had finally caught onto her, and the Eyes decided she had failed her job far too many times.
     Ofglen was protected. She was going to be picked up by operatives of the Mayday resistance. Instead she overreacted.
     Offred's child was given away, as many children of that time had been. Serena Joy was eligible for the child initially, but opted for a Handmaid instead. This is the only reason she knew how to get the photograph.



(Word count: 686 words)

Sex and Dystopia (The Handmaid's Tale review)

     So we're reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood in my AP English class right now. We had the choice between 1984, by George Orwell, and Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. When my teacher warned us about very extreme content in the Handmaid's Tale, I kind of chuckled and threw a glance over at Game of Thrones. You want suggestive content? Read that series. So anyways, I teamed up with a couple of my friends and we worked together to read the book. One of us had to pick up some passages and analyze them, another had to analyze characters, and the last one of us had to create some smart-person "AP-style" questions relating to the text. <sarcasm> I always have such a great time ripping myself away from a good book to take notes. It's my favorite! </sarcasm>
     The premise of the book is that birth rates have dropped dramatically due to some sort of chemical imbalance which has destroyed everyone's ability to reproduce; now society has decided to take matters into its own hands, creating a sort of "utopia" where women are appreciated for who they are, crime rates are null, and everything is perfect.  Well, except for the fact that no one is allowed to be an individual, women aren't trusted to have ideas or read, and everything is so cookie-cutter that collapse is inevitable. I mean, this is a dystopian novel for God's sake. Where's your sense of fun?
      Offred is the main character, and she is a Handmaid. Her role is to lie down once a month and get funky with her Commander, who is one of the higher ranking members of this society. Anything pertaining to sex has been practically outlawed; lingerie, bikinis, normal clothing, magazines, pornography, everything. So Offred spends most of her time in a gigantic red robe with a matching red habit. Attractive. We haven't really been given a time frame of what has happened yet, but I am guessing that the events take place about the time it is written (1980s) and Gilead and the "oppressive" government had been established about ten years prior.
     I think the book is pretty good so far. If you are a feminist, then you'd really enjoy this book. Everything in this novel is so relevant to modern society and how it treats its women, and it creates a very intriguing atmosphere throughout the entire novel. I think what's even more funny is that if you don't see the irony of the entire story, it'd probably piss you off. I really want to see someone's reaction that way. It'd make my day.
     The only thing I really dislike about this book, though, is that it has no real climax. Bear in mind, I'm about forty pages from finishing, but I think I'm far enough to at least recognize some hint of a climax. There is no revolution. There is no heroics from her old friend, who had given in to the society. There is no escape from the Commander and barely living in the woods. Maybe that's the point, and we are supposed to see how dreadful this sort of future would be, but I'm going to be unhappy if I don't get some sort of closure.
     Moving on to another topic that I'd like to discuss is the contrasts between Brave New World and Handmaid's Tale. Yeah, being the really lame, bookish kid that I am I decided to read two novels from this unit (luckily I only have to do work for one). In Brave New World, the birth rate is "technically" nothing (all the kids are born from test tubes), and the focus is on a dystopian perfect society. The difference is that in BNW, everyone is actually encouraged to have sex; if you aren't doing it with six partners a week and twice on Fridays then you might find yourself deported to Iceland. In HMT you have sex and you are given to the Colonies, where your average life span drops to about three years. 
     Each author had their own takes on the matter and each one is just as engaging. I'm about halfway through BNW right now, hopefully gonna finish it before I go off to Skills next week.
     So that's all I really have to say on the matter. Pardon my mindless rambling, hopefully I got my point across successfully. I always have such trouble organizing my thoughts, and usually I just word vomit everything.
     May your days be filled with spontaneity, laughter, and a little bit of that rebellious nature.

     Hobey ho,
     Nate~



(Word count: 770 words)

Okay? Okay. (The Fault in Our Stars Review)

     Recently (and by recently I mean like two weeks ago, I just haven't gotten around to writing a blog post yet...) I read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. This book was recommended to me by several friends, and I had seen a lot of posts about it on Tumblr. I even heard something about a movie. So I decided to borrow it from a friend and give it a read.

     As an honest opinion, it was good, but it lacked the "wow" factor the internet had led me to believe it had. Yes, it was sad, and yes, it was a good book, but there was something just... not there.

     I finished the book in about a day. It just so happened that the night I had decided to read it was the same night I decided I wanted to drink an energy drink and not get any sleep. So I got maybe... two hours of sleep that night and managed to almost finish the book. Despite being around 300 pages, the font size was nice and large which allowed me to speed through it. 

     The beginning of the book was extremely rushed, which I think was one of the reasons that I had disliked it. Hazel goes to a support group for her cancer and suddenly she meets this Augustus guy. After an intense staredown with him, they finally talk. Before the first chapter is over, she's headed over to his house to watch V for Vendetta. Basically they are already on their first date.

     This was something I disliked about this book; I enjoy a little background to the book, see the characters and understand their situation. Know their backstories. Etcetera. Green revealed this backstory as a few morsels of dialogue throughout the rest of the book, but still. The beginning of the book dropped us off in a normal situation and then threw us right into the love interest. I just feel it all happened so quickly to be given to us in the first chapter.

     That was really all I disliked. The rest of the novel was pretty good. Green said some great things that are pretty inspirational (I'm on a roller coaster that's only going up), and had a couple of good twists right there at the end. Isaac was a fun and relatable character, and we all ended up with mixed feelings towards van Houten. I did end up feeling pretty sad at the end of the book too (and don't even talk to me about spoilers. It's a book about two star-crossed lovers who have cancer, something sad is bound to happen), although I didn't cry (I've only cried when watching film, so if the movie is any good then I'll be bawling my eyes out).
     I think my favorite part would have to have been the writing style. I just finished Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, which was written in the same style (except you know, more cynical with strong tones about anarchy). I enjoyed reading the thoughts of Hazel, which were sometimes funny, and other times sarcastic. Either way, John Green managed to make it fun to read and keep me interested.

     Time to wrap this up. Liked the book, although it was obviously written for young adult fiction. I can check off another book from the "100 Books You Have to Read in Your Lifetime" list though. Here's to reading.

Hobey ho,

Nate

(Word count: 580 words)