Propert of ______.

”The Handmaid's tale,” written by Margaret Atwood, is a very vivid & exciting, yet unsettling story so far. It takes my mind into the lives of these women. I feel as though I am a nameless face within the crowd, observing this story in person.

Reading through the beginning chapters, I couldn’t help but notice how the women in this story are placed under systems of hierarchy, men being at the top (of course, ha!) reigning as commanders. The women sleep in a room together on cots, and are forced to wear big, unflattering mu-mu like gowns. The colors of the gowns vary. The lowest of the low (handmaids) wore red gowns, the ‘Marthas’ wore green gowns, and the commanders' wives wore blue. I found it interesting that the lowest women on the totem pole wore red. It reminded me of the book “Scarlet Letter.” Just as Hester Prynne was forced to wear a badge of shame, a scarlet letter ‘A’ for committing the act of adultery, these women were deemed unworthy by wearing a whole cloak of scarlet. The scarlet ‘A’ that Prynne wore let everyone know what she had done. People felt as though they were better than her by seeing this mark of sin, just as the Marthas & commanders' wives, without doubt, felt superior to the women in the red cloaks.

Living a humiliating, isolated life is what these women are faced with. The commanders' wives would garden and knit just so they felt like they were needed or important in some way. They wanted a purpose in life, which these women clearly did not have much of.
The narrator, Offred, demonstrates the degree of her loneliness and longing to feel affection on page 11, where she says, “[…] I would help Rita make the bread, sinking my hands into that soft resistant warmth which is so much like flesh. I hunger to tough something, other than cloth or wood. I hunger to commit the act of touch.” How incredible is that?! These couple of sentences really stood out to be because I could almost feel her pain. She was so desperate to engage in physical human contact. I am never taking hugs for granted.
These women are controlled by fear, just as women today are controlled by fear. Women do not report cases of sexual harassment due to FEAR of not being taken seriously, women do not walk down dark alleys due to FEAR or being attacked or raped, or as Valenti mentions in our last reading, the "rape schedule." Just as women today hold back due to fear, the women in this book do the same. On page 18, Offred sees Nick, a guardian, wink at her. Offred could have used this situation to her advantage, yet she does not respond to Nick, fearing he is an 'eye' watching or testing her.
So far in this book we know there is a class system among the women, demonstrating horizontal hostility, and men being at the top in command. Women are isolated beyond all belief, and long to feel a sense of importance. These women are controlled through fear and live as objects for men, not for themselves. Even their names demonstrate the degree to which they are deemed property-- "Offred" aka "Of Fred." Daily, these women are reminded they are not themselves anymore, but property.