Impersonal Procreating

The second part of the handmaids tale continues to show the twisted culture that the republic of Gilead is. The begin of the second part is just as interesting as the first but by now we know a lot more about Offred and her feelings toward this new life she is living. We discover in this section that Offred decides to become a handmaid instead of going to the colonies. Offred shares how she has sex with the Commander and how it is very impersonal. Sex is more for procreating and furthering human existence than for pleasure and excitement. She explains how the Serena is present during it and is extremely rude after it was over. Offred explains a lot about the lifestyle and customs in the Republic of Gilead, she talks about how the birth of a child has a tremendous amount of importance, not just for the elite people of Gilead but for the handmaids as well because if the woman had a baby with a deformity, she would be considered a unwomen and she would be exiled as not a real women. Which shows a lot of the stress the handmaids deal with on the basis of expectations of the women to perform and come through. Offred also had an odd experience with the Commander as he invited her to come to his office to see him. Where they played Scrabble which was a side she had never seen from him. The world of Gilead is a weird and peculiar society that has so many unwritten rules and expectations of the women that they do not necessarily have control over.