The Irony

All throughout this entire book I have read chapter after chapter in which women are being deprived of their birth rights, or any rights for that matter. The whole purpose of the state of Gilead is to deprive women of their rights and create a world in which men hold all of the power. In chapter 42 we see the act of salvaging which is in fact not that at all. The Salvaging takes place in what used to be a part of Harvard. There three women, 2 handmaids and 1 wife are hung in front of a giant group of women. Next a Guardian is brought forth for the act of Particicution. The man is accused of having raped a woman and cause a miscarriage, although who knows what he really did. It is important to question what those in charge say because they are members of Gilead and they will do anything to get their masses under control. What happens next is a brutal beating to the Guardian handed down by the women who decided to stay after the Salvaging.

The salvaging and particution work to show that anyone who resists or rebels against the standards and expectations of Gilead will be punished. Those in power want people to realize that they can do nothing to escape their grasp. The old way of thinking must be tossed aside, and one must incorporate themselves into their new daily lives. In the case of the Handmaids, the hangings work to reinforce their helplessness to the totalitarian regime. It can also be said that Atwood means to show the ways that those in charge separate women into two types, which is something that even we in real life have come to see. In the book one can become a nuisance, but get hung; in real life women can have sex, but get called a whore. I might be looking in too deep, but I feel as though this is something Atwood could be addressing if one were to look deeper into the lines.