Assignment #2 TEAR Essay

       Margaret Atwood creates a despairing tone in her fictional novel The Handmaid's Tale to convey the demise that Offred goes through in a dystopian future of the United States. Everyone has duty they must obliged to in order to survive, yet Offred often finds herself questioning that.

       Offred is living in a world where woman are no longer considered equal to men, instead they are being subjugated. She begins to question how and why did that happened. "We yearned for the future. How did we learn it , that talent for insatiability."(1) Offred is hinting the way people are - selfish and their lack of satisfaction and control. Humans have become so careless to see their own flaws and instead they created more because now they cannot speak up or disobey, if they do they will pay the price. The more Offred wonders about everything she thought she knew, the more suspicious and complicated her life gets. When she found out about the previous Handmaid's departure in the household she yearned for answers. A Martha told her "What you don't know, wont hurt you." (53) The Martha is trying to warn Offred to stop digging and do her duty- have the Commander's children. When the ceremony starts, where The Commander will have sex with Offred with his Wife present, Offred starts to think what her duty really means. "This is not recreation, even for the Commander this serious business. The commander, too, is doing his duty." (91) In fact the whole purpose of this new society is to create a bigger population and brainwash them into thinking their way of life is the only way. Understanding that she's only mean to have children for other is something that Offred chose and yet she feels like it might of not been the right one due to her being use only for sex and errands.

    Many people underestimate the power that our curiosity brings especially when the world isn't what is used to be. Offred is paying the same price as others, to always obliged because if you don't you will die. Curiosity can get you killed specially is you are playing with fire, in this case the whole government.