Margaret
Atwood implies that Offred, among many others under the authoritarian rule of
the regime, have been brainwashed into viewing death and escape as a dangerous concept.
They are made to adapt to murder and solidarity, and are to view it as an
everyday thing- a normal thing. Atwood views it as repulsive, but she also
refuses to believe in hope. She believes that “faith is only a word,
embroidered”, and nothing more. It is just another concept.
“I consider
these things idly. Each one of them seems the same size as all the other. Not
one seems preferable. Fatigue is here, in my body, in my legs and eyes. That is
what gets you in the end. Faith is only a word, embroidered.
… Behind me
I feel her presence, my ancestress, my double, turning in midair under the
chandelier, in her costume of stars and feathers, a bird stopped in flight, a
woman made into an angel, waiting to be found. By me this time. How could I
have believed I was alone in here? There were always two of us. Get it over,
she says. I’m tired of this melodrama, I’m tired of keeping silent. There’s no
one you can protect, your life has value to no one. I want it finished.”
(Page 292- 293)
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