The Handmaid's Tale

When Offred and Oglen are discussing “the grapevine” she talks about a connection path of information between handmaids where they pass information among each other. The password they use to decipher who is a part of the grapevine is “Mayday.” This is a very specific word to use, and Atwood must have wanted there to be a meaning behind it. By definition, mayday is the international radiotelephone distress signal, used by ships and aircraft. Atwood may have chosen to use this word because mayday means “come help me.” The grapevine the handmaids created is a source of information to try and keep them connected to the society. They use this password to tell whether or not their partnered handmaid is in on it, or possibly an eye who could report them. Mayday is a plea for help, and the handmaids use this to see which among them are there to help. Ofglen adds something interesting to this meaning saying, “Don’t use it unless you have to” (202). This adds to Atwood’s opinion on how woman view each other. You don’t want to ask for help from too many handmaids, because they have created a private group, and do not want to help many others. They also know that if someone is caught, they will report on each other in a second to save themselves. Each woman is alone, and they will fend for themselves no matter what. The word “mayday” symbolizes help, but it is ironic that these women are not too willing to help.

My favorite passage of The Handmaid’s Tale and any other book we’ve read is “You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs” (211). Of course, this is what The Commander says to Offred when they begin talking about the society that has been created. He asks her what her opinion is on Gilead, and to protect herself she says she doesn’t have one. However, he can sense her opinion which is why he comes up with this metaphor, as if the murder of all of these people and the horrible lives they are forcing these people to live is mere eggs in the formation of an ommelette. This quote does prove that the officers and higher ranked men in the society do recognize how dysfunctional this society is, and they do know there are problems with it. T The quote is a mean's to show how The Commander downplays the negative activities going on in the society created, and how much he cares about the lives spent to create Gilead. The quote also provides some irony because Gilead is no ommelette.

The Handmaid’s Tale was full of symbolism and social commentary that I truly enjoyed. Atwood has several relevant points and she drives them home very clearly in her story of Offred. However, some of Atwood’s views are displayed a little too radically for me. I do agree that she needed to take such drastic measures and describe the events like the Ceremony between Offred and The Commander. I may be more of a traditional person, but I can’t try to sympathize as well as I should with Offred because I was so uncomfortable with the book. The Birth Ceremony and the constant references to tools removed so the handmaids couldn’t kill themselves were alarming, and took away from my comprehension of the novel. The parts of the novel depicting the salvaging was so foreign to me I had to keep putting the book down. I applaud Atwood’s written masterpiece and I agree with most of her opinions on society, but I had a very hard time reading and analyzing this article because it was so uncomfortable.