Blog 3: Handmaid's Tale

Today in class i liked how Ms. Aaland helepd us figure out a strategy in trying to understand and interpret Offred's use of language and just the story and what's happening in general.

it was soooooooo funny how my critical friend Eileen and I kept laughing when we made our own remarks an questions to the material we'd finish reading. and also i've realized that when i read, i use that same strategy but i keep all my comments in my head, lol.

this book is very sexual, i think. when the commander plays scrabble with Offred, it's ironic because women in that society arent allowed to read or write, in other words, to be literate. but Offred's very much literate, she even sounds well-educated like i've mentioned in my other blog entries (her ussage of grammar and fragments as well as her dramatic irony and fragment sentences).

since its si bad to be literate in that society, is the commander attracted to Offred because she is capabale of such knowledge? is he even attracted to her? i think he might just be. he, having such a high ranking, and she, having probably the lowest status, from what i infer, is attracted to offred because she is different. he could have "ratted her out" when she had eye to eye contact with him or even when he discovered how educated she is, but he didn't.

also, another topoic that came up was, love. i feel that sex is considered a good thing in that society but love, is depised. all elaborate more on that on my next blog :] gnight everyone!

Blog:2 The Handmaid's Tale

For the past couple of days, we've been working on our wikis. at first i was very confused on what it was all about, but my groupmates were kind enough to clarify any of the confusion i had with the assignment. we took a closer look at the kind of language Offred uses throughout the chapters and have noticed that she uses a lot of dramatic effects such as fragments and her uses of punctuations to emphasize her point.

also, after reading a couple chapters, getting deeper and deeper into the book, a lot of sexual things happen, or she speaks about a lot of sexual stuff. like with the doctor, i dont recall what page, but i think its on p. 76? i dont have my book, but i'll once i get the chance, i'll update you guys on it. well anyways, Offred i believe was at the doctors and had called her honey, which by the way was against their society's rules. she was very descriptive in telling what happend, i was just a little surprised thats all. well the doctor made a move on her and she was very polite and courtious about it, only because she didnt want to get in trouble from the doctor (a higher ranking than her) when she says she doesnt want him to do anything to her. well i have to start working on my group's wiki presentation for tomorrow, so I'll continue this discussion on the next blog :] kbye!

Blog 1: The Handmaid's Tale

Reading this story over break was really long, but I like it better than The Left Hand of Darkness. at first it was kind of hard to really understand what was going on, but i think that applies to a lot of books. Anyway, for a moment I thought that the society that these women live in was a convent or somewhat similar to a convent, but then i later realize that it's a place where women are prevented from escaping so they could give babies. this was very weird.

In a class discussion i had today with my group, a lot of things were brought up. things like, their apparel, their winged hats. while discussing their apparel, my group and i had come to a conclusion that certain women in this society were not allowed to draw any attention to them. we've analyzed that it's to prevent them from, falling in love? there was a quote, " he looks at me, and sees me looking.....i drop my head and turn so that the white wing hide my face....." (p. 18) i think that eye contact was not allowed which is why the women there were required to wear special winged hats. this custom, is somewhat similar to religions where women are not allowed to wear a specific type of clothing.

another thing we've talked about is, why are the Guards, or the angels keeping the women in? we've discussed that the angels aren't necessarily good, but are guards to keep the women in and not out. but why keep the women in? well, i think its because the women there are very fertile, and the commander and his wife want them to make babies because, i think, im not so sure but, the commander's wife can't have babies.

"When It Changed"

After reading When It Changed, I feel that the author tried addressing to her readers that women are capable of the things men are capable of. For example, us females can very much take care of ourselves. I brought up in class that the song "Independent Women", by Destiny's Child sorta goes with this story lol:]

A question was brought up in discussion today, is this story a feminist story? Although I am a female myself, I'd have to say, yes, I do believe that When It Changed is a feminist story. Russ emphasizes greatly that women CAN survive without men, although we all now that's biologically impossible, through her writing, she showed that even the impossible is possible.

In some ways I agree with Russ in terms of men not being a necessity to take care of ourselves. but i disagree in terms that we can live without them . i mean, i don't wanna live in a society where absolutely NO men exist, and that when the day comes that i come across a man, i'd think he's an alien.

So this week, we finally had finished reading Le Guinn's, Left Hand of Darkness. in the class discussions, we came up with many points, one being Le Guinn's stress in gender. I've discussed with my classmates on how men are addressed as "people" and women objects. For example, if we were to name a boat, we name the boat a girl name, in most cases instinctively, and refer to it as "her" or "she". Even up to this day, although years before the whole situation of being sexist was more drastic, women today are still treated as "objects" by some men.

When we dicussed the book, an interesting topic came up, the relati0nship between Estraven and Genly. I thought, that throughout the whole book, Estraven and Genly were kind of dating. Both, evidently, were very suspicious and unsure of each other, just like how two people dating would feel before they get to know each other. then later on, Estraven protects Genly from suffering, just like a "knight in shining armor", and saves him. they both grow a closer relationship in terms of learning to trust each other (Genly also teaches Estraven to talk through their minds). Estraven dies in the end, and my inference from reading, i believe that Genly would be terribly heartbroken and sad because as soon as he and Estraven became more comfortable, he die :[

Estravn's death seems very ironic to Le Guinn's title, The Left Hand of Darkness. referring again to p. 233, that specific quote, I feel that the whole idea of Yin and Yang parallels with Estraven's death (Yin) and how his death was beneficial to Genly's mission (Yang).

Today in class, I'd have to say Saruul, Amy, and Catriona, had, by far, the most creative class discussion ever. I love love loooooved the whole pairing up and rotating inner/outer circle concept!
Also, I'd like to add that their discussion questions were very open-ended and had came up with many interesting opinions as well.
The question i had was a quote from p.233, about the "left hand of darkness" and its "right hand" which was light. I interpreted this quote as two factors, light and darkness, two of which work hand in hand and need each other for existence. For example, how we do know what light is? In order for us to really know what light is, we have to know what darkness is. And same goes for darkness; we need to know what light is to experience what darkness is. One of my partners, Paula I believe was her name, had mentioned that this particular quote was similar in the concept of the Yin and Yang.
I personally, loved the discussion i received because i was able to recall a poem i once had read in my sophomore year in Ms. Innis' 10th grade english class. I can't recall completely the title of this poem or who wrote it but I do remember that it had the same concept of the quote on p. 233, that one needs the opposite in order to exist. My own example: how would you know if you are healthy or not? You'd have to hav been sick at least once before in order to know your state of health.

The past chapters were extremely long and also was not easy to understand.
In the beginning, King Argaven was very unsure of Estraven and seemed to not trust him at all. later on, it was revealed why King Argaven had thought of Estraven as a traitor, Estraven wanted to share/give land? to its neighboring countries to avoid war, but Argaven was against it and sent him to leave.

In a class discussion this week, I can't recall what chapter, but the question of Estraven being a traitor (or not) came up. I personally don't believe that Estraven is a traitor and I disagree with King Argaven for thinking that he had committed treason. Estraven only wanted peace, and he thought that by sharing/giving territory to their neighboring countries, will help prevent war. But Argaven thought differently. He thought that Estraven was betraying him by wanting to give land and totally missed his whole point of sharing land to prevent war.

Since Estraven was exiled from Gethen, which i just found out was aka Winter -_-, he traveled around, just like Genly (how ironic!), and kept a diary of the place he stayed in. This chapter, the chapter of Estraven's journal entries, confused me a lot. But after having group discussions, it was clarified that it WAS Estraven narrating, and it was him writing in his journal.

Today was an inetersting discussion. The group i was in had discussed the parallelism of the Commensal to communsim and King Argaven and Tibe's control, as monarchy ruling. The Commensals left out information from their citizenz, kind of like the Communsists, in means of "protecting" them.