A topic that came up in class while discussing Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale was which character has the better life: Moira or Offred? I could like to compare their lives and give my own input as to who has the better life. Let’s start with Moira. Throughout the novel we see her as being very rebellious against society and its new beliefs. She escapes the Center and is later caught. At Jezebel’s she seems content, even though she has to be a prostitute for men, which must be hard for her. You can see the difference in her character because before this she was a very strong woman and now she is broken and has given in a little to society and accepted what her life is. She says there are drugs, drinks, face crème, and that she receives better treatment —but is that really better? Eventually she will be sent to the Colonies, which some might say is worse than death. While Offred has to go through the Ceremony and her freedom is restricted, she at least has a chance, something that Moira doesn’t have. If she can produce a child then she will be looked at more highly. She also has Nick. With him she knows that he is someone that she can go to and talk to. Finally, she has hope, as we see throughout the novel. She learns that her daughter is still alive and believes that Luke is still alive, out there somewhere. Personally I believe that Moira has it worst because she doesn’t have as much time as Offred has. She doesn’t have the companionship that Offred has with Nick. Even though Moira seems content I think she has lost hope and is living out the rest of the little time that she probably has left.
My favorite quote is at the end of the novel when the van comes to get Offred:
“Whether this is my end or a new beginning I have no way of knowing: I have given myself over into the hands of strangers, because it can’t be helped. And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light” (Atwood 295).
This quote leaves it up to the reader to determine whether or not Offred escaped or if she perished. In this quote Offred, too, seems unsure of her future, yet she almost seems content with whatever happens to her. I think that she’s done with this society and that survival doesn’t really matter to her anymore. I like this quote because there is still hope in her voice. There’s a possibility of a “new beginning” and she says that she stepped “into the darkness…or else the light.” The book ends on a positive note with “light” and shows that there is still hope left. She seems to be saying that things could get better, or maybe they won’t. She’s putting her life in fate’s hands and seems content with whatever happens. I believe that she escaped through the help of Nick (What can I say? I loved happy endings… :). The Historical Notes also said that perhaps Nick helped her escape and that he was probably part of the Mayday underground.
Despite the uncomfortable and disturbing sex scenes…the book was pretty good. I liked how we could see this society through the eyes of Offred because the reader got her perspective of what was going on. Through Offred we saw flashbacks which I really liked. You could see how new the society was because the characters could still remember what life was like before this. I thought that was quite interesting because the society seemed well-established, yet it was a recent development in history. These flashbacks also show the reader how people such as feminists fought for and against certain things and the society that they wanted turned out completely different. They burned pornography and ended up with a society that went to the extreme of making sex only for producing children. I liked how the author used flashbacks because it established a contrast.
Something else that I liked was the Scrabble game. It gave Offred freedom and the power to express herself. The words that she chose, such as larynx and limp, showed how she felt—speechless and powerless.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
We
Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We was…well not my favorite book, but I’ll get to that later.
In class we talked about I-330 and her relationship with D-503 and talked about whether or not we think she really loved him and etc. Personally I think she used him and brainwashed him just as OneState did to everyone else. I think she is just as bad as OneState because she used him to get the Integral, which, didn’t work out in the end. She used her sexuality to get to him and manipulate him to do what she wanted him to do. I found her character to be quite annoying because she was toying with D-503 the entire time. She pulled him away from O (not that she was much better) and continued to use him throughout the book. To her, he was just another part in her plan.
One of the scenes that stuck out to me the most was when D-503 “died” in Record 17. We know that he did not die, but through this scene one may notice that this is somewhat symbolic of rebirth. He fell through darkness, a door opened, and then there was light. Light, as we have learned, often is symbolic of rebirth. He says that as he walked through a corridor the lights became brighter. This builds up suspension for both the character and the reader. The brightening of the lights is also like he’s coming closer and closer to the truth. Before this he had found out that he had a soul, but he didn’t quite understand what it meant. What I’m trying to say, through my gibberish, is that I think the brightening of the lights means something symbolically. Hopefully you understand what I’m trying to get at…if not, I’ll try to clarify it a little bit more. Anyway, after this passage we see a change in D-503 as he does riskier things, things that he would not have done previously, which goes along with him having a rebirth.
One of the quotes that I liked the best can be found on page 56:
“I became glass. I saw into myself, inside. There were two me’s. One me was the old one, D-503, Number D-503, and the other…The other used to just stick his hairy paws out of his shell, but now all of him came out, and the shell burst open, and the pieces were just about to fly in all directions…”
I love this quote because he begins to see that he is not just a number and is, in fact, an individual. The new D-503 takes risks and does what he wants rather than what OneState wants him to do. He’s breaking free from the chains that held him down before. He mentions his “hairy paws.” Before this quote he used to despise his “paws” because he could not control them, and it was as if they were controlling him. Now he has control over his actions and his thoughts. D-503 sees that he is a person and is somebody different from the Number he used to be. This quote shows us the growth of D and what he has become over time. I like Zamyatin’s description of the new self because I can just picture it in my mind.
I didn’t hate the book, but I didn’t love it either. I found certain parts to be confusing and sometimes found myself a little lost. Some of it was a little dry to me and I found myself constantly getting up for a snack because I was so bored with the book. I think it was the fact that it had the same kind of plot as the previous books that we have read. Despite the fact that I did not like this book overall, there were some elements that I did like.
Something that I did like in the book was the unfinished sentences because as the book went on you could see how D-503 became more frantic in his writings. In the beginning the unfinished sentences were because the Table of Hours ran out, but later on it became clear that he was confused as to what was happening to him. He didn’t understand his feelings for I-330 as well as what was going on in OneState. He was torn between what he believed was right and what OneState believed was right. In his writings he would stop writing, which showed his confusion. As stated earlier, his writings became more frantic. I loved how the author used sentence structure in this book because you could see what the character was going through.
While math is not my best subject, however, I did like how it was used. In OneState’s society math was used to compute everything, except there were a few things which could not be figured out through math. Clouds and fog bothered D-503 because that was something that was not mathematical. The most important thing, however, was I-330 which he described as the square root of negative one because it is irrational. I liked how this was used and was very creative on the author’s part.
In class we talked about I-330 and her relationship with D-503 and talked about whether or not we think she really loved him and etc. Personally I think she used him and brainwashed him just as OneState did to everyone else. I think she is just as bad as OneState because she used him to get the Integral, which, didn’t work out in the end. She used her sexuality to get to him and manipulate him to do what she wanted him to do. I found her character to be quite annoying because she was toying with D-503 the entire time. She pulled him away from O (not that she was much better) and continued to use him throughout the book. To her, he was just another part in her plan.
One of the scenes that stuck out to me the most was when D-503 “died” in Record 17. We know that he did not die, but through this scene one may notice that this is somewhat symbolic of rebirth. He fell through darkness, a door opened, and then there was light. Light, as we have learned, often is symbolic of rebirth. He says that as he walked through a corridor the lights became brighter. This builds up suspension for both the character and the reader. The brightening of the lights is also like he’s coming closer and closer to the truth. Before this he had found out that he had a soul, but he didn’t quite understand what it meant. What I’m trying to say, through my gibberish, is that I think the brightening of the lights means something symbolically. Hopefully you understand what I’m trying to get at…if not, I’ll try to clarify it a little bit more. Anyway, after this passage we see a change in D-503 as he does riskier things, things that he would not have done previously, which goes along with him having a rebirth.
One of the quotes that I liked the best can be found on page 56:
“I became glass. I saw into myself, inside. There were two me’s. One me was the old one, D-503, Number D-503, and the other…The other used to just stick his hairy paws out of his shell, but now all of him came out, and the shell burst open, and the pieces were just about to fly in all directions…”
I love this quote because he begins to see that he is not just a number and is, in fact, an individual. The new D-503 takes risks and does what he wants rather than what OneState wants him to do. He’s breaking free from the chains that held him down before. He mentions his “hairy paws.” Before this quote he used to despise his “paws” because he could not control them, and it was as if they were controlling him. Now he has control over his actions and his thoughts. D-503 sees that he is a person and is somebody different from the Number he used to be. This quote shows us the growth of D and what he has become over time. I like Zamyatin’s description of the new self because I can just picture it in my mind.
I didn’t hate the book, but I didn’t love it either. I found certain parts to be confusing and sometimes found myself a little lost. Some of it was a little dry to me and I found myself constantly getting up for a snack because I was so bored with the book. I think it was the fact that it had the same kind of plot as the previous books that we have read. Despite the fact that I did not like this book overall, there were some elements that I did like.
Something that I did like in the book was the unfinished sentences because as the book went on you could see how D-503 became more frantic in his writings. In the beginning the unfinished sentences were because the Table of Hours ran out, but later on it became clear that he was confused as to what was happening to him. He didn’t understand his feelings for I-330 as well as what was going on in OneState. He was torn between what he believed was right and what OneState believed was right. In his writings he would stop writing, which showed his confusion. As stated earlier, his writings became more frantic. I loved how the author used sentence structure in this book because you could see what the character was going through.
While math is not my best subject, however, I did like how it was used. In OneState’s society math was used to compute everything, except there were a few things which could not be figured out through math. Clouds and fog bothered D-503 because that was something that was not mathematical. The most important thing, however, was I-330 which he described as the square root of negative one because it is irrational. I liked how this was used and was very creative on the author’s part.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Anthem
While I normally do not like science fiction novels I did find myself enjoying Ayn Rand’s Anthem. I liked the idea of the character overcoming the standards of society and becoming an individual. From the beginning Equality 7-2521 knew he was different. He was tall, smarter than most, and lashed at more often then the other people of his society because he was different. He had questions that needed answers and because it was a crime to ask them he choose to answer them himself. It was in the spring that he discovered the tunnel which would become his hiding place where he would learn more than he could ever imagine. Did I mention it was in the spring? As we learned in Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, spring is often used to represent rebirth. Spring is the season in which Equality 7-2521 begins to break away from society and the prison that he had occupied for far too long. Throughout the book we see the slow transition of someone who was just another “thing” turn into an individual with thoughts of their own.
I was wondering why the author named the book Anthem and I began to think more about the word. An anthem is usually a song about patriotism and freedom. The National Anthem for the United States talks about it being the “land of the free.” Perhaps it was titled Anthem because Equality 7-2521 became free at the end and entered the “land of the free” a.k.a. the Unchartered Forest. Just a thought.
I would also like to talk about some comparisons between Ayn Rand’s Anthem and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. In both of these futuristic novels there were unmentionable times that people could not remember or chose to never speak about. In Bradbury’s novel firefighters used to put out fires rather than start them. People used to read books, magazines, and other works of literature before it became a crime. In Rand’s novel it was a crime to ask questions about the “unmentionable times” and for someone to go out alone to answer these questions was an even greater crime. In both novels the characters are reprimanded for their crimes, yet they continue their search for what they feel is right. Both novels have characters that rebel and search for what is right. Another comparison is that in the end of both novels there is hope for the future. In Ray Bradbury’s novel Montag and the other “book people” go to the city to look for survivors after the bombing. They hope to reprint the works that they have memorized in their heads and bring back books to the world. In Anthem Equality 7-2521, later renamed Prometheus, and his life partner/lover/wife Gaea restart their life in the Unchartered Forest. They speak about how one day they will rally enough followers and fight “…for the freedom of Man. For his rights. For his life. For his honor” (Rand 104). A final comparison between the two novels, which was mentioned in class, is that society was stripped. In Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 society was stripped of knowledge because the literature was burned. Most spent their time in front of their “family” where they rotten away like Mildred did. Stripping society of knowledge kept ideas such as rebellion out of their minds. In Rand’s Anthem people were stripped of their language. They could not say “I love you” because they didn’t know the word love just like they didn’t know many other words. It was a way of repressing society because their language was so simple that they could not verbally rebel.
There were many good quotes that I could have picked. Pages ninety-five through ninety-seven have many quotes about individualism and freedom:
“I do not surrender my treasures, nor do I share them. The fortune of my spirit is not to be blown into coins of brass and flung to the winds as alms for the poor of the spirit. I guard my treasures: my thought, my will, my freedom. And the greatest of these is freedom” (Rand 95).
I chose this quote because it speaks of how freedom is worth more than money can buy. It should not be thrown away because it is something so precious and it should, as Rand puts it, be heavily guarded. In many countries freedom is limited, so those who have it should be very grateful. I read a brief biography on Ayn Rand on her website www.aynrand.org. Born in Russia she witnessed two revolutions (Kerensky and Bolshevik) and lived in a country where communism ruled the nation. In communist nations there is a lack of individual rights, so the word freedom is almost nonexistent. Knowing the author’s background can bring a better understanding to the novel and of course the quotes found in it. In this quote we can assume that Ayn Rand treasured her freedom when she moved to America because it was something that she didn’t have in the Soviet Union. Freedom is something that I truly value because without it happiness would not be possible.
Overall I liked Anthem, however I must admit that I had expected a different ending. I thought that Equality 7-2521 would go into the forest and find others like himself, similar to what had happened in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. I liked how, at the end of the book, Equality 7-2521 found out what the sacred word was: EGO. According to dictionary.com ego is “The ‘I’ or self of any person; a person as thinking, feeling, and willing, and distinguishing itself from the selves of others and from the objects of its thought.” I believe that the word Ego was the final step in the breaking away from society and its standards. If the title of the book had been Ego then the plot would have been a give-away.
In the beginning I was slightly confused because Equality 7-2521 would say “we” and I wondered if there was a group of people who were exactly alike physically and mentally. Now I know that it was used to show the transition of Equality 7-2521 becoming an individual. There wasn’t much that I didn’t dislike about this book. As previously stated I don’t usually enjoy scifi books, but the idea of breaking away from society and becoming an individual was very interesting.
I was wondering why the author named the book Anthem and I began to think more about the word. An anthem is usually a song about patriotism and freedom. The National Anthem for the United States talks about it being the “land of the free.” Perhaps it was titled Anthem because Equality 7-2521 became free at the end and entered the “land of the free” a.k.a. the Unchartered Forest. Just a thought.
I would also like to talk about some comparisons between Ayn Rand’s Anthem and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. In both of these futuristic novels there were unmentionable times that people could not remember or chose to never speak about. In Bradbury’s novel firefighters used to put out fires rather than start them. People used to read books, magazines, and other works of literature before it became a crime. In Rand’s novel it was a crime to ask questions about the “unmentionable times” and for someone to go out alone to answer these questions was an even greater crime. In both novels the characters are reprimanded for their crimes, yet they continue their search for what they feel is right. Both novels have characters that rebel and search for what is right. Another comparison is that in the end of both novels there is hope for the future. In Ray Bradbury’s novel Montag and the other “book people” go to the city to look for survivors after the bombing. They hope to reprint the works that they have memorized in their heads and bring back books to the world. In Anthem Equality 7-2521, later renamed Prometheus, and his life partner/lover/wife Gaea restart their life in the Unchartered Forest. They speak about how one day they will rally enough followers and fight “…for the freedom of Man. For his rights. For his life. For his honor” (Rand 104). A final comparison between the two novels, which was mentioned in class, is that society was stripped. In Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 society was stripped of knowledge because the literature was burned. Most spent their time in front of their “family” where they rotten away like Mildred did. Stripping society of knowledge kept ideas such as rebellion out of their minds. In Rand’s Anthem people were stripped of their language. They could not say “I love you” because they didn’t know the word love just like they didn’t know many other words. It was a way of repressing society because their language was so simple that they could not verbally rebel.
There were many good quotes that I could have picked. Pages ninety-five through ninety-seven have many quotes about individualism and freedom:
“I do not surrender my treasures, nor do I share them. The fortune of my spirit is not to be blown into coins of brass and flung to the winds as alms for the poor of the spirit. I guard my treasures: my thought, my will, my freedom. And the greatest of these is freedom” (Rand 95).
I chose this quote because it speaks of how freedom is worth more than money can buy. It should not be thrown away because it is something so precious and it should, as Rand puts it, be heavily guarded. In many countries freedom is limited, so those who have it should be very grateful. I read a brief biography on Ayn Rand on her website www.aynrand.org. Born in Russia she witnessed two revolutions (Kerensky and Bolshevik) and lived in a country where communism ruled the nation. In communist nations there is a lack of individual rights, so the word freedom is almost nonexistent. Knowing the author’s background can bring a better understanding to the novel and of course the quotes found in it. In this quote we can assume that Ayn Rand treasured her freedom when she moved to America because it was something that she didn’t have in the Soviet Union. Freedom is something that I truly value because without it happiness would not be possible.
Overall I liked Anthem, however I must admit that I had expected a different ending. I thought that Equality 7-2521 would go into the forest and find others like himself, similar to what had happened in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. I liked how, at the end of the book, Equality 7-2521 found out what the sacred word was: EGO. According to dictionary.com ego is “The ‘I’ or self of any person; a person as thinking, feeling, and willing, and distinguishing itself from the selves of others and from the objects of its thought.” I believe that the word Ego was the final step in the breaking away from society and its standards. If the title of the book had been Ego then the plot would have been a give-away.
In the beginning I was slightly confused because Equality 7-2521 would say “we” and I wondered if there was a group of people who were exactly alike physically and mentally. Now I know that it was used to show the transition of Equality 7-2521 becoming an individual. There wasn’t much that I didn’t dislike about this book. As previously stated I don’t usually enjoy scifi books, but the idea of breaking away from society and becoming an individual was very interesting.
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