Sanity I (4)

There is something I came across in the first reading of The Handmaid’s Tale that has been on my mind ever sense. From our reading so far we get the idea that Offred is a very optimistic women that has to use her mind to keep her sane. If she gives herself over to the new society there is no going back, and if she goes against the new society then she fears what might happen. To keep herself intact with both lives, she often recalls things about her loved ones and details about what she thinks happened to them. There is an entire section in eighteen about what she thinks happened to her lover Luke. She assumes the best and the worst all at once. She even says on page 116,

“The things I believe can’t all be true, though one of them must be. But I believe in all of them, all three versions of Luke, at one and the same time. This contradictory way of believing seems to me right now, the only way I can believe anything. Whatever the truth is, I will be ready for it.”

But alone her mind cannot keep her sane. I have found that through out her daily journey she receives words of optimism. I first noticed this when she was in her room.

“I go to the window and sit on the window seat, which is too narrow for comfort. There’s a hard little cushion on it, with a petit-point cover: FAITH, in square print, surrounded by a wreath of lilies.”

I found it strange that in a society that forbids reading, they leave a word like FAITH for women to read. As if it is a gift from God saying to have faith in Him and all will be all right.

The next place that I noticed a word like this come up in the story was on page 116. This is just after she has come up with all of the scenarios about Luke and she says, “One of the gravestones in the cemetery near the earliest church has an anchor on it and an hourglass, and the words: In Hope.”

This might be a bit of a long shot, but I feel like these words that are left for her viewing subconsciously lift Offred’s spirits and keep her optimism strong.