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Creating your own set of mind

A society is created once rules are in place, as well as laws and restrictions meaning that inventing a humanity and a set of mind for a society is relatively easy once one is put in power. In chapter 24, Offred learns that she needs to forget the past and separate the past from reality, such as forgetting her old name and her old life. She needs to live in the present and not the past as well as follow new rules of the society to not be punished for her actions. This lead to the questioning of how easy is it really to create a humanity.

I find it very interesting how by her living in the present instead of the past she can gain some kind of power in her household. The commander’s behavior allows Offred to gain something from him. She then comes to explain that by agreeing to meet with him it is considered not okay, a rule of the society. She then states that this meeting “could be important, it could be a passport, it could be my downfall” (180) because she knows it's not okay to have this secret conference but by living in the present and going to the meeting she will learn to manipulate him for her own good as Aunt Lydia explained to her. Could she be creating her own set of minds and could others be using the same set of mind as her. To add, Offred also comes to explain a story that she saw in a documentary as a child. The memory of the Nazi’s mistresses brings her to the speculation of woman choices. She then comes to the understanding that maybe women ignore the truth similarly to this woman, maybe they bring themselves to believe lies. In the end, this woman decides to commit suicide because the truth would ruin a woman's beauty and health. This woman is held responsible in some way for her own death because of her own decision of marrying a monster, but in Offred social structure she cannot be held responsible for something she did not have the freedom of choosing. After Offred analyzation, she cannot contain her emotions from an emotionally difficult situation, she tries to contain her emotions but her method fails her and she laughs unconditionally. In fact, as we get to know Offred we see that she is very good at hiding emotions and controlling them but could this laughter could be a progression towards her own set of mind, to gain some sort of power. Offred comes to the realization that this Nazi’s woman husband may not have been a monster to her but that doesn't change the fact that he is a monster, in fact, this woman stated in an interview that “He was not a monster. People say he was a monster, but he was not one” (182). She compares this situation to her spending the evening with the commander, the commander may not seem like a bad person to her, he's thoughtful and friendly but that doesn't change the fact that he is using her, he is part of the group who exploit women. Offred goes over this and then comes to the realization that when you know someone on a personal level it is much easier to invent a humanity from them, meaning following their rules and doing as they want, as well as protecting them. This can lead to having the same set of mind.  Everybody wants to believe that everyone they know is good but in some case, it isn't the reality and you need to resist temptation as Offred will attempt to do with the commander.

Atwood comes to show in her novel that creating a humanity is very easy once you are very close to somebody, the fact that you want to believe that everyone has some good in them, can bring to a new set of mind such as following their new rules, or their new  beliefs, as well as flipping your world upside down for them and living in a lack of reality.



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