Blog post 4/24 handmaids

In Handmaid’s Tale why does Offred value love so much? A quote from Offred states “ a person don’t die from a lack of sex but a lack of love.” Did her lust for something missing finally force her to possess a desire for nick? How come when the commander started to display kindness and affection, Offered became more discourage and confused? Judging from Offred’s desire for nick, leads to the question does Offred value her pass marriage with Luke? The narrator always mentions how she has missed her daughter and the company Luke but she don’t mention any great desire to find them. The family of Offred maybe dead as a speculation, but there is a chance they are still alive, if a friend like Moria could have survived , the possibility of Luke and her daughter might be still alive. What will happened if a scenario in which her family did find her? Will she still stay with nick or go back to her family? In addition will her family still accept her after what she have done?

blog post 4/21 handmaid

A commander should be a figure head in the Gilead. Why would they do such illegal acts, like trading in the black market, obtaining illegal items like women’s magazines, and sneaking people out to party with them? What would happen if lower members of the society find out what they are doing? Would the society destabilize? Commanders should be towering figure heads and role models that display their actions with their rules. Why would commanders even bother imposing these rules if they themselves don’t follow them? Do the commanders just like to abuse their power and keep the misery of people high? One example is that even the other males in the Gilead don’t have much power or happiness. These men are called guardians, they don’t have the right to reproduce or have a choice to form partnerships. Do the commanders do illegal actions to establish or remember a pre-Gilead dream? Like for example, the commander that controls Offred has an obsession with playing scrabble, and every time that the narrator plays with him, the commander always seemed to take pleasure just playing a game.

Blog post 4/13 Handmaid's Tale

In Handmaid’s Tale the community in which the main character lives in seems to be communistic. The society takes place in what seems like a futuristic scenario of America after an effect of conflicts. From the narrator known as Offred, the society seems to be suffering from the degradation in what has been a democratic society, where women had rights and power. The society seems to be ruled by government power, and that people don’t have room for individuality. Soldiers known as guardians watch every move in the community, in addition the government also has a separate division known as “the eye” which is designed to pick up and dispose citizens that are not following the guide lines. Also as a handmaid, the narrator was passed along like property among the commanders. During a brief walk in the community a scene that portraits a communistic society was displayed, the narrator show us that even food are rationed and that people needs tickets to get their grocery. Offred also made a comment “not even the commanders have meat everyday” which shows that the community has yet to recover from its devastation.

Blog Post 4/1

The concept of gender relationship in “When it change” is completely different from Le Guins “Left Hand of Darkness”. In “when it change”, the society display a separation in gender, while in “Left Hand of Darkness”, the society accepts the kemmering cycle in which both forms of gender are accepted and treated as a natural process. However the world in “when it change” is a society compose of female domination and that the males are treated as unwelcome aliens. Even with all of the differences both society have things in common, the futuristic time span display how each society have advance and adapted in their own way. In addition the ideas of space travel and that one group of individuals displaying technological dominance are shown in both writings. Another noticeable difference is that the females of “when it change” seem more aggressive and they focus that aggression on their male counter parts. An example is when the female Kathy took a stand against the males proposals and attempted to shoot them down.

Blog post 3/25

In the book “left hand of darkness” I don’t really understand why Ursula Le Guin says her book was not a feminist book. “Left hand of darkness” has many aspects in which gender was a major point of discussion. Since from the beginning of the book most of the time the readers are understanding the book by the view of the narrator, Genly Ai . As Genly progresses in the book, some of his thoughts were focus on the relationship between gender and the gethenians way of kemmering. In addition Le Guin keep using the male pronoun “he” for the gethenians. Is she trying to display to the readers how females are underrepresented during her generation? Also the invention of the Kemmering cycle could be a feminist generated idea, since females maybe underrepresented during Le Guin’s time, the idea of being able to change gender maybe tempting to some females. In the book “left hand of darkness”, another feminist display was when the king of Ehrenreng got pregnant, Le Guin maybe showing the reader that even a person in a female state could say in high command such as a “king”.

blog post 3/18

On p.245, the mentioning and the use of the female identification term “her” was used by Gently. Did the cold weather and mental fatigue finally cause the narrator to lose his mind? Or was the term “her “purposely given to the sledge due to the reason that it has help add relief on his journey through the icy terrain? In addition is it possible “her” was a reference to Gently’s traveling partner, Estraven? Since Estraven was in kemmer at the time and had taken up the female Getheriean form. Also was Gently practicing an old tradition of naming items people may love or treasure? In today’s world many people give names to their boats and airplanes due to the reason they enjoy them. Could another reason for Gently’s mentioning of “her” be a desire to be with a women? Since Mr. Ai has yet to meet a woman from his world for many years, he might be suffering from loneness and that the out burst of “her” may have been a long hidden desire.

Blog Post 3/9

Is it possible that the Gethenians were once related to the Terrens? Both species have a similar concept of government, the government of a monarchy. The Terrens once had monarchy as one form of ruling governing body and the Gethenian are running on a current monarchy type of government. In addition weaponry was also similar; there was a past reference in the early chapters of “The Left Hand of Darkness”, where the mentioning of ballistic type guns in the Gethenian society once existed. The close similarity of transportation were also present, both societies have boats and cars at their disposal. Another similarity was the set value on gems, like rubies. On a psychological note both Gethenian and Terren seems to value shiny and hard to find objects. Even the plant that the Gethenian live on is very similar to the plant Earth in which the Terrens are from. A few people in today’s world know that Earth is considered an ice world, and that the current warm climate today is possible due to the warm phase between ice ages that last can thousands to millions of years. Another known similarity includes the drink that some Terren’s favor very much, this drink is beer, in the book Gently came across a few events in which the liquid was consumed.

Blog post 3/2

In the book “Left Hand of Darkness” the narrator lacks a major purpose in trying to ask the Gethenians to join the alliance of planets. The Gethenians don’t seem to have anything beneficial to offer to the Terren. The planet “Winter” is in the heart of an ice age. Which means the planet would not have the potential of being an agricultural world. In addition the Gethenians are separated within their own society, not all of them will follow the rule of king Argaven. The narrator even got first hand evidence on how this society maybe unstable, when Prime Minster Estraven expressed his opinion on how the king was unfit to rule. In return the kings label the prime minister as a traitor. This internal conflict within the governing body shows that the Gethenians are not in a well developed society. The Gethenian also live in the world of the old. They seem to lack progress motive. Their society runs on an old style of government which revolves around a king. Also another example of their old way of thinking is the electric car evidence. The Gethenians let their cars stay on the speed of 25 mph and don’t want to change their way of running things even after seventeen centuries of using the same method of transportation.