Sexual Identity

She feels The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood without real form or substance- lost her identity? / ominous,hated my everyone like rain Decay/ rearranged -I used to think of my body as an instrument of pleasure, or a means of her own priorities transportation [] now the flesh arranges itself differently. Im a cloud, congealed around a central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and society only more real than I am and glows red within its translucent wrapping (84) Repetition of losing her care for true self in favour of womb, now womb she too feels her self is of No individuality, become secondary part of a group Religious connoations concern?) consciousness We are two legged wombs, thats all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices (146) Container/ ship, steering society to future? Consolidating her

position in societyliterally baby machines/ casual mention, unconscious self The women teeter on their spiked heels as if on stilts, but off balance; degrading their backs arch at the waist, thrusting the buttocks out. Their heads are uncovered and their hair is too exposed, in all its darkness and sexuality 38 overtly sexual isnt a true Uncomfortable? Female Old identity female identity (only to identity is overtly sexual, invited sex, impress men?) Is the new but is this an identity only to the new way true feminisim impress men. Is the new way identity true feminisim makes gender clear instead Oh God, obliterate me. Make me fruitful. Mortify my flesh that I may be multiplied. Let me be fulfilled. (204) Desperation to become pregnant, Only purpose is violent connotations. Obliterate= childbirth- engulfed destroy, mortify= decay/ sacrifice whole identity of body for a child

I avoid looking down at my body, not so much because its shameful or immodest but because I dont want to see it. I dont want to look at something that defines me so completely (73) Comes to feel uncomfortable in Her sexual identity her own body as society as a woman, Patriarchal dystopian commands her to hide it under physically, society is actually now clothers. Irony that she is more Sexual power in defines her whole matriarchal men are just aware now society is finally identity as abused as women? To be a man watched by women. It must transferred to womenhave be entirely strange to them putting him on, trying him on, trying him out, like a sock over a foot. Unpleasant image. Metaphysical Man vs women = conceit? singular vs plural > Dont really think men are powerless about fact that men to women in are in same position number aswell as Handmaids, but they actually had choice- men are even Meaning as well or more trapped? in excess. Double Rhetoric> feels meaning of too ashamed? Can I be blamed for wanting a real body to put my arms around? Without it I am too disembodied

Violent termphysically harmed/ lost all independent thinking > lost her heard

As her body is owned by the state she feels invisible? Wants her self back/ or wants a man so she is less lonely- only feels there with a man?????

Give me children or else I die (71)

I am a national resource echo of God is a national resource (75)

Individual Identity
The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood Wants individuality, to Unreasonable> be more than a body, to hysteria??? I want to be valuedbe ways I am not; I want to be more than in loved valuable. I repeat my former name, remind myself of what I could once do, how others saw me (108) Losing her grip on the Identity is defined by past, forgets about others/ society. How is freedom. Her true this different to the new identity is slipping/ what society? is her true identity now?

Knowledge is all thats left to own

Not allowed/ connotations of light, sparkling= hope? / feels good to have forbidden personal possessions I keep the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure Ill come back to dig up one day. I think of this name as buried. This name hasname is around it, like an amulet Her an aura something to hold on to, keeps her old identity safe? Cant get out, trapped

4 digits and an eye, a passport in reverse. Its supposed to guarantee

that I must never be able to fade, finally, in to another landscape. I am too important, too scarce (75) Does another world exist? Only valued as a physical resource, to repopulate society Possession? Her 2 identities clash and now she has no identity at all? My self is a thing I must now compose, as one composes a speech. What I must present is a made thing, not something born (76) Unnatural> artificial/evil?

Is this self her true being which she has losing or the one society dictates for her

I have failed again to fulfill the expectations of others, which I have become my own(83) Chastises herself like a child An identity she didnt want has become part of her identity/ has she lost her first identity completely

Social Identity
The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood Society dies in a dictatorship as there is no identity?
There is the same absence of people, the same air of being asleep. The

street is like a museum, or a street in a model town (33) emptiness Dictatorship demands that they are respected, but arent actually

Social double standard of treatment they are supposed to show

respect because of the nature of our service vs Little whores, all of them (31, 227) There is a social identity- group hate, jealousy. Even under dictatorship humans cant help it

In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given

freedom from Anarchy= freedom? Whats the difference?

Consumerism, is this fantasy society actually better than ours?

Maybe it isnt about who can sit and who has to kneel or stand or lie down,legs spread (144) Height represents status, Handmaids have different, irony that lying down blurred status to others typically = wealth, like roman slaves: revered and resents times

Religious Identity
The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood A return to traditional values. Waste not want not. I am not being wasted. Why do I want Short sentences, lots of long pauses > sounds like a vicars sermon, religious reverence/ disjointed rhythm sounds hysterical, quoting societys expectations

God is a national resource hmmmm

Be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the Earth. Then comes the mouldy old Rachel and Leah stuff we had drummed into use at the Centre Rare insight of rebellion Literal translation of the Bible