Flowers (Continued)

(Continued discussion of flowers in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, a sequence)


Fast forwarding about a hundred pages to what stands out as being a very flower-centered scene, Offred decides to steal a flower from the vase in Serena Joy's living room. "A withered daffodil... will soon be thrown out," she says, so she sees no harm in stealing it (109). She discusses pressing it under her mattress to leave as a present for the next Handmaid that will have her room, which reminds me of the "print of flowers" at the very beginning of the story, because both of the flowers are flattened (17). This, perhaps, symbolizes the fact that the Handmaid's have a very slim chance of producing children, because the flower is crushed, dead. The "withered daffodil... [that] will soon be thrown out" symbolizes the same thing (109). It yields the image of a “withered” womb, shriveled up and unable to produce children (106). The flowers also symbolize the Handmaids themselves and the fact that their inability to produce healthy offspring will not be tolerated; it could end in death or possibly becoming an Unwomen.


But if flowers represent these negative things, why would Offred want to steal it? I understand her need to steal something is because she wants a small piece of power, and she wants to get back at the system in small ways. But what is the purpose of stealing a flower, specifically? Since flowers represent children, who, as I have expressed in previous blogs, are the key to power in this society, could her need to steal a flower just be a reiteration of her want for more power? Or it could be her want for children, because they are so rare and so desired in society? But what really stumps me is the fact that the flower is described as "withered," seeming to symbolize Handmaids and their inability to produce children (109). Why would Offred want to steal what is metaphorically herself? I would understand if Offred would want to steal her whole life back, because in her previous life, she could produce children - the daughter she misses so much. However, in her old life, there were no “withered daffodil[s];” people could produce children without problem – Offred seems to have had no difficulty there (109). Therefore, Offred’s inclination to steal a flower does not represent her yearning for her old life. Perhaps Offred stealing a dying flower is symbolic of her trying to return to the way society used to be, rather than return to her child. Their old society has "withered" now, and Offred wanting to press the flower to save it for the next Handmaid is her way of reminding the next Handmaid of what society used to be like (109). It is her way of making sure that people do not forget about what once was, just as the previous Handmaid presumably tried to do for Offred when she carved the Latin phrase in her room. 

Flowers

"Flowers are stilled allowed," Offred tells us early on in her tale (17). When returning to this quote to write a journal entry about Margaret Atwood's use of flowers, I realized how odd it is that flowers are allowed often for decorations. On the same page, there is mention of "a print of flowers" (17), and just a couple pages later, Offred describes "a fanlight of cloured glass: flowers, red and blue" (19). This made it a little more clear. Red and blue are the colours of the Handmaids and the Wives, respectively, the only two types of women who can reproduce in society. There must be a reason that these two colours are mentioned in relation to the flowers - reproduction. Flowers symbolize growth and life, because of the image we have of flowers growing from seeds and then blossoming. Therefore, it is not difficult to make the leap that these flowers symbolize the growth and life of children.

So, back to the question of why the flowers are used as decoration: they are placed all over the house as subliminal messaging for the Handmaids and the Wives to encourage them to reproduce. Aunt Lydia told the Handmaids, "Think of yourself as seeds" in what was described as a "conspiratorial" way (28). The women are seeds, because it is their job to produce flowers, AKA children. Think of flowers pollinating to create more flowers or seeds producing flowers.

But just before Aunt Lydia tells the Handmaids to consider themselves seeds, she tells them "Some of you are shallow-rooted" (28). Why would they be shallow-rooted if they are supposed to be flowers? Flowers cannot grow if they are shallow-rooted. I think this shows the state their underpopulated society is in. Many of the Handmaids have the potential to produce children, but so many are not. I suppose this is still like pollinating flowers. Dandelions, for example, rely on the wind to help distribute their seeds, but many of these seeds do not land where they can properly grow. Perhaps they land in a place with shallow soil, where they will end up shallow-rooted. Anyway, they have to throw something at the wall and hope something sticks. The fact that they are shallow-rooted shows that many of them have the potential to produce children, but so many do not.

Positives and Negatives to Women's Roles

The hierarchy in The Handmaid's Tale is much less clear than a hierarchy throughout history or in a different society. In a hierarchy that we are used to, everyone envies those at the top of the pecking order, because they have definitive qualities that make them more desirable than any other class. In the society within the novel that is not the case. Each role has distinct pros and cons for the women. 

As discussed in the previous blog, the Wives are the first in the line of feminine power, for one thing. They get the children at the end of the deal, provided their Handmaid's produce healthy babies, and children are like money in our society, they are a sign of power. This is all well and good, but at the same time, the Wives have to watch their husbands having sex with another women; they have to be in the same bed while it is happening, assisting the entire operation. This is a huge emotional negative and must be very difficult to live through. 

The Handmaids are one of the few people who can actually have sex in society. However, this sex involves no choice. It is not for pleasure or love. Instead, it is out of necessity; it is forced. It is, in a way, government-backed rape. But at the same time, if they do become pregnant, they have achieved their government-imposed life goal. Plus, as shown in the blog post before with Janine, they become prized possessions, but they are just that: possessions. Regardless of whether or not they produce children, they are owned by their Commander and his Wife. 

Marthas are not permitted to have sex at all. They are looked down upon in many ways, because they are infertile. In some ways they are made to feel useless to society. They must aid someone else in having sex and getting pregnant, the two things they are not able to do. This must be hard, but at the same time, they are not forced to go through something they do not want to, with a person they do not love, as the Handmaids are. They live comparatively normal lives, although they have to return to stereotypically feminine roles: cooking and cleaning and taking care of the Handmaid as if she is a child in some ways, such as when Offred needs assistance bathing.

Aunts are also not permitted to have sex and are essentially brainwashing those who will become Handmaids. But if they believe what they are teaching, they could possibly have the best lives of all other female roles.

Hierarchy (Continued)

(Continued discussion of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale pages 104 - 150, a sequence)

Despite this hierarchy, there is a huge interdependency within the house, which is not seen in a typical hierarchical system. Everyone relies on each other to fulfill their given duty so that the Handmaid can produce a healthy child. Without the Marthas keeping the house, the Guardians keeping the house safe, and the Wife acting as a disciplinarian as well as being there to assist the actual sex, the Commander and the Handmaid would not be able to reproduce.

There is also a huge reliance of the entire household on the Handmaid. Society relies on the Handmaid to produce children, because of the ever-pressing issue of being underpopulated. Additionally, everyone in the house depends on if the Handmaid can provide a healthy child in order to move up the social scale. In this way, there is a hierarchy within the hierarchy. Within your class, you move up and down in a way that determined by your Handmaid's child production. This was clear when Janine, the Handmaid who was pregnant at the time, walked around protected by two Guardians. Janine was given much more freedom once she was severely pregnant. She was also very envied by all the women - Wives, Handmaids, and Marthas alike - for her pregnancy. Wives who receive a healthy child from their Handmaids go up the ladder as well, because children are such rare occurrences and therefore heavily valued. It was also mentioned that Janine's Commander would receive a promotion because of his ability to impregnate someone with a healthy child.

Hierarchy

It becomes obvious from the beginning that there is a hierarchy within The Handmaid's Tale. Among the men, the Commander is the most powerful and most important role that we, as readers, are currently aware of. Everyone who is not a commander is owned by the Commander. Following this, there are Angels and then Guardians. Among the women, Commander's Wives are the most powerful. The Handmaids are next in the hierarchy, followed by Marthas. There are also Aunts, who, like Angels, do not exactly fit in the same hierarchy. And below everyone in importance and power are the Unwomen.

This is all true, on the basic level. However, as one reads on, one realizes the complexity of the hierarchy that is not initially apparent. For one thing, there is a difference between the hierarchy of power and the hierarchy of importance. In terms of power, the Commander and his Wife stand at the top, ignoring, of course, people within the government that have not been introduced to the reader. However, the Handmaid is by far the most important role in society - more powerful, I would say, than the government itself, because she provides society with offspring, which is the more valuable than anything in this underpopulated world. The Commander is the second most important role, because he is the only male allowed to impregnate women, and so he is, obviously, also required to provide children.

The Wife is next important, because she is married to the Commander and is still fertile. The Handmaid's importance and the Wife's power are illustrated by the placement of the Commander's Wife on the Birthing Stool when Janine was giving birth. The wife sits "behind and above Janine" (135). This represents all Wives relationships with their Handmaids. They are behind their Handmaid in importance to society, but they are above in the power that they hold. During the birthing, "Janine is framed by her [Wife]," showing that Janine is so important that she is framed, but also that the Wife is so powerful she circles around the Handmaid and could close in on her at any moment (135).

Everyone else contributes to the population through their aiding of the Commander, his Wife, and his Handmaid. All classes are centered around making these three roles as comfortable as possible and making it more possible for them to conceive, as this is the most essential piece of their society, what everything is based on.

Mundane Motherhood

The sentence "Maybe it's just something to keep the Wives busy, to give them a sense of purpose," in chapter three of Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale, says quite a bit about people's views of the role of and importance of women (23). It implies women are only good for or good at activities such as knitting scarves. Certainly the fact that the reader has only been shown the Commander's Wife smoking or knitting does not make a good case for the importance of women not only in the household, but also in society. The speaker's suggestion that the Wife did not even put the scarfs to use, "but [instead] unravelled and turned [them] back into balls of yarn, to be knitted again in their turn" further insinuates the uselessness of women.

The concept of "keep[ing] the Wives busy" reminds me of my mother and her friends the school year we lived in Hong Kong (23). She joined a women's group as, for the first time since my sister was born, she was not working. They did, as my mom was told, "anything to waste time while their husbands were at work." Similarly, while on holiday in Ireland this break, we started talking to a lovely woman with two children, a toddler Brian and a baby Robin, who told us she usually meet her friends who have toddlers down at the beach where we were "for a milk run" every afternoon "just to give us mothers something to do to waste time." A "milk run" or a women's group dumpling making class are just the same as spending the day knitting scarves that may not even be used or, as the speaker says on page 22, needed: they are ways for women to waste time, which hardly seems like an action for a position of importance.

During a conversation with my mother and my aunt yesterday, my mom described the mundane life of a stay at home mother. Both my aunts on my dad's side stay at home with their three and four children. My mother discussed how she could never stay home as her sister in laws do, because she never felt like she was accomplishing anything. Working as a teacher, at the end of every school day, she says she can see the progress her students are making. The same cannot be said of motherhood on a daily scale. She told me she was tired of picking up the same toys four times in one day. However, Serena Joy does not show the same frustration with the mundane life of knitting the same scarves. Though knitting, the speaker explains, provide the Wives "a sense of purpose" my mother felt dumpling making classes and clearing toys did not give her enough of a purpose (23). 

"[S]mall goals that can be easily attained" are not fulfilling (23); they do not make a woman feel important in what they do even though the speaker feels great pride her in "small achievement, to make oranges happened" (35). I am interested to see if Serena Joy, the Commander's Wife, feels an absense in her life due to the mundaneness, similar to what my mother felt, or is content with knitting scarves - the life of my aunts.