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.