Reading Journal Chapters 23-25: What are your thoughts about the Commander at the end of Chapter 25? Do you like him? Has he become vulnerable? Do you feel sorry him? Or, do you despise him and his hypocrisy? What do you think this secret indulgence tells about the society that he is helping to build and protect? –
At the end of chapter 25, I feel enormous contempt for the commander, for the things he does to Offred. He knows the dangers he puts her into, by inviting her to these visits that are meant to boost his social life. He didn’t even give Offred a choice of wanting to come or not. This helps to emphasize the desperateness of the situation Offred finds herself at. She can’t refuse, because it can be a threat to her on its own, considering commander’s power and the actions he can undertake against her. The commander doesn’t even have a clue of what the women have to go through. His social problem thus seems very unimportant, compared to the suffering Offred face on a daily bases. In chapter 25, the commander doesn’t even realize that the rooms of the handmaids are searched, or their enormous lack of freedom and the prohibition of any sort of luxuries. He laughs at the idea of them using butter to moisturize their hands. On the other side, I also have some positive thoughts about the commander. To some extent, he suffers as well due to the Republic of Gilead. His marriage is forced, meaning there isn’t a natural love link between him and Serena Joy. In this way, he is likely to experience solitude and neglect on social life. Trying to build up a new relationship thus seems very reasonable, if we consider his point of view. The fact that he suffers so much loneliness, as to seek a handmaid for friendship makes him seem especially vulnerable due to their enormous differences in social positions. Offred’s life along Serena Joy is no enjoyable experience. She is forced to attend the ceremony, whereupon she has to endure copulation with the commander, whilst lying on the wife. This sort of setting creates a very morbid and disgusting picture for the reader, highlighting the existing evilness and repression of the Gilead republic. Through the use of bible, the message of Gilead becomes more powerful, as it gives the impression of being sent by the god. In this way the story gets more scare and real for the reader. Offred’s meetings with the commander are in my opinion a brief escape from the clutches of Gilead. Forgetting about commander’s intentions and the dangers this meetings possess, they’re actually very good for Offred, as they give her a spark of hope for a better life in the future. Friendly acts performed by the commander during his meeting with Offred, like showing her Vogue magazine, bringing up hand lotion or playing scrabble have some serious impact on the nature of Offred’s thinking. Her appreciation and value for these objects increases on a very large scale and her life becomes more interesting. Therefore I like the commander to some extent, for improving Offred’s miserable life, even though she might be exposed to a bigger danger in overall, like getting sent to the colonies. As the major male character in the story, commander portrays patriarchy within the republic of Gilead. He is officially the enforcer of the totalitarian state. His friendly contact with Offred and the nice way he treats her during these meetings makes him seem as a prisoner of Gilead as well. His starving for natural human contact made him vulnerable to meet Offred in the first place. This tells us that the society Gilead is trying to build is wrong from the basics and limits the freedom even of their enforcers. Even though it’s claimed to be theoretically right by the state, in reality, it’s a disaster that brings misery to every class, even the most powerful male officers. In chapter 24, Offred recalls a documentary about holocaust, where we are told about a lady whose husband was a Nazi and in an interview she didn’t want to admit him being a monster, even though he did terrible things. She could have only observed his positive human side. Shortly after the interview she committed suicide, suggesting that she couldn’t bear the things he did. This symbolizes the relationship that goes on between the commander and Offred. He is working for the state, but as an individual, we are shown his human side and attitude. The way he treats Offred is very important in the portrayal of this. He might be a good person in nature, but because of his work for the state, the opposite applies. It makes you wonder whether all those people we called “evil” because of their work for Nazis were really evil in nature. Did they have a choice, without risking their lives? Did the commander want to be a commander? These assumptions bring about a positive attitude towards him. Generally speaking, I have both negative and positive thoughts about the commander at the end of chapter 25. He fights loneliness by inviting Offred to his office, wherein he also imposes a danger of death on Offred. This act may seem very selfish of him, but on the other side he brightens up her life as well. In this way, we can form a balanced attitude towards the commander at the end of chapter 25.