The New book #7

I finished the book! Finally! The Handmaid's Tale was a really great book but i was still glad that i finally finished the book because i don't have to read another book in my Lowell year! I hope this will be our last book of the year..... but anyway! The end of the book was really unexpected. I thought Offred was going to get sent to the colonies by the commander's wife for going to the nightclub. But instead, the Mayday came in a van and saved her life! It was very exciting at the part when the commander and his wife were questioning "the Eyes" for Offred's crime. I thought "the Eyes" cleverly answered all of their questions and made the commander couple believed that they were the real Eyes. I was kind of shock that Offred doubted Nick for a second when he told her about the Eyes outside were actually Mayday, because you should never doubt the one you love! But i am glad that Offred decided to believe Nick and did not suicide like the other handmaid!

The New book #6

So we started doing propaganda in class and i learned that there are actually so many types of propaganda. There are naming calling, fear, glittering generalties, transfer, testimonial, bandwagon and much more.I first learned about propaganda in my US history class back in junior, it was mostly about people using it during the WWII. The US used propaganda to get citizen to join the war effort by encouraging them to join the army and to save food for the soldiers. Propaganda was used widely in the society of The Handmaid's Tale too! The Gilead government use varity of propaganda to get the citizen to obey the rules. I think fear is used to most by the Gilead to warn people not to break the rules because through out the story, people in Gilead are afraid to take certain action because of the fear that they might end up like certain people. For example, Offred was often afraid to speak out her mind or disobey her master because she didn't want to end up like the unwomen in the colonies.

The New Book #5

At the Prayvaganza, Offred and Ofglen were whispering to each other about Janine's baby, how the baby is deformed and how it might have been a baby with a doctor. When i was reading that passage, i immediately thought of a connection between the women of the Gilead and the Women of our society today, all women love to gossip! Later on, Offred remembers the commander telling her how women of Gilead lost their freedom but gained security and how women aren't forced to work anymore. I thought that weird since the handmaids are like force to have sex with the commanders. i don't remember reading anything about a handmaid enjoying having sex with an old commander..I also thought it was risky for Offred to go to the club with the commander since the commander was drunk and he probably don't even know what he was doing..Offred gets caught going out...she could be sent to the Colonies by the commander's wife.

The New Book #4

After reading chapter 29, i find Offred really intelligent..or more like cunning because she knows how to take advantage of someone. Offred started to spend more time with the commander and she is beginning to gain knowledge of the society through megazines and by asking the commander questions of the current society. Offred also found out about how the commander feels guilty about Offred's job as a handmaid. I also feel sympathy for the women before
the Gilead took over the United States. Women lost all their rights to own property and their jobs after the Gilead took over the nation. I also notice that Offred always tells the raders about her past with her husband Luke whenever she sees Nick. I think that Offred think of the commander as a friend that she can use and think of Nick as a substitute for her husband. On chapter 30, Offred had the desire to have sex with Nick when they saw each other.

New Book #3

So i was very curious about what the commander is going to do to Offred when Nick ask Offred to go to the commander's room late at night. But it turned out that the commander just wanted to play Scrabble with Offred. I was surprise that Offred actually won the first game..or may be the commander was just taking it easy on her since she is a woman. But Offred let the commander win the 2nd game on purpose..at the end it was shocking that the Commander kissed Offred and seemed like he actually enjoyed it.. After that night, Offred meets with the commander regularly at night and from that, i think the commander is a very lonely man and that he really enjoys having Offred to company him at night. I still can't believe the commander would practice the ritual with Offred after developing a friendship with her. But then again...if the commander can have sex with a woman that is more than 30 years younger than him in front of his wife...im sure he can do it with Offred without any embarrassment. During the ritual..the commander touched Offred, whereas before..he would just do it with Offred like it is a duty without any feelings...but this time...i feel that the commander is beginning to enjoy the ritual with Offred.

The New Book#1

My first impression of this book is that it is way better than the Gilgamesh book! But i was a bit confused by chapter 1...was the narrator talking about the past in chapter 1? other than that, the book was really interesting, and i noticed this book is dominated by female since the only male characters that are living in the house so far is the commander and Nick, the rest are handmaids and Marthas. I also notice that people in that society love to interact with opposite sex, from the narrator's point of view, she gets attention of male wherever she goes....the young guardian, the doctor and the servant named Nick. Women in that society are also very cautious as they don't make any unnecessary interaction with men. Proper sex seems to be very important in that society as the two guardians were hanged for practicing homosexual acts and back in the house, the commander's wife would hold the narrator down and allows his husband, the commander, to have sex with the narrator. The narrator made it seem like it was more of a ritual than an enjoyable practice to have sex with the commander, and i don't think the commander enjoys having sex with the narrator as he tried not to touch her as much as possible and he left the room immediately after he's done with his business.

girls vs guys!

Once again, we argue over the topic of gender in class today. I thought "When It Changed" was a VERY feminist story!!! How come women can live and reproduce on its own while men cannot? I understand why the men would want to invade the women planet because most men are like aggressive and they think that women aren't strong enough to take care of a planet and live on its own. I think it is also because of loneliness that men would want to invade the women planet. I don't know about women, but i think men get lonely overtime without women.... This story shows readers how independent women can be. It shows us how women can live and reproduce happily on its own without men and to me, that is a great accomplishment considering how unfairly they were treated back then. I think a lot of women in our society would like to live in that world where there is only women and no men. They would go shopping and gossip without having to worry about anything!

Blog #4

There is finally real buddies in this story instead of kemmer buddies! I think Estraven and Genly are now real good friends and i think they should be trusting each other by now. Estraven definitely treats Genly as his best buddy since he is willing to risk his life to rescue Genly from the prison. That shows how much Estraven loves Genly as a friend. They have been through death together and now they're facing another life threatening challenge, to escape through the ice to a safe place. I can't imagine how close they can get if they can make it safely out of the ice because right now, they're spending quality bonding time together while trying to escape the ice. But then again... that is only if they can survive.....i have a feeeling one of them will die soon but not Genly since he is the narrator so i guess Estraven will die soon...i say Estraven will die before chapter 19!

Blog #3

"The man happened to be next to me on the right, and I took his head on my knees to give him relief in breathing; so he died."pg 168

When i first read this sentence, i thought Genly was just being nice by letting the man's head rest on his knee so the man can die peacefully. But after the debate we had in class today, i changed my mind. Just like most of the people in class, i am starting to believe that Genly killed the man to end his suffering instead of giving him more space to die peacefully.

Chapter 13 reminds me of the Holocaust. Genly and the other people were drugged and captured forcefully...put in a truck for a long time without food and clothing. i wonder why Genly and the others were capture....what did they do wrong?? while they were in the truck...there was a girl who wanted to kemmer with Genly...i wonder why he was not surprise at all and just walked away..was it because there was too many people in the truck and he didn't want to kemmer in front of them? i also like the unselfishness of the people in the truck..they let the weaks and the olds sit in the center while the stronger ones are willing to sit outside to give them warmth.

Blog#2

"a young man, skiing across Icefoot Lake in the month of Irrem hunting pesthry." pg 124.

what is pesthry?!?! a type of polar bear?? or penguin?? i spent a long time trying to figure what kind of animal a pesthry is...and it turned out that it doesn't exist!!! because i looked it up on www.dictionary.com and there is no such word!!

I was so mad....but anyway...i agree with most of the people in class that Estraven is not a traitor for giving up half the disputed lands to the Domain of Stok because he did so to end the feud and maintaim peace between the two Domains. If it wasn't because of Estraven's sacrifice, there would still be people getting ambushed and murdered in the wild! So i praise Estraven as a great hero to his Domain not a traitor. As for killing his three brothers, Estraven didn't have a choice but to kill them since they were after him. Those three greedy brothers didn't deserve to live since they attempted to kill their little brother for power. Last but not least, there was this one part that grossed me out...the part where the two naked guys in the hut were touching each other hand, i know they don't have gender and all...but i kept thinking that they're both guys.....

blog#1

chapter 5 is by far the most interesting chapter! the whole ritual thing really caught my attention, especially the last part of the ritual when Faxe turned into a woman with silver armor and swords i think? yea, the ritual thing was interesting but i didn't get the part where The Pervert started to touch this one man sitting next to him....i also think it is weird how Genlry is starting to think that Faxe is really pretty...i think Genlry will eventually fall in love with Faxe, but i don't know how that will work since Faxe is like a man and a woman sometimes. I guess Faxe will be the one carrying the baby if they do get married since Genlry can only be one gender while Faxe can be any gender. I also thought it was interesting how the people in the Winter have all these advance transportations such as trains and cars, but yet they don't really use it that much since they are never in a hurry to get to a place. I have a feeling that the people in the Winter really know how to enjoy life. "progress is less important than presence." this quote shows me that the people in Winter are the kind of people that would be laying on grass in a park in the middle of a work day enjoying the sunlight. They would also eat dinner for hours like people eating gourmet French cuisine, I think i can fit perfectly in that kind of lifestyle because i hate rushing from one place to another but yet i always have to do it because im always late.