Briggitte Torres - Castellanos
Mr. Stewart
ENG 4U Summer School
Due Date: Tuesday July 23rd, 2013
Sanity is a Valuable Possession
Sanity is defined by Merriam - Webster Dictionary as, 'the quality or state of being sane; especially: soundness or health of mind'. Without sanity, one can lose total control over their mind. In Gilead, one who does not have their sanity are ones who have been manipulated by the system. Offred carries a few strategies to help preserve her sanity; such as finding ways to occupy her time, not making any personal connections to the house she stays at and lastly, thoughts of stealing or rebelling. Offred uses her inner thoughts to persist through the brutalized society she lives in, and to save her saneness.
There isn't much for Offred to use to make the time go by, but she surprisingly finds objects in her room or thoughts in her mind to keep her attention engaged.
Gilead Sher
Gilead Hils
English: Flag of the Republic of Gilead from The H...Offred reminiscences about her past, the freedom she had, her life with her husband, the face of her five - year old child. She thinks about them constantly, replaying memories over and over to block out the misery of not being with them. Offred recollects the memories when "Luke and [she] used to walk together, sometimes, along these streets. [They] used to talk about buying a house like one of these, an old big house, fixing it up⦠[They] would have children. Such freedom now seems almost weightless" (Atwood 27). These kind of memories distract her from her reality, she fights to keep her past alive. When she first gets to her room she "decided to explore the room. Not hastily, then, like a hotel room, wasting it. [she] didn't want to do it all at once, [she] wanted to make it last"...