Justified #2

In an earlier post I discussed if women in the short stories A Jury of Her Peers and Sweat.  After reading The Handmaid's Tale, it is obvious that when people feel they are doing something wrong, they try to justify their actions.  We saw this in the women in both of these short stories, and we see this in both the men and woman in The Handmaid's Tale.

Women in The Handmaid's Tale try to justify the life they are being forced into living.  Because they so vaguely remember their lives before they lived as handmaids, these women are trying to justify their new life so they aren't completely miserable.  The most disturbing part about this justification is that at some point these women begin to believe in the society that they have been forced into.  When Janine tells the other handmaids about how she had been raped when she was fourteen and got an abortion, rather than feeling sympathy like they would in their old lives, the handmaids blame Janine for the rape.  After seeing Janine in despair and chanting things like "her fault", "teach her a lesson", and "cry baby", Offred thinks to herself, "we meant it, which is the bad part" (82).  This proves how eventually these women have been completely taken over by their new life.  The biggest example of justification in women is seen in Moira.  "So here I am.  They even give you face cream. You should figure out some way of getting in here. You'd have three or four good years before your snatch wears out and they send you to the boneyard.  The food's not bad and there's drink and drugs, if you want, and we only work nights." (261).  Moira is essentially living in a brothel and she is completely trying to justify what she is doing.  Offred understands that Moira's lifestyle is degrading and wrong but all Moira sees is that now she has face wash and a different kind of freedom.  This shows how some women have really forgotten who they are and have completely given into this new society.

The only reason this society can function smoothly is because the men who are leading the society are trying to justify their actions.  It appears that most men understand that what they are doing is wrong, they just try and convince themselves otherwise.  The negative things from the past are driving this horrible society to continue functioning.  They also make exceptions to the strict society that they have created.  "Nature demands variety, for men.  It stands to reason, it's part of the procreational strategy.  It's Nature's plan." (249).  It is clearly much easier for men to be happy in Gilead. The commanders will try and say the old society was wrong, when in reality they are trying to hold on to those old ways any way they can.