Wrapping up with A Handmaid's Tale

This book has been by far the highlight of my High School English experience. I found in so entirely intriguing and captivating, to be honest it made me quite sad to finish it! The last chapter "Notes" was so unexpected, and I found it to be one of my favorite parts of the book. There is so much that I wish to discuss in having completed reading *A Handmaid's Tale* so this particular blog post will be a compilation of a couple different thoughts.

1. The language and diction of the book itself - I thought Atwood wrote so beautifully in this book. Some of the descriptions and images were so unique. Even in describing some of the everyday mundane aspects of life, Atwood found some way to make me look at them in a different light. I suppose that was intentional, and it actually tied in perfectly with the protagonist, Offred. Offred had been stuck in this monotonous Gileadian cycle that in order to keep her sanity and thirst for life alive, she began to analyse the little things and appreciate them and observe them in different ways, just to give herself something to do. One example of this is on the very first page "I thought I could smell, faintly like an afterimage, the pungent scent of sweat, shot through with the sweet taint of chewing gum and perfume from the watching girls" (Atwood 13). Most would just say that the gymnasium stank or smelled, yet Atwood comes up with this stunningly accurate and poignant description. Or in the description of Serena Joy's face, she says "...but below them her eyelids were tired-looking.  Not so her eyes, which were the flat hostile blue of a midsummer sky in bright sunlight, a blue that shuts you out...Two lines led downwards from the corners of her mouth; between them was her chin, clenched like a fist." (Atwood 25). Ah, Atwood, you kill me.

2. Though the last chapter did shed some light onto the whole Gileadian society, I still have a plethora of questions! Some of them are:

• What happened to the other races? It is mentioned that the society was formed due to "an age of plummeting Caucasian in most northern Caucasian societies of the time." (Atwood 316). What happened to the other races? Why was the decline only in Caucasians? It never mentions any other races in the book, and only in the last chapter did I even think about the fact that there weren't any races present. Were they allowed to live in Gilead?
• How did Gilead end? - The book never addresses how the Gileadean society came to an end! Did Mayday eventually overthrow it? Did the Eyes and the Commanders eventually realize that their system wasn't working and call it off? Did other countries intervene? 

In all, I am really disappointed that the book ended. I really loved it, it is now one of my favorites! Bravo Atwood!