Stuck in Time and Space
"I sit in my chair, the wreath on the ceiling floating above my head, like a frozen halo, a zero. A hole in space where a star exploded. A ring, on water, where a stone's been thrown. All things white and circular. I wait for the day to unroll, for the earth to turn, according to the round face of the implacable clock. The geometrical days which go around and around, smoothly and oiled."
In this passage, Offred uses intense imagery to convey how useless and unimportant she feels. A halo can normally be seen in conjunction with an angel. It's a symbol that commonly generates feelings of awe and admiration especially when referencing an angel in biblical terms. In this sense, Offred is depicting a halo as the number zero. Zero can be quantified as having nothing. Offred feels as if she has nothing to offer and nothing to receive; she feels as if she is nothing.
Offred continues on to draw connections between herself and a ring on water. When a stone is thrown into water it produces numerous rings that grow and expand only to fade away. The rings have no end point, they just continue on until they eventually fade away. Offred relates to this in that her life keeps going and going but with no purpose. She has no end goal to keep her driven and motivated to keep going. She's living her life but with no purpose, letting days go by as she slowly fades away.
Color is a common reference in The Handmaid's Tale. The colors depicted are usually bright and contrasting, whereas Offred feels white. White isn't a color that typically stands out, it's something that blends in. Offred is just blending into the background of life. Not only does she feel white, but she feels circular. A circle has no beginning and no end, it indefinitely goes around and around. Offred can relate to this in that there's no end point or goal in her life. She follows the same routine every day, there is minimal variance just constant repetition. Offred has seemed to have become indifferent at this point. There is nothing to motivate her in life she just watches each day pass, transpiring in the same order. Offred is trapped in this circle. There is no place where the circle juts off allowing her to leave this lifestyle she's stuck in. She's on this ride with no way to get off.
In this passage, Offred uses intense imagery to convey how useless and unimportant she feels. A halo can normally be seen in conjunction with an angel. It's a symbol that commonly generates feelings of awe and admiration especially when referencing an angel in biblical terms. In this sense, Offred is depicting a halo as the number zero. Zero can be quantified as having nothing. Offred feels as if she has nothing to offer and nothing to receive; she feels as if she is nothing.
Offred continues on to draw connections between herself and a ring on water. When a stone is thrown into water it produces numerous rings that grow and expand only to fade away. The rings have no end point, they just continue on until they eventually fade away. Offred relates to this in that her life keeps going and going but with no purpose. She has no end goal to keep her driven and motivated to keep going. She's living her life but with no purpose, letting days go by as she slowly fades away.
Color is a common reference in The Handmaid's Tale. The colors depicted are usually bright and contrasting, whereas Offred feels white. White isn't a color that typically stands out, it's something that blends in. Offred is just blending into the background of life. Not only does she feel white, but she feels circular. A circle has no beginning and no end, it indefinitely goes around and around. Offred can relate to this in that there's no end point or goal in her life. She follows the same routine every day, there is minimal variance just constant repetition. Offred has seemed to have become indifferent at this point. There is nothing to motivate her in life she just watches each day pass, transpiring in the same order. Offred is trapped in this circle. There is no place where the circle juts off allowing her to leave this lifestyle she's stuck in. She's on this ride with no way to get off.
"The geometrical days which go around and around, smoothly and oiled." I like this part of the quote because it makes me reflect on the world we live in today. I would not consider the world today to be smooth and oiled. To me it seems erratic, and tense which objectively, a smooth life would be much better than an uncertain one but in the context of these two options, I would choose uncertainty. I think what I am trying to say is that while our world may have problems; it seem like if those issues were to go away, they would be replaced with more, possibly worse problems.
ReplyDeleteI like what you say about Offred feeling that she has no purpose and that her life is an endless cycle. I have gotten this circular feeling from other parts of the book that we have read as well.