The Handmaid’s Tale
Section 4: Birth VIII (pg. 135 -176)
Brief Summary/ Analysis
Chapter 19
- Offred and all other handmaids are send in the birth mobile to Janine’s home so they can help “encourage”/ attend Janine’s birth ceremony.
- Offred and the Handmaids all file into the home of Ofwarren’s commander, Gilead dictates that all birth should be at home and it should be an all natural birth with no doctors.
- Offred also talks about how Gilead’s society begin in the first place, she says that the late 20th century’s environmental pollution and natural disasters are the cause of low birth rates and this is what caused an antifeminist society like Gilead.
- Gilead emphasis on natural birth embraces the idea of women being punished by the crucial pain that is involved in labor. The system created an unfriendly and jealous environment between the women, keeping them divided and powerless.
- The wives attitude towards Janine is ironic; as they provide her a cookie and be nice in front of her and as soon as she leaves they call her and all the handmaids’ whores.