“A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.”
This quote reflects a form of “limited” freedom. They say that people may in a sense do whatever they want, as long as they are monitored. There are many other cases in which we see this phenomenon. School is the most evident example. As students, we are given the capacity to pick our own classes, play sports, etc, but we are forced to do all of these things under the supervision and monitor of teachers and associates. We cannot wear the clothes we want, leave school without permission, or really have any first amendment rights without violating school codes. Although we do have many rights and abilities outside of school, we are limited to what we can do under the influence of an academic atmosphere.
Questions and thoughts about the book:
· I’m interested to see how many tries it will take for Offred to get pregnant
· Will the Scrabble and creepiness with the Commander continue, or will Serena find out and have Offred sent away or hurt?
· Will Luke show up?
· Where is Offred’s daughter, is she alive?
· It’s still unclear to me who exactly Rita and Cora are
· How many times will Offred sneak off with the Commander before she is detected?
ali, you are right. we are kept in the routene of school, however one of the amazing feats of society is that they do it in such a way that people do not recognize they are being confined. or when people do realize that they are being confined they look foward and say "its ok, because at the age of 18 i will be able to vote and smoke!" this keeps us feeling as though we are granted more freedom as life goes on, but are we really more free?
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the statement about school. We are given the freedom to decide to come adn what we do, but the freedom is so limited.
ReplyDeletei was also interested about when OFffred will get pregnant!
I like the school and freedom part of this, but also just think when we get out of high school that when freedom is born. And when we have that it will be so much different but the take on how limited we are on freedom now was a very good observation.
ReplyDeleteAli,
ReplyDeleteGood post. In many ways, school does seem an apt analogy for the whole rat-in-the-maze bit (though I hope THS isn't THAT bad!).
As for your questions: Rita and Cora are household servants (regular maids) in the Commander's house. Read on for the answer to the rest of your questions!