slow start... good ending?

I don’t dislike the book itself, it is a good idea and rightfully earns every praise it gets. However I feel as though the book is not GOING anywhere new. Its true that you learn new pieces of information the more you read on, but I feel as though it is just an illusion meant to keep the reader interested. Maybe it’s because I read only high action/adventure books and am used to the plot and storyline moving to different people and settings every few chapters. The “confined” sense that this book has makes it very hard for me to believe that something new and exciting is going to happen. It feels as though the book is just going to keep plodding on in the same ol’ depressing manner. I would like to think that Offred will become free and live happily ever after and life will go back to the “time before” but I just don’t see it. In plain English, this is just not my type of book. And just as the quote “a rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays in the maze” amplifies; Offred lives the same patterns almost every day, and since the books follows the handmaids it is also trapped in that same repetitive maze. As I said, I like the idea of a story set in the dystopia future, however it would have been more to my liking if it had been unfolded in a more interesting way.

Now, as to how the “Rat in a maze…” quote applies to my life, I feel as though that is how all life is lived, that is, with a false sense of freedom. Think of it this way. Every week day I wake up at 6:00 A.M., eat breakfast, go for a run, shower, go to school, eat lunch, more school, go to cross country practice, go home, do homework, eat dinner, homework, and go to bed. However I am always looking forward to the weekend when I can have “freedom” to do as I please. But really is it total freedom? If I decide to drive somewhere I can only drive so far, if I decide to go hiking I can not go too far from home, if I decide to got to a friends house I have to “clear” it with my mother. In all honesty, my ‘freedom’ only extends as far as my parents and the government allow. And just so the majority of the population does not recognize this, the government decided to allow you to get a drivers license at 16, vote and smoke at 18, drink at 21, and so on. This keeps the people looking forward to what will be allowed instead of looking at what is currently regulating them. It could be said that we are all “rats in a maze.”

I will keep reading the book in the hopes that it will get better and the ending will make up for a slow start. I hope I am not disappointed….